MARK 11: WITHERING THE FIG TREE

One literary quirk of Mark is to begin a story, interrupt it with a related event, and then resume the first story. This is popularly known as the Markan “Sandwich.” One such example is shown below.

11:12-14                                                   11:20-25 withering of the fig tree

                          11:15-19 cleansing of the temple

A lot of people take the fig tree story by itself and have a great deal of trouble with it because it appears to be trivial, destructive and unfair.

Trivial: We need to read it in the context of the story that happens in between the cursing and the withering of the tree. I once got into a heated discussion with an elder in my church when I said that the withering of the fig tree is not only a miracle, but also an acted-out parable and a prophecy at the same time. He insisted for some reason or other that it was only a miracle. But each one of Jesus' miracles is at the same time a sign pointing to an important theological point. Jesus is comparing the unproductive fig tree with the corrupt and unproductive temple system and is predicting that the temple, along with the whole religious system built around it, will soon wither and die. There is a parallel in Jeremiah 8:13 where Israel and its leaders are cursed for ignoring God: “When I would gather them, says the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree.”

Destructive: Such a miracle is not felt to be according to God's nature. “And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD have dried up the green tree, and made the dry tree to flourish.” (Ezekiel 17:24)  But just as God the Creator has complete control over nature to grow or destroy, Christ is the Lord of nature also. Only those who worship nature should object to Jesus' actions from a moral standpoint.

Unfair: “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.” (Mark 11:13)

If it was not the season for figs, why did Jesus expect to find them?

The best explanation I have heard is a botanical one. With fig trees, small knobs of immature fruit appear early along with the leaves during the time of this event (April). They never ripen and fall off later in the year. These are not very appetizing, but are eaten by the poor who have no better food to eat. This was the fruit Jesus was looking for and expecting since the tree had already leafed out. The fact that there were none of these fruits present indicated that the tree was barren and would not be producing real figs later in the year. I can relate to this story since I grew up in a house that had both a fig tree and an avocado tree in the back yard. Even avocado trees produce the same kind of early fruit which never ripens, and they are not edible at all, even for the birds.