DAY 93
CHALLENGE
“Jesus displayed gratuitous malice when he cursed a fig tree for not having fruit when it wasn’t even the season for figs.”
DEFENSE
Jesus didn’t display gratuitous malice. He was teaching a lesson.
“Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, [Jesus] went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs” (Mark 11:13).
The fig tree was known to produce fruit before putting forth leaves (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 16:49). Seeing a fig tree in leaf, Jesus had reason to suppose it had put forth figs earlier than usual. By its leaves, the tree made an outward show indicating fruit, but there was none. Jesus therefore used it to teach a lesson.
On other occasions, Jesus criticized Jewish leaders of making a false, outward show of spirituality (Matt. 23:5–7, 25–28). He also used fruit to symbolize the results of true spirituality (Matt. 7:16–20, 12:33, 13:23, etc.). In particular, he indicted the chief priests and Pharisees for failing to produce spiritual fruit, saying: “I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it” (Matt. 21:43).
By cursing the fig tree and causing it to wither, Jesus symbolized the fate of spiritual hypocrites and the judgment coming upon the Jewish leadership.
This is confirmed in Mark’s account. Scholars have noted that Mark often sequences material so that two halves of a story are interrupted by something important that sheds light on them. Places where Mark sandwiches material this way are known as “Markan sandwiches.”
The cursing of the fig tree is such a case: Jesus first curses the fig tree (Mark 11:12–14), then he clears the temple of those abusing its holiness (11:15–19), and then the disciples return and see the fig tree withered (11:20–21). The Jewish authorities, despite their outward religiosity, had allowed the temple to be corrupted, and juxtaposing Jesus’ judgment on the temple with the cursing of the fig tree reveals the message that the latter teaches. It also foretells the doom of the Jewish authorities and the temple itself (Mark 12:1–12, 13:1–2).