MARK 11 (PART 2)
Read Mark 11:20-33
Back in Verse 14, when he was on the way to clear the Temple, Jesus stopped by a fig tree because he was hungry. But the fig tree had no fruit on it because, we are told in v13, it was not the season for fruit on fig trees. And Jesus cursed the fig tree saying, ‘may no-one ever eat fruit from you again’. What on earth is going on here? This seems to be very uncharacteristic behaviour from Jesus. First of all he curses the fig tree for not having any fruit, and it’s not the fig tree’s fault; it’s out of season. Then he went and upset everyone by violently clearing out the Temple. It seems he really got out of bed on the wrong side that day! And surely Jesus, being Jesus, through whom and for whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16) could have made figs miraculously appear.
But of course there is more than meets the eye going on here. We have seen what lay behind the clearing of the Temple; the demonstration of who Jesus is, the son of God and the perfect and full sacrifice for all sins. Coming back from the Temple, Peter spotted that the fig tree was now withered. So, why did Jesus zap the fig tree!
We notice that the story of the clearing of the Temple is sandwiched between the beginning of the story about the fig tree and its conclusion. Mark does this from time to time and it is a kind of literary device to show that the two incidents are closely connected. So, if clearing the Temple shows Jesus to be saviour, then what does the fig tree episode show? And if the Temple incident is an acted out parable, perhaps this is too. In the Old Testament, the fig tree was often used to represent the people of God, the nation of Israel (Hosea 9:10, Micah 7:1-6, Jeremiah 8:13). Particularly, it is used in the context of the faithfulness (or, more often, unfaithfulness) of the people of Israel. It looks like Jesus is using Old Testament imagery to illustrate the unbelief of the people as to who he is, and that has been one of the themes of Mark’s gospel. The religious authorities didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God, the people didn’t believe and neither for a lot of the time did the disciples. And lack of faith (another prominent theme of Mark) will not produce fruit. There is a sense of judgement here upon those who do not believe. Their fate is to wither and die just like the fig tree.
The point is hammered home more clearly in the last section of the chapter. The religious authorities demand to know on what authority Jesus did what he did in the Temple; “who gave you authority to do this?” (v28). Jesus’ reply was to lead them into making a choice – is Jesus who he says he is, or is he not? Jesus actions spoke for themselves. It was up to the priests and Pharisees to decide whether Jesus really is the Son of God or not. If they said ‘yes’ then it would go against all their opposition in the past and they would lose credibility. If they said ‘no’ they risked the anger of all those who had cheered Jesus into Jerusalem. Like many people today, they sat on the fence and said, “we don’t know” (v33).