Commentary - Mark 11:12-14

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent account, we are confronted with one of Jesus' more startling miracles, what some have called a miracle of destruction. He curses a fig tree for its lack of fruit, and the whole event serves as a living parable, an enacted prophecy against covenantally unfaithful Israel. This is not a fit of pique from a hungry traveler. This is a deliberate, symbolic act of judgment. The fig tree, lush with leaves, gave every outward indication of life and fruitfulness. But it was a fraud. It had the profession, but not the reality. In the same way, Israel, and particularly the Temple establishment in Jerusalem which Jesus is about to cleanse, had all the outward trappings of religion, the leaves of ritual and ceremony, but was spiritually barren. Jesus is demonstrating in a small way what is about to happen to the entire nation in a very big way with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This act is a solemn warning against hypocrisy and fruitless profession.

The timing of the event is crucial. It is sandwiched between Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and His cleansing of the Temple. Mark has arranged his narrative this way quite deliberately. The cursing of the fig tree is the interpretive key to the cleansing of the Temple. The problem with the Temple is not simply that some dishonest business was being conducted there; the problem was that the entire system had become barren, all leaves and no fruit. And so, the Lord of the Temple, who has every right to expect fruit from His people, comes and finds none. His judgment is therefore not arbitrary but entirely just. This is a picture of covenantal judgment, a warning that is as relevant to the Church today as it was to Israel then. God expects fruit, and where He finds only the empty show of leaves, judgment is sure to follow.

Outline

Context In Mark

Mark's Gospel is a fast-paced, action-oriented account of the life of Jesus. He often uses a literary device called intercalation, or a "Markan sandwich," where he begins one story, inserts a second, different story in the middle, and then returns to finish the first. He does exactly that here. The story of the fig tree begins in verses 12-14, is interrupted by the account of the Temple cleansing in verses 15-19, and then concludes with the disciples seeing the withered fig tree in verses 20-25. This is not sloppy storytelling; it is a brilliant theological arrangement. The Temple cleansing is the "meat" in the fig tree "sandwich." The two stories interpret one another. The barren fig tree represents the barren Temple. The cursing of the tree is a prophecy of the judgment that will befall the Temple. Jesus is not just cleaning house; He is condemning the entire corrupt system that had replaced true worship with fruitless religion.

Verse by Verse Commentary

12 And on the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry.

The scene is set with mundane details. It is the day after the Triumphal Entry, a day of high drama and Messianic proclamation. They are leaving Bethany, their base of operations during this final week. And Jesus, in His true humanity, is hungry. This is not incidental. His hunger is what drives Him to the fig tree, and it illustrates a profound spiritual principle. The Lord of the universe, the Creator of all things, hungers for fruit from His people. He has a right to expect it. His hunger is a holy hunger, a righteous desire to see His covenant people bearing the fruit of righteousness, justice, and faith. When He comes to us, He is not looking for empty religious display; He is looking for something to satisfy His divine pleasure, which is our genuine faith and obedience.

13 And seeing at a distance a fig tree that had leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

From a distance, the tree looked promising. It had leaves, and in the case of a fig tree, the fruit typically appears before or at the same time as the leaves. So, a leafy fig tree was a tree making a promise. It was advertising fruit. This is the very picture of religious hypocrisy. Israel had the leaves of the covenant: the Temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the Scriptures. They had a magnificent religious display. But when the Lord of the covenant came looking for the fruit of genuine faith and repentance, He found none. It was all external show.

Now, what about Mark's parenthetical comment, "for it was not the season for figs"? At first glance, this seems to make Jesus' actions unreasonable. Why curse a tree for not having fruit out of season? But this misses the point entirely. The issue is not the absence of ripe figs, which would indeed be out of season around Passover. The point is the presence of leaves. A fig tree with leaves should have had at least some early figs, the unripe knobs that appear before the main crop. The leaves were a false advertisement. The tree was a hypocrite. If it had been bare of leaves, Jesus would have passed it by. But because it made a show of life, it was judged for its barrenness. This was a perfect illustration of the state of the Jewish nation. They professed to be God's people, but they were spiritually dead.

14 And He answered and said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.

Jesus speaks to the tree. He pronounces a curse, a sentence of perpetual barrenness. This is a judicial act. It is the word of the Creator, who has the right to command His creation. The effect is not immediate, but it is certain. The next day, the disciples will see the tree withered from the roots up. This curse is a prophetic sign. Just as this tree will never again bear fruit, so the apostate Temple system of Judaism was being condemned to perpetual spiritual barrenness. Its day was over. The kingdom of God was being taken from them and given to a people who would produce its fruits, namely, the Church.

And Mark adds a crucial detail: "And His disciples were listening." This whole event was for their benefit. It was a lesson, an acted-out sermon on the danger of hypocrisy and the certainty of God's judgment on fruitless profession. They were to be the foundation of the new covenant community, a people who would be characterized not by leaves, but by fruit. They needed to understand the seriousness of this principle. Bearing fruit is not an optional extra for the Christian life; it is the very evidence of life itself. Where there is no fruit, there is no life, regardless of how many leaves there might be.

Application

The warning of the barren fig tree is a perennial one for the people of God. It is easy for us, as individuals and as churches, to become satisfied with the leaves of religious activity. We can have our programs, our services, our committees, our impressive buildings, and our orthodox statements of faith. We can have all the outward appearances of spiritual vitality. But the Lord comes to us hungry, looking for fruit. He is looking for the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He is looking for genuine repentance, humble faith, and costly obedience.

We must therefore examine ourselves. Are we content with leaves? Do we mistake activity for fruitfulness? A church can be bustling with activity and yet be spiritually barren. A Christian can have his daily devotions, attend church regularly, and even serve in some capacity, and yet have a heart that is far from God, producing no genuine fruit of righteousness. This passage calls us to a radical honesty before God. We are to be a people who are not just professing life, but who are actually alive in Christ, and the evidence of that life is the fruit we bear for His glory. Let us not be like the fig tree, which promised much and delivered nothing. Let us instead be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither.