Monday 02 April 2012
"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 seasno for figs. He said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.'" (vv. 12b-14)
Background
This story about Jesus and the fruitless fig tree that heblasted with a curse (verse 20 states that it "withered away to itsroots") has had Christian interpreters scratching their heads for away to explain the story without suggesting that Jesus was justgrumpy and unreasonable because he was hungry. Matthew, inretelling the story (
Denise Levertov, a twentieth-century poet, wrote a poem called"What the fig-tree said", which has the tree itself speaking. Itproudly claims to have been used by 'Christ the poet' as achallenging real-life metaphor for the disciples' own unproductivehearts. But the truth is probably a bit more political thanthis.
There can be no doubt that Mark told the story for its symbolicsignificance, because in between the start of the tale (Jesus'disappointment) and its conclusion (the withering of the tree) hesandwiches the famous story of the overturning of the tables of themoneychangers in the temple. This is a story about profounddisappointment at what was happening at the heart of the templereligion, and the divine anger about the replacement of prayer withcommercial interests. Mark uses the fig tree story to comment onthe encounter in the temple.
Fig trees and vines are often symbolic in the Hebrew scriptures ofthe nation of Israel and whether it is bringing forth fruit worthyof God, or producing the sour grapes and vicious thorns ofinjustice, violence and oppression of the poor (see
To Ponder
To what extent do you think our society has lostits way in terms of values? What do you think genuinely 'goodfruits' would look like?
Do you think God has ever asked something of youwhen you were not really ready? What happened?