Mark 11:12-14

Jesus Rejects the Temple (1) – Cursing the System’s Fruitlessness

Mark 11:12-14 – Jesus Curses the Fig Tree 

12 The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, he felt hungry.
13 From some distance away,
he saw a fig tree with a lot of leaves,
and went to pick what he could find on it.
When he got there,
he discovered there was nothing on it but leaves –
because it was not the season for figs.
14 In reaction he said to it,
“May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
The disciples heard him.

The meaning of this otherwise puzzling incident would become obvious from the broader context. It was the first of two occurrences involving the fig tree, that “sandwiched” a third event where Jesus would move into directly confrontative action in the temple.

In the minds of Mark’s readers mention of the fig tree carried a resonance unfamiliar to modern ears.


The Fig Tree in the Hebrew Scriptures

Jeremiah had used the term to symbolise the Jewish establishment. By placing the two references to the fig tree at the beginning and end of the confrontation in the temple, Mark indicated Jesus’ intent to direct Jeremiah’s condemnation to the temple institution and all it stood for.

... from prophet to priest
everyone deals falsely.
 
They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,
saying, “Peace, peace,”
when there is no peace....
 
When I wanted to gather them, says the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered....  (Jeremiah 8:10-11,13)

Where Jeremiah had lamented that even the “leaves are withered”, Mark explicitly stated that all there was on the tree was leaves. The outward show was there, but the inner substance, the essential fruit, was lacking.

The prophet Micah had lamented in similar vein:

... For I have become like one who,
after the summer fruit has been gathered,
after the vintage has been gleaned,
finds no cluster to eat;
there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger...
 
... the official and the judge ask for a bribe,
and the powerful dictate what they desire;
thus they pervert justice. (Micah 7:1,3)

Consistently for Micah, the fruit that was missing was precisely the fruit of justice. 


Next >> Mark 11:15-18