johnmdemarco posted on April 18, 2011 17:50
As the King continued into Jerusalem, he noticed a fig tree. The tree was “in leaf,” Mark 11 tells us, “but it was not the season for figs.” It had the potential to offer figs, but it was apparently the wrong time of year.
Jesus then seemed to curse the tree, declaring it would never bear fruit again.
I paused as I read these familiar words this morning, puzzled more than I had ever been as I grappled with their meaning. Why would Jesus curse a fig tree?
And then I continued, as Jesus strode into the temple and opened a can of holy wrath upon the merchants.
I paused again. The fruitless fig tree. The temple leaders allowing commerce to hinder access to sacred ground for the spiritually hungry.
A tree, in leaf but bearing no fruit. A temple, majestic in construction and beauty but sometimes at cross-purposes with God, failing to capitalize on making every season the time for the Lord to draw near.
I then considered Jesus’ words in John 15. Jesus is the vine, and I am to simply be a branch that abides in him. If I am a branch bearing no fruit, I am sliced away from his presence. If I bear some fruit, God prunes me to produce even more fruit. The more I remain in Christ, the more I have the discernment to ask for what is best. And the best fruit follows, the evidence of discipleship.
How heavy and sharp the shears have felt as of late. How deep the pain of realizing the consequences of squandering my potential and not abiding in every season.
Jesus arrived in Jerusalem to find a religious community abiding in rules, rituals and power far more consistently than it was abiding in God. With each step he was closer to his destiny, and we were closer to ours.