Mark 11:12-14 is one of the most curious passages in the entire Bible. In this passage, Jesus came upon a fig tree that has leaves, but no fruit. He then did the most un-Jesusy thing ever and cursed the fig tree. This is the same Jesus who was so full of love and compassion that He forgave the woman caught in adultery. It ‘s also the same Jesus that Matthew 11:20 talked about. It says:
20 A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench….
Why would Jesus show mercy to the bruised reed and smoking flax, but then be harsh to a fig tree that wasn’t bearing fruit? This is an important question to answer because if you think sometimes Jesus is merciful and sometimes He is harsh, you will have a hard time trusting Him. You’ll always wonder what you might have done wrong that will cause Him to curse you. And even if He you don’t think He’ll curse you, you’ll wonder why He will to refuse answer your prayers.
The reason Jesus cursed the fig tree had to do with mercy and not wrath. That may sound convoluted so let me explain. Throughout the Bible, the fig tree is symbolic of Israel and specifically trying to earn God’s favor based on performance by keeping the law of Moses. In the Old Testament, people were required to keep the law in order to be right with God. No one could do this of course, which is why God sent Jesus as it always took the righteousness of God to cover our sin. Our self effort was never enough.
The first example of humanity trying to cover their sin was Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. After they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they realized they were naked and tried to cover with fig leaves. Did you catch that? They covered with fig leaves. This is a picture of man trying to cover their sin and be right with God in their own strength. God knew fig leaves were not sufficient so the Lord made them to tunics of animal skin so they would properly covered.
Fast-forward thousands of years and Israel was still trying to cover their sin in their strength by keeping the law. The problem wasn’t with the law as it was good, perfect, and holy. The challenge was the law required perfection and no one could perform well enough to be saved or earn any of God’s blessings.
Mark 11:15-16 illustrate man’s failure to keep the law:
15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16 And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.
Under the law, the Jews were required to come to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices for passover. Those who traveled long distances would buy the lamb sacrifice when they got to the temple. Unfortunately, the money changers marked up the price of the lamb to an exorbitant rate to make profit off of the people. Even worse, the people were required to offer a spotless lamb for passover and the moneychangers often sold them sickly, spotted lambs that didn’t meat the qualifications. The moneychangers and religion ripped people off and left them in sin. The fig tree represents dead religion which didn’t bear fruit, which is why Jesus cursed it!
Cursing the fig was tree was a prophetic act to show God was bringing the system of law-keeping to an end and establishing a new covenant based on better promises. The better promises the new covenant is based on are Jesus’s sacrifice and shed blood. Now, we are now right with God based on what we believe about Jesus and not based on our performance or our continual offering of sin sacrifices.
I hope this article has answered an important question for you about why Jesus cursed a fig tree, but more importantly, I hope it has better clarified God’s nature to you. If you’d like to learn more, check out this teaching I did at Grace Life Church.
