Being Fruit

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MARK

BEING FRUITFUL

Mark 11:11-14

11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve. 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 say it.

NIV

It seemed right to include this verse about the day of Jesus’s triumphed entry into Jerusalem with this second day as we are told there was no one in the temple area because they had arrived late in the day, and all the business dealing of the day were over. So Jesus and his twelve left Jerusalem and went back to Bethany, where the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus was. Now we come to this next day and Jesus and his twelve head back to Jerusalem and we have this narrative of the fig tree. Mark does not give us all the details that Matthew includes, as after Jesus said what he did to that tree, it immediately withered and they were all amazed. But there is more to this story than meets the eye, so to speak. The time for gathering figs was about the same time as the Passover, which was in 5 days, so this tree was supposed to have fruit. What we know is that a fig tree first produces its fruit and then the leaves, so when Jesus saw the tree with leaves from a distance, he would most certainly expect to find fruit. The time of the year was right for figs to be on trees and this time when Jesus came to this tree, it was just before the time to harvest figs, so it should have had figs. In addition, because it was on the wayside, it was on the public domain and Jesus had every right to pick some of its fruit. Because he found none, he cursed it and as Matthew tells us, it withered. There can be a truth here about Israel and about us. Certainly, Jesus had been preaching the good news about the kingdom of God throughout the land, and whenever he was in a town he was in the synagogue teaching. This would have meant the Pharisees, the teachers of the law and the priests would have heard his message many times over, yet they did not repent, and His word did not bear any fruit in them, so to speak. As a result, we also know that Israel did wither in a sense, it did not remain a strong nation, but by 70AD it was burned to the ground, the temple was destroyed, never to be rebuilt. This could be a lesson for us to learn. We must allow the word of God to bear fruit in our lives or we too may well wither on the vine. The question is how do we know whether the word is bearing fruit in our lives, or are we just a bunch of leaves. When we consider the 1^st Psalm and we are like a tree that bears fruit in its season because our roots are in the stream of living water, Jesus. As then as we abide in Christ and him in us, we will bear fruit, in fact, much fruit, and our leaf will not wither.

Ps 1:1-3

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

NIV

There are those conditions, but we can be assured as we are meeting them, as we are working on living in accordance with them, we are living in Christ and we are being fruitful and we are not withering.