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Learn from the Fig Tree
10 min
Gospel
Mk 11:11-26
And he entered Jerusalem, and went into the temple; and when he had looked round at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons; and he would not allow any one to carry anything through the temple. And he taught, and said to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy him; for they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching. And when evening came they went out of the city.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Readings are taken from Dynamic Catholic’s Bible: RSV Catholic Edition.
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Transcript
Learn from the Fig Tree
It's a great reading. It's a lot here. Did you get a word? Did you get a phrase? Did you get an idea? We've got Jesus. Going into the temple back and forth between Bethany, which is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived. And he spent much time with them going back and forth. It was not that far from Jerusalem. He would go back there and he would sleep the nights there during the festivals in Jerusalem. And then you've got this. Poor little fig tree.
I feel sorry for the fig tree. I'll tell you why. Jesus comes the fig tree. Well firstly, I love that we see like Jesus is hungry. All right, he's hungry. What could be more human than to just be hungry? So he's hungry. He sees the drive-through, the fig tree, and he goes to the fig tree. He found that it had no leaves, but wait for it. For it was not the season for figs. This is why I feel sorry for the fig tree because.
It's not even the season for figs. But what does Jesus say? May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And then the next day the fig tree is withered. So that's why I feel sorry for the fig tree. Poor little fig tree. But what is Jesus saying, all of that? You know, he has this message, like, be prepared. Never know when I'm coming. Be prepared. That has been his message to the church from the beginning.
Be prepared. The second coming is near at hand. What does that mean? Well, near at hand for you and me and God, different things. Be prepared. He says, be prepared for your life to end.
Be prepared to be called to account for your life. And maybe that's the message. But then he goes in the temple, all right? And he's, you know, busting up everything in the temple. It's a great scene, you know, and it's a great scene for lots of reasons. It's a great scene for all the obvious reasons. But think for a moment of your heart as the temple. Alright, so your heart is the temple and you've got a lot of things in your heart, right? And not all of them good, you know, and you've got a little bit of resentment in there, so there's a little resentment stall in your temple, a little store that's like selling you resentment, and then you've got a little store of maybe unforgiveness, a little store in there selling you unforgiveness throughout the day. You got all these little stalls in your heart. You got stalls of great love for your friends, for your family.
You got all these things in your heart. So think of Jesus coming into the temple of your heart and just like busting things up. Like get this resentment out of here and get this unforgiveness out of here. You know, you got some greed, and you got some lust, and you've got some sloth, and you've got so think of your heart as a temple, and then Jesus coming in. And I remember the first time my kids hear this story, they're like, Dad, what is Jesus doing? He's like losing his temper, and I had to explain to them. No, he's not losing his temper. Like when you lose your temper, you literally lose control of your faculties momentarily, right? You get carried away. Jesus was never in that state. He wasn't losing his temper. Expressing anger. Okay? And then kids are like, well, isn't anger bad? Well, no, it depends on the situation. And the reality is, is that Jesus' anger here in the temple was the most appropriate response. Think about that. It was the most appropriate response to the situation. You if you see someone on the other side of the street and they're beating a dog, right, you're going to have, you're going to get angry about that. And even worse, thousand times worse, you see someone on the other side of the road beating a child. You should be angry about that. It's an appropriate response. You know, and to intervene to bust that up is an appropriate response. And so what we have to understand about Jesus is that everything he does is the most appropriate response to the situation. That's what He's calling us to. It's a beautiful lesson, right? You're out there into the world today and you're going to encounter these situations. And what does God want from you? And what does God want for you? He wants you to respond, wants you to have the most appropriate response to that situation. In order to have the most appropriate response to any situation, we have to have it on our radar. We have to be okay. Going into the situation, I want to have the most appropriate response.
And that brings a great consciousness. It brings a great intentionality to living our lives and living the gospel out in the world. I hope that's helpful to you. I hope you have a great day. Remember, don't just be yourself. The world tells you, just be yourself. No, don't just be yourself. Be the-very-best-version-of-yourself. All that God created you to be.
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