The Fig Tree

The story of Jesus cursing the fig tree is found in both the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 21:18-22) and Mark (Mk 11:12-25). In both versions of the story, Jesus and his disciples had been traveling when Jesus felt hungry and so approached a fig tree. But finding no fruit on the tree, Jesus curses the tree, saying: “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And to his disciples’ astonishment, the fig tree withers and dies at Jesus’ command. Mark’s Gospel gives us the additional details that “it was not the time for figs” as an explanation for why the tree was fruitless in the first place.

It is possible to engage with this Gospel on just the face-value level of the basic narrative. We know that Jesus was not only fully divine, but also fully human, “like us in all things but sin” (Heb 4:15). And we know from the Gospels that Jesus had human bodily needs; for example, he would become tired and need to rest or be thirsty and ask for a drink. Jesus also had human emotions, becoming sad at the death of a friend or even angry at times.

Therefore, I don’t think it would be wrong to see this episode as one more illustration of Jesus’ humanity — i.e., Jesus was hungry and then disappointed at the lack of figs. But even while this passage demonstrates his humanity, what seems to have impressed the disciples is how it demonstrated Jesus’ divine power over nature. St. Matthew’s account has the fig tree withering as soon as Jesus curses it, and goes on to say: “When the disciples saw this, they were amazed and said, ‘How was it that the fig tree withered immediately?'” And so I imagine it made sense for the Evangelists to include this story in their Gospels alongside the retelling of some of Jesus’ other miracles.

But it is also possible to see a deeper prophetic meaning in Jesus’ action here. That is, Jesus was showing forth by this visible sign the necessity of “bearing good fruit” in our lives of faith, meaning that our knowledge of God and our religious practices must actually lead to our living lives of virtue and sincere love of God and of our neighbor.