12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him sayMatthew's account is essentially the same, except that he puts the temple-action after the complete fig tree story. Either way, isn't it odd that the gospel writers would juxtapose the temple-action with the fig tree? What does all this mean?it.
15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations' [a]? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.' [b]"
18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
19 When evening came, Jesus and his disciples [c] went out of the city.
20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"
22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "Truly [d] I tell you, if you say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will happen, it will be done for you. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25-26 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins."
New Testament scholar R.T. France, who recently retired from his teaching career at Oxford University, explains this strange story in his commentary on Mark's gospel. The story has
always given commentators trouble because it doesn't appear to serve much of a purpose. Unlike some of the other nature miracles (e.g. calming the storm, feeding the thousands, and walking on the lake), the fig tree miracle is purely destructive. Jesus appears to be spontaneously cursing the tree in a spiteful way when he finds it lacks figs. But Mark goes out of his way to tell us that that figs didn't even grow in this season. So we're struck by a seemingly spiteful miracle and an even deeper question about why someone would even record such a strange incident.Because of all this weirdness, it's no wonder commentators have consistently interpreted this incident symbolically. France points out that this symbolic interpretation is actually suggested by the text: "Mark's structuring of this section suggests such an interpretation [a symbolic one] . . . and it is supported by the prophetic use of fig trees and their fruit (e.g. Jer. 8:13, 24:1-10; Hosea 9:10, 16-17; Micah 7:1; Luke 13:6-9)." (France, p. 439). France opines that this evidence suggests that neither Mark nor his readers would have had any trouble interpreting the fig tree symbolically...and that this was Jesus' intention. A speech-act. Later in France's commentary he notes explicitly that the destruction of the fig-tree should be "read as a symbol of God's judgment on Jerusalem and its temple." (France, p. 448).
So if the fig-tree bookends around the temple action help us understand the temple action as as prophetic judgment about it's destruction, what are we to make of Jesus' statements about the power of prayer? We'll cover that in my next post on this topic.
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