Why do you think Jesus cursed that fig tree....

[joel]

In the gospel attributed to Mark (chapter 11) and in the gospel attributed ot Matthew (chapter 21), Jesus is returning to Jerusalem and is hungry along the way. Jesus sees a fig tree and looks for figs on it, but this is shortly before his death, placing the encounter around Passover and too early for figs to be in season. Without being told Jesus' emotional state (and often in the gospels we are told when Jesus is angered or moved by deep pity), the gospel writers tell us that Jesus said to the tree (the word "curse" is not actually in the text, though Peter later asks Jesus about the tree he had cursed): May no one ever eat fruit from you again (per Mark) / May no fruit ever come from you again (per Matthew).

So what do I think of this?

On the surface level, Jesus demonstrates power and authority. To what Jesus commands, even a fig tree submits. Jesus immediately here explains to his disciples that anything asked for with true faith in prayer will be--and even more than a withered tree, a mountain could be lopped into the sea. Thus Jesus is shown to be faithful and powerful. Jesus' authority to command a fig tree becomes the answer to the question that follows in Matthew's gospel where the Pharisees ask Jesus by what authority he performs his deeds: only the Almighty can order nature, so if Jesus does this, it is by the authority of the Holy One. In Mark's gospel, Jesus leaves the tree and goes to the temple which he then purges of those merchants and moneychangers who make his "Father's house a den of thieves." This is also a claim of union with the Holy One. Jesus is ordering nature and ordering the Temple as one with authority, namely the Holy Name.

That's my surface reading...but my heart and faith ponder the account also in other ways....

The fig tree is what it is: a perfectly good fig tree that will produce its fruit in season as the Creator has deemed fit. But Jesus is hungry and looks the tree over for a reality that simply isn't real. Jesus wants the tree to conform to his hunger's desire rather than to conform to the nature it is divinely given. And when the desired fruit is not found, the tree is forsaken--not merely cursed to die, but stripped of its absolute worth. It is as if Jesus is saying, "If you are not for me what I want you to be, may you never be for anyone else." And the forsaken tree withers to its roots--but is not necessarily gone for good. And when asked about this, Jesus teaches about the certainty of faith: hope. Whatever is asked for in pure faith will be given.

I engage this tradition of the fig tree as Jesus modeling to me my sinful (re: selfish) human nature, the human nature by which I demand Jesus' murder.

I am hungry for the god that I desire--and when I see the Holy One as in a mirror dimly or as at a distance, I run and expect the Divine to conform to my idolatrous conceptions of what God should be. And when I do not find the god I have desired, I forsake the true God by whom I am confronted and actively seek to surpress that truth from others in a world I would rather control by my own desires.

In Jesus I meet my God, who is not the god I would selfishly desire. Jesus is not the military hero or the shrewd political figure who kicks out my enemies and establishes my utopian heaven-on-earth. So, along with my forebears in first-century CE Jerusalem, I say to Jesus: May no one ever eat from you again. I have Jesus killed. I have him murdered because he is not the god I want him to be.

BUT! Even in this there is hope, because Jesus is the god who is God. And God-who-is-God is gracious enough to wither down to the roots by the hate of humanity and to die...but a tree that withers to the roots holds promise to one day sprout forth again with new life.

Jesus, who is Faith incarnate, by whose faith even a mountain might be cast away into the ocean, is willing that we might see ourselves as images of God in his own divine image, the image of the invisible God. As Jesus encounters the fig tree, he is perhaps foreshadowing our own relationship with the Divine to the point of the cross. And Jesus then foreshadows the hope of the resurrection.

By this, I am moved to believe that Jesus is establishing the libertyfor me to be free from any need to lie. Jesus knows my selfishness and promises that my worst moments of selfishness will not remove me from God, though I may at times prune the Holy down to its roots so fully that I think the story's over. But if the God made known in Jesus can stand by me faithfully in this, then by what will I truly lose God? Even when I murder God, it is at best penultimate. And with a God so determined to stand with me--even disabling death's possibility for separation--there is no need for me to fear, but grace upon grace for me to live honestly with the Divine Love. And that seems to me nothing else than the Shema and the Greatest Commandment.

This is one journey of faith for which I think Jesus spoke to the fig tree.

[Arcadia]

sorry... I guess I missed something... hard to follow Jesus in English, friend...!!!

but I didn´t remember that passage of Jesus and the higuera. Something like common sense? could say, hey man... search for other fruit (yeah, I know he was in a kind of desert place.. but he wasn´t walking the sheol neither..., no?) or wait to find the next village!! than to preach and damn a tree... it sounds like a mafia-language... funny...!!

are you a cyber-preacher, joel?

