In honor of Holy week....Matthew 21:18-22

Jesus Curses a Fig Tree

¹⁸ Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.

¹⁹ Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.
²⁰ When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

²¹ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.

²² If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Okay so I get it now. The fig tree is a symbol of the fruitless state of the Nation of Israel and that the judgement (curse) passed by JESUS on to the tree will be like the judgement onto Israel, swift and utter destruction for not bearing fruit. 

I had been asking myself why he cursed the tree and found some explanations here and here. The disciples didn't ask why he did what he did because they had knowledge of the fig tree (unlike me), they knew that if it had leaves it should have small pre-fruit on it. So it wasn't some impulsive move by JESUS but a prelude of what was to come for those who produce no good fruit.


Always good to ask about and look up those things you don't know. Usually I would just skip over the things I didn't understand, because I thought it would take too much time. But that is not the way to becoming more knowledgeable. Better to take a little time to get the information than to always be in the dark about an issue. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. In fact his disciples did it all the time and in doing so, they learned how to move mountains.