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The cursed fig tree (Mk 11:11-14; 19-26)
Jesus entered Jerusalem and the temple for the day. “Now the eventide was come,” he returned to Bethany. “And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.” Out of despair, “Jesus answered and said unto it, ‘No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.’ And his disciples heard it.” (v11-14)
After staying in Jerusalem and entering the temple for another day, he returned to Bethany in the evening for rest. “And when even was come, he went out of the city. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, ‘Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.’ ” (v19-21) Jesus responded with the instruction concerning prayer, which we will discuss later at the end of the article.
(God’s sovereignty & aspiration)
The fig tree was cursed by Jesus, and the result is that not only could it bear no more fruits but the whole tree has withered, meaning that its life came to an end. The implication for this event is:
1. God has sovereignty over His creature.
Since God has sovereignty over his own creature, He can do whatever He desires on His creature, even cursing it and destroying it. There are a number of examples of cursing in Genesis:
After the serpent has succeeded in tempting Eve, God cursed the snake: “the Lord God said unto the serpent, ‘Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.’ ” (Gen 3:14)
Due to Adam’s disobedience to God’s warning, the earth is cursed, which indirectly causes man to be cursed too. Man has to work hard to gain food: “unto Adam he (God) said, ‘Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.’ (你必終身勞苦，才能從地裡得吃的。)” (Gen 3:17)
Cain killed his brother Abel and was cursed: “now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.(你必流離飄蕩在地上)” (Gen 4:11-12)
God offered Abraham a promise: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” (Gen 12:3)
2. God has aspiration for His creature.
God has aspiration for His creature to fulfill its obligation. For example:
God made the lights for a special purpose: “God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.” (Gen 1:14-15)
God made mankind to manage everything for Him: “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Gen 1:26)
We are the tools of Jesus, the son of a carpenter. If we are obsolete, eg. a bent nail, we will be useless to him and be thrown away. In Matt 3:7-10, John the Baptist said to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance…And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”
Was Jesus cruel to the fig tree, as he cursed it before it was ripe for fruits? As a matter of fact, he has not given it time and chance to bear the fruit, and then cursed it to bear fruits no more. Although it is not easy for us to accept this unusual act of destroying the tree at the time he was hungry, we should be warned from this small lesson. It seems like he was rather merciless to the fig tree, but he is no so to us, always giving us time and chance to bear the fruit. Paul in Rom 11:21-22 has given a serious warning to the Gentile believers like us: “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” Jesus expected the fig tree to produce fruits to feed his stomach when he was hungry. Likewise, at the moment when the Lord’s sheep is “hungry” and the Lord needs us to feed His sheep, we should bear the fruits and feed His sheep. If we keep on missing the time and chance to bear the fruits, God can use someone else to replace our roles at any time. In that case, we are just like the salt that has lost its taste. “If the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matt 5:13)
(the fig tree)
Another remote implication of the cursed fig tree is concerned with the Israelites and that deserves our reflection. They are God’s chosen people. In the Old Testament, the fig tree sometimes refers to the people of Israel. Romans 9 and 11 best explain this scenario of cursing the fig tree--stressing God’s sovereignty and His aspiration on His elect.
In Rom 9:3, Paul refers to the Israelites “my kinsmen according to the flesh”. And he says, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Why would he be willing to be cursed? In exchange for the salvation of the people of his own nation! He then says in Rom 9:6 & 9:8, “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel…They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed (後裔).” Here lies the sovereignty of God: “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth (不在乎人的行為，乃在乎召人的主).” (Rom 9:11) “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” (Rom 9:18)
Paul further explains, “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, ‘Why hast thou made me thus?’ Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” (Rom 9:20-24) God is the potter and His creature is the clay. God has sovereignty to make the vessels of wrath to destroy and to make the vessels of mercy to show his rich glory. Paul wants to point out to the Jews that the “people” that God elects for His eternal salvation not merely refer to the Jews but also to the Gentiles as well. In terms of election, “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich (厚待) unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”. (Rom 10:12-13) Paul further says, “Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.” (11:7-8) Hence, many Jews, though God’s chosen people in a sense, have not obtained salvation; they are abandoned for eternal destruction. God has sovereignty to make it happen on His elect too!
(the olive tree)
God’s salvation has turned to the Gentiles because of “the fall of” the Jews: “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles.” (Rom 11:11). Nevertheless, God has aspiration also for the Gentiles, whom Paul depicts as “a wild olive tree” (Rom 11:17). And the Gentile believers are described as such: “thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree”. (Rom 11:24) God’s aspiration for the Gentile believers is: “Because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded (自高), but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.” (Rom 11:20-21) Hence, whether it be olive tree or fig tree, God has aspiration for both the Jewish and the Gentile believers that they keep their faith in God and keep on bearing spiritual fruits, or they will both be cut off from His salvation. Jesus’ reply to Peter’s saying in verse 22 (‘Have faith in God’) seems to imply that if we do not keep our faith in God, we will encounter the same fate as the cursed the fig tree.
(the vine)
Jesus says in John 15:1-2, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman (栽培的人). Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” He speaks of the relationship between him and the believers; that is, our lives are linked together and cannot be separate: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5) A life without being linked to the Lord will be unable to bear any spiritual fruit. That kind of life is just like the cursed fig tree that will sooner or later wither away.
(the secret of prayer)
While Peter was amazed at the miracle that Jesus did on the fig tree, Jesus responded by saying to the disciples, “Have faith in God.” He then used the example of saying to the mountain, “whosoever shall say unto this mountain, ‘Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea;’ and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” Then he concluded, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” (v21-24) As he has taught before about the effectiveness of prayer, the key element for prayer to be effective is: faith without doubt. A doubtful prayer has little or no faith in itself. In the miracle of Jesus walking over the sea, when Peter jumped to the sea with full faith and soon began to sink and asked Jesus to rescue him in great fear, “immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, ‘O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ ” (Matt 14:31) While the example of moving the mountain doesn’t seem realistic to us, Jesus is emphasizing the importance of faith without doubt. As soon as you say out your hope and request in your prayer, you should have sufficient faith to believe that God can do it and will do it for you. That’s the kind of prayer that God wants to hear.
(the limit of prayer)
Of course, our prayer has some limit or constraints that we cannot exceed. For example, James 4:3 says, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss (妄求), that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” ‘Forgive’ is one of the considerations in our prayer that Jesus mentioned in Mark 11: “when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any (若想起有人得著你們), that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (v25-26) This principle is most suitable for the prayer that asks God to forgive our sins. It can even apply to other prayer requests, such as: when you ask God to have mercy on you, you should first have mercy on others. If not, then God may do the same to you. Jesus teaches the subject of prayer with a parable in Luke 18:9-12. He points out that the Pharisees who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others”, when he prayed, just “prayed thus with himself” (自言自語): “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican(稅吏). I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’ ” When we pray, we should not forget to examine our spiritual plight and see if we have committed the above-mentioned faults, or we will just “pray with ourselves” unknowingly.