Hard Texts: Cut it Down?  Fate of the Barren Fig Tree

Luke 13:6-9

September 10, 2006         (Click the date to see the bulletin)

 

1.  The person who inspired today’s sermon actually asked for Mark 11:12 and 13, which reads: “On the following day, [which was the day after Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the day we call Palm Sunday] when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.  Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it.  When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’”    And the person who suggested this text asked the question, “If Jesus knew it was the wrong time of year, why was he angry?  Is this story in error or misquoted?”  Good questions!  So I’ll answer them first, then look at the story Luke records about another fig tree that was in danger of losing its life, and finally I’ll relate the ministry of our own teachers to that “Allegory of the Fig Tree” from Luke.

2.  Let’s look at Mark first.  When we read scripture, it’s always important to see what it does not say, and what it does say.  This text does not say “Jesus set his jaws in anger.”  It doesn’t even say “Jesus angrily said . . .”  We only read, “He said to it . . .”   We are left without any clue about the tone of his voice or the look on his face.  The translation of what he said doesn’t give us much help, either.  Literally, it reads: “No one from you for a long time fruit may eat.”  So I think a more accurate reading would be “You’re not going to produce any fruit for a long time.”  Why?  Because it wasn’t fig season.  I understand that!  We have the same situation at our house.  We have a beautiful leafy pear tree in our back yard.  But there are no pears on it.  Why?  Because the squirrels have eaten them all, and there won’t be any more pears for a long time – almost a year.  It’s not the tree’s fault – it’s those blasted squirrels!  Back to the Bible: Immediately after Jesus speaks to the tree we find a verse that will become key: “And his disciples heard.”  But we will have to wait a few verses to discover the reason this verse is so important to our understanding.   We must wait until after he enters the Temple and turns over the tables of the corrupt money changers.   He probably was angry then, or at least very upset, although, once again, Mark doesn’t give us any clue.   “He was teaching and saying . . .”  doesn’t tell us if he was yelling or merely stating the facts.  Then, in verse 20, Mark says that the next morning they passed by the same fig tree they had seen the day before.   “And Peter remembered,” Mark writes, which is a pretty good clue that Peter was the one who told Mark this story.  Peter!  Peter is the one who never quite got it right.   And what does he say?   Peter said, “‘Rabbi, look!  The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’”   Where did he get that?   The word Peter spoke means “doom; invoke evil on,” which was not what Mark said Jesus said.   Literally this part of verse 20 reads “the fig tree the doomed has withered,” not “the fig tree that you doomed . . . “   So a more accurate translation would read “Look, Rabbi!  The doomed fig tree has withered.”  In other words, it was all dried up, it had lost its vital juices. 

3.  So to recap:  Mark said Jesus entered the city, went to the temple and looked around, then went out to Bethany to spend the night.  The next morning he came back to the city and found the fig tree with no figs.  Then he went to the Temple and turned over the tables and drove out everyone who was buying and selling, and went back to Bethany.  They did not see the dried-up fig tree until the  next day, which would have been the third day after their arrival.    Matthew writes an account almost identical to Mark’s rendition.  The biggest difference is the sequence of events.  In Matthew 21, we read that Jesus went to the Temple the very first thing after he rode into Jerusalem on the donkey, drove out all who were buying and selling, and turned over the tables.  Matthew says they spent that night in Bethany, came back into Jerusalem the next morning, and saw the leafy fig tree.  Matthew uses Mark’s exact words to describe the encounter, except the fig tree dried up on the spot, right in front of their eyes.   Then both evangelists end with Jesus saying “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive it.”

4.  So, to answer the first question, I do not think Jesus was angry with the fig tree.  It is totally out of character for him.  He became angry when powerful people abused those who had no power, but angry when a tree had not produced something for him to eat?  I don’t think so!  Jesus came to bless and heal, not curse and wither.  And there’s nothing in the written text to indicate he was angry at the tree.  I think that’s something that has been imposed upon the text, perhaps prompted by what I think was Peter’s misunderstanding of Jesus’ words.   But I don’t think that means this story is in error.  The key to our understanding lies in our ability to understand the purpose Mark and Matthew had in writing.  When did this event happen?  Early in the last week of Jesus’ earthly life.   But neither Mark nor Matthew wrote it down until at least 35 or 40 years later, when eye-witnesses began to die, when the Romans had destroyed Jerusalem and its temple, when it became very important for Mark and Matthew, and all the gospel writers, to convince people that Jesus was the way to God.  By this time the Jews were saying, “You cannot be a good Jew and follow Jesus at the same time.  Choose one or the other, but not both.”  I think Mark and Matthew included this vignette of the withered tree as an example of the Jewish religion.  It had lost its life; the people who followed all those rules and laws no longer produced  “good fruit.”   I believe the ‘withered fig tree’ is a metaphor Mark and Matthew used to describe what was happening in Judaism way back then, not a description about what happened to a real tree that particular day (whichever day it was).  Now, you are free to disagree with me.  I might be wrong.  I don’t think I am, but I might be.  Enough about fig trees in Mark and Matthew.    

5.  Luke does not record this “withered fig tree” event at all.  In its place, Luke writes that Jesus wept as he rode into Jerusalem, saying “Oh, if you only knew how to live in peace” (Luke 19:41ff).  After speaking a bit of prophecy, then he went on to the Temple and drove out those who were buying and selling, and turned over the tables of the money changers, the same as in Matthew and Mark.  No mention at all of being hungry and finding a leafy fig tree.  However, about six chapters earlier Luke has a section full of warnings about getting ready.  And in that section, Luke did record an allegory about a man who had a fig tree.  It’s in Chapter 13:6-9. “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.  So he said to the gardener, ‘See here!  For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none.  Cut it down!  Why should it be wasting the soil?’  He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.  If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, then you can cut it down.’”  This fig tree, from Luke’s gospel, is the important tree for us on this particular day.

6.  All of us are like this fig tree in one way or another.  We have a hard time producing  juicy, sweet, good fruit.  And all these teachers we have just celebrated are like the gardener in this story.  Some of them dig around us to aerate our soil and get us breathing; some of them spur our growth with the rich teachings of scripture, all of them care about us – care enough to keep trying, no matter how slow we are in learning.

7.  Brian Cavanaugh tells the story about the time he and two other seminary students wanted to plant a garden.  They lived together in a house downtown in whatever large city where the seminary was located.  He says there wasn’t much of a yard.  In fact, it was a stone-covered dirt parking lot with no extra space.   They carefully planned their garden for the area that received the most sunshine, then approached the landlord with their plan.  He kind of rolled his eyes, tilted his head at them, and said, “You’re wasting your time.  Nothing will ever grow there!  But go ahead if you still want to.”  So they went to work.  They rented tools, raked four inches of stones into neat walls that outlined the garden, then with their pick-ax dug into what was underneath all the stones.  It turned out to be a former dump – a gardener’s dream!  Yards and yards of dark, composted, fertile soil just sitting there waiting to be discovered.  The three of them looked at each other, smirked, and said, “Sure nothing will grow there!”  The tomato bushes they planted grew into tomato trees!^[i] 

8.  We are like the fig tree in the Bible, and we are like the dirt parking-lot of Brian Cavanaugh’s story.  We have lots of potential, but it will take an equal amount of work to get us to that potential.  Pray for these teachers every day.  Pray that God can use them to make all of us grow and flourish in our faith.