Leaves and No Figs

It is the morning after the ride into Jerusalem. They leave Bethany, Jesus is hungry, and he sees a fig tree in the distance with leaves on it, so he goes over to find something to eat.

He found nothing on it except leaves, since it was not the season for figs.

Verse 13 keeps that last clause, and nothing in the account depends on nothing. Instead he stops the account to tell us the tree was not supposed to have fruit yet, which makes Jesus look unreasonable and makes Mark look careless, and he put it down anyway. Whatever else is going on here, he is not hiding the difficulty.

Two things can be said about this, and only one of them is certain. The certain one is the leaves. A fig tree in leaf is making a claim, because on that kind of tree the early fruit comes along with the leaves, so a tree covered in green at a distance was advertising that there was something on it to eat. This one had put out the whole display and had nothing behind it. It looked further along than it was. Jesus did not walk over to a bare tree. He walked to one that had told him, from a long way off, that it was ready.

The second thing is where Mark puts it, and this is the part that is less than certain. He tells the story in two halves. The tree is spoken to here, the tree is found withered the following morning, and in between the two he puts Jesus in the temple courts turning over the tables of the money changers. The tree and the temple are meant to be read together.

The prophets had used this picture before. Jeremiah has God saying there will be no figs on the tree and even the leaf will wither. Micah says he went looking for an early fig and found none. It was a standing image for a people who looked like they were bearing fruit and were not.

Then Jesus speaks to the tree, and what he says is careful.

Then He said to the tree, May no one ever eat of your fruit again. And His disciples heard this statement.

He does not call down destruction on it. He ends its usefulness to anybody who comes looking, which is a different thing, and Mark takes the trouble to tell us who was standing close enough to hear him do it. A tree outside Bethany matters because of the men who were listening.