Fig Tuesday

Devotion: This passage about the cursing of the fig tree is a seemingly overlooked and unimportant aspect in the grand scale of the passion week. Quite the opposite is true; this story is a profound section that speaks volumes about the importance of having a genuine faith. 

This passage begins right after Jesus and his disciples are coming back from the cleansing of the temple. Jesus has just made his triumphant entry and has even more recently overturned tables in the temple. After all this commotion, of course… he is hungry. This miniscule detail is important because it reminds the reader that Jesus was in fact 100% human and 100% the Son of God. Since he was hungry, naturally the disciples and Jesus meander towards a food source. This food source happens to be a fig tree without any figs.

This fig tree was odd; it was in season and therefore had leaves, but it was lacking fruit. This would have been abnormal, because when a fig tree is in season it possesses leaves and figs, as opposed to the reality that Jesus was presented with in this moment. Jesus then proceeds to curse the tree, and it instantly withers at his feet; his disciples are stunned at what has occurred, because it seems to be abrupt and violent. Why would the Son of God curse a tree instead of smiting the evil people in the towns they trekked through? Or why did he choose to shrivel a tree when he could use that same power to remedy all the illnesses and problems in the world? The answer lies in this truth; He was teaching them an even more important lesson- the lesson of having genuine faith. 

As mentioned previously, Jesus had just finished cleansing the temple after his triumphant entry. While the surface level of this story is having “faith that can move mountains,” the deeper meaning behind this passage is addressing hypocrisy and what it means to have genuine faith. The Pharisees were notorious for being the opposite of genuine; hypocritical, fake, and worldly are words that adequately describe who the Pharisees were in Jesus’ day. The religious elite were not producing the products of their faith, just like the fig tree. The Pharisees had knowledge without the fruits of faith, and similarly the fig tree had the leaves while without the figs. The Pharisees possessed knowledge without the application of that knowledge, which should have produced the Fruits of the Spirit. This story speaks to the fact that appearance and knowledge isn't everything: It is said that man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). The religious leaders had all the knowledge, but continued to treat people how they wanted to out of their flesh, while not allowing the Lord to inwardly transform them.

These questions remain: “Will we allow the Lord to transform us from the inside out? Will we have hardened hearts although we know all the right answers and have the word hidden in our hearts?” Many “religious” people have all the knowledge and answers, but they do not apply what they know to benefit others around them with their genuine love of the Lord. Fig Tuesday is, in summary, all about the lessons of hypocrisy, not bearing fruit, not applying the wisdom the Lord has unveiled to His people, and learning what it means to have genuine faith. Christians must begin to become the change they desire to see in the communities they find themselves in by displaying authenticity and genuine faith by not pretending they have it all together, but by sharing weaknesses in community. If anything can be taken away from the lessons told in Fig Tuesday, it is to live a life of genuine faith, and to not fall prey to the lures of hypocrisy.