The next day when they came out of Bethany, He was hungry.  After seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, He went to find out if there was anything on it.  When he came to it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.  He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples heard it.   Mark 11:12-14 HCSB

When I read this story, my initial response was, “Wow, that’s pretty harsh”.  I mean the poor fig tree, it says it wasn’t even the season for figs right?  Now, I love raw figs and as a little girl, my grandmother had a large fig tree in her back yard.  I used to love to pick the figs, wash them and eat them.  I don’t like figs cooked or preserved, but I love them raw right off the tree.  I can sympathize with Jesus here.  He was hungry and the thought of raw figs would certainly make me happy.  I would be very disappointed to find there were no figs on the tree.  After my grandmother passed away, I moved into her home.  When summer came, I was hopeful that I would have raw figs on the tree.  I was busy working and going to school and didn’t have much time to tend to the tree.  It continued to produce leaves each summer, just no fruit.

In Luke 11, Jesus tells a parable of a vineyard owner who instructs his vinedresser to cut down a fig tree in his vineyard because it is not producing fruit.  The vinedresser asks the vineyard owner to allow him to dig around it and fertilize it and allow him one year to get it to produce fruit.  He tells him that if it doesn’t produce fruit next year, he will cut it down.

In the bible, the fig tree symbolizes the Jewish people.   They rejected Jesus.  They were religious, but refused to have a relationship with their Lord and Savior.  Instead, they tried numerous times to trap Him and eventually arrested Him and ran Him through a kangaroo court where they ordered his crucifixion.

Both these stories teach us things about Jesus’ nature.  As for the vineyard owner and the vinedresser, this story teaches us that we serve a patient God.  God wants each and everyone of us to get to our true home in heaven.  He knows this is where we belong and this is where He wants us to spend eternity.  He gives us ample opportunity to believe in Him, trust in Him, serve Him and produce fruit.  However, there will come a time if we continue to reject Him, He will give us over to our own evil desires (Romans 1:24).  This is illustrated in the story of Jesus going to get something to eat from the fig tree.  You see normally leaves and fruit are on the tree at the same time, but when Jesus found the tree to have leaves and no fruit he cursed the fig tree so that it would never bear fruit again.  This same story is told in Matthew 21:18-22 and in Matthew 21:19 it says that the tree withered at once.

In Matthew 24, Jesus is discussing the end times with his disciples.  He is telling them of the things that will take place before He comes again.  He uses the fig tree to demonstrate the fact that when the fig tree puts out its leaves we know that summer is near and that when all the things He spoke of come to pass, they will know that He is near. I always knew that when summer came and we got out for school that I could begin to expect figs from the tree at grandma’s house.

Now I came to realize that the reason that the fig tree was not producing figs when I moved into grandma’s house is that grandma and grandpa had a farm.  They fertilized the fields next to the fig tree and I’m sure the fig tree was fertilized as well.  They tended to that fig tree.  By the time I moved in, it had gone untended for a couple of years.  I was too busy going to school and working to tend to the tree, yet I was disappointed when June came around and there was no figs.  But life had me busy and I had no time for the tree.  It eventually died.

Our relationship with Christ is much like our gardening.  If we don’t tend to our plants, they won’t bloom with beautiful flowers or produce good fruit.  We must take time to feed them and water them.  As Christians we must trust in Jesus and know that He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).  We must take the time and effort that it takes to be good Christians.  There was a time that I treated my relationship with God much like I treated grandma’s fig tree.  I just left it alone with an occasional church attendance and a 911 prayer here and there and hoped that it would produce fruit.  It didn’t.  I had to invest my time and effort to make it grow.  And I’m here to tell you that this is the best investment I ever made.  Don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself.  You must decide before it’s too late, will you produce good fruit or wither and die?  The choice is yours.

Have a great day!