For March 24th:

“In the morning as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.  And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves.  And he said to it, “May not fruit ever come from you again!”  And the fig tree withered at once.

            When the disciples saw it, they marveled saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”  And Jesus answered them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea.” It will happen.  And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith. “ Matthew 21:18-22

Am I the Fig Tree?

Recently I was studying this story in the bible.  I was incredibly puzzled by Jesus and the fig tree.  The first puzzling thing about this story was Jesus expectation of fruit from the fig tree.  It was not the season for figs, and Jesus would have known that.  The second puzzling part was Jesus’ reaction to the fruitless tree.  He curses the tree for not having fruit out of season. It withers and dies.  Why? Part of the mystery lies in the placement of the story.  It is preceded by Jesus cleansing of the temple.  The temple appeared to be a holy place to worship the Lord, but in reality it had become a place for people to haggle over the price of a mediocre sacrifice.  Many there were just going through the motions, and not authentically worshipping the Lord.  A friend of mine recently shared something else with me that shed much light on the story.  Fig trees, out of season, do not have leaves.  They are deciduous trees. In other words, they lose their leaves.  This tree in many ways is a living parable for the temple and  possibly, my faith.  The temple appeared to be a holy place of worship, but in reality was a place of fruitless faith.  The people in the temple were bringing a sacrifice, but was it their best or the best bargain they could find between the merchants and money changers in the courts.  In coming to these realizations, I began to examine my own faith.  Am I like the people in the temple?  Am I going through the motions to appear Christian, but only bringing God the bare minimum, the easy sacrifice, the cheap sacrifice?   Am I like the fig tree appearing to have leaves out of season, but truly in a dry season in my faith?  Would Jesus look at my tree of faith, see leaves, and curse my fruitless tree?  Jesus wants our best.  He deserves our best.  He wants authentic worship.  He wants authentic faith.  He comes to our fig tree of faith hungry for our fruit.  Will He find fruit on your fig tree of faith?

Jessica Griffis