[mtmynd]

Joel... let me ask you, if you were to see someone cursing a fig tree, or any fruit-bearing tree, that was out of season, cursing it and condemning it to die, pray tell what would you think?

Joel: "I engage this tradition of the fig tree as Jesus modeling to me my sinful (re: selfish) human nature, the human nature by which I demand Jesus' murder."

Reminds me of the Zen Master Lin Chi when he said: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him."

"Lin Chi isn't condoning murder, he is using a metaphor to explain the nature of Buddhism. Don't believe what some one says, no matter how holy they are, just because they say it. Listen to their words and then explore them yourself.... Kill Buddha."

The only true Buddha is the Buddha Siddartha Gautama encountered within deep meditation... the Buddhahead within us all. This is the identical experience of the Christ within Jesus . Enlightenment can only be had by our inward journey. One that requires surrender from all things - ideas, indoctrinations, books, religions, and even prophets. Surrender knowing that all is within you, within each of us, be us Buddhist or Jesusist, Abrahamist or Mohammendist, or which ever 'ist' we choose to call ourselves. 'Tis not the name but the search... the search within that God, self-realization, Christ, the Godhead, enlightenment lie... the words are as different as the individual, but the experience is identical: the same sun reflected in the mirror. Your journey will never be complete if you do not 'kill' the barriers that stop your goal from being achieved - no mind, emptiness, pure consciousness.. your own enlightenment. But be aware that even in the search of your own inner light, the journey is not guaranteed.

My take on the fig tree would be that Jesus the man (not the Christ) grew impatient with the natural flow of things - the nature of the fig tree is not to be rich with fruit at all times, rather fruit takes time to ripen, just as the words of Jesus would take time to ripen.

peace.

Cecil

[stilltrucking]

Joel thank you for taking the time and effort to answer my question.

It is a good and thoughtful answer.

Here is another take on the subject

Why did Jesus curse the fig tree, when figs weren't in season?
Some light is shed on this passage by an article in Hard Sayings of the Bible by F. F. Bruce:

Was it not unreasonable to curse the tree for being fruitless when, as Mark expressly says, "it was not the season for figs"? The problem is most satisfactorily cleared up in a discussion called "The Barren Fig Tree" published many years ago by W. M. Christie, a Church of Scotland minister in Palestine under the British mandatory regime. He pointed out first the time of year at which the incident is said to have occurred (if, as is probable, Jesus was crucified on April 6th, A.D. 30, the incident occurred during the first days of April). "Now," wrote Christie, "the facts connected with the fig tree are these. Toward the end of March the leaves begin to appear, and in about a week the foliage coating is complete. Coincident with [this], and sometimes even before, there appears quite a crop of small knobs, not the real figs, but a kind of early forerunner. They grown to the size of green almonds, in which condition they are eaten by peasants and others when hungry. When they come to their own indefinite maturity they drop off." These precursors of the true fig are called taqsh in Palestinian Arabic. Their appearance is a harbinger of the fully formed appearance of the true fig some six weeks later. So, as Mark says, the time for figs had not yet come. But if the leaves appear without any taqsh, that is a sign that there will be no figs. Since Jesus found "nothing but leaves" - leaves without any taqsh- he knew that "it was an absolutely hopeless, fruitless fig tree" and said as much.
F. F. Bruce goes on to describe the cursing of the fig tree as a real-life parable that emphasized the spoken parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:6-9. It is also likely that Jesus, knowing in advance that his disciples would be surprised by the quick effect his curse had, used the fig tree to provoke their reaction and thus make the lesson about faith more memorable.

http://www.rationalchristianity.net/fig_tree.html

[jimboloco]

oh holy one
my journey of faith
is suffering for lack of resilience
and i am among the lowly
just breathing space
and calming

i have to be aware of the power that i portend at times
my anger can cause pain in others
i have seen it happen

had a conflict with a lady at work
she wound up sick

we all have the power to hurt or to nurture

joel thankyou for this entreaty to listen deeply on our journies

buddha was a bubbah
by a babbling brook
looked into the water
pulled a sapling
watched it shake

i once cursed god
then was wounded
and began my healing

[Peevette]

You're not going to catch me getting into any religious discussions in this forum. Its a quick way for me to make enemies.........

All I want to point out is this:

It is as if Jesus is saying, "If you are not for me what I want you to be, may you never be for anyone else."

[hester_prynne]

Yeah, where IS that bong?


H

[Peevette]

[Peevette]

[Doreen Peri]

The reason Jesus cursed the fig tree
was because the fruit, when dried,
didn't get him high
no matter how hard he tried.

Now, don't get me wrong.
I'm not certain if the dude had a bong.
All I know is he never cursed cannabis
(though I don't know if he was a fan of it).
The fig tree isn't nearly as regal.
Makes ya wonder why the buds are illegal.