The Importance of Bearing Fruit in Life
It is true that every fruit free that does not bear fruit should be cut down, but expecting fruits from a fig tree when it was not the season for figs is not fair. God Himself is the author of seasons.
Surely, Jesus knows well the laws of cause and effect. Why, then, did Jesus curse the tree for failing to deliver on what is clearly out-of-season expectation? Did he act irrationally as a result of hunger? Was he not the one who withstood Satan's temptation to turn stones into bread after a forty days and nights fast?
'In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree withered at once.' (Matt 21 : 18, 19)
A case has been made that he was driving home the point that we needed to be prepared to account for what we are given without notice. But, does this hold true even when the work is in progress?
However, what happened to the tree is instructive. Jesus did not say exactly that the fig tree should die. He said,
" May no fruit ever come from you again!" (Matt 21:19)
I think it translates that for it to never bear fruit again means death. To live, therefore, is to bear fruit, and to not bear fruit is to die.
Because of Jesus' curse of barrenness, the tree ceased to be in the basic condition to live, which fruit bearing condition. God said He will bless whom He chooses and curse whom He will, so we may not fault Jesus' action.
But we have seen that when one loses the capacity to bear fruit, one withers and dies. Really, it doesn't need saying any more that we need to bear fruit to continue living.
You say, 'what if we can't bear fruit?' We can, because we are alive, so the seed is in us. We would be dead already if we could not bear fruit.
Now, to the aspect of this incident which the church belabours. Faith to do anything.
'When the disciples saw it they marvelled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?" And Jesus answered them, "Truely, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ' Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will be done. And whatever you ask in prayer you will receive, if you have faith."(Matt 21: 20-22)
It is becoming clearer now. With the argument given above still holding true, I say that the fig tree was sacrificed for the underlying reason of Jesus wanting to demonstrate to us how we can accomplish obviously impossible things by having faith.
And why the tree? It was just a tree. Who knows, it probably just grew randomly. No one likely owned it. Even then, he was Jesus. I suppose he could do anything he wanted :
he took an ass and a colt, which we are not told was returned to the owners; he cast out demons and sent them into a herd of pigs and they drowned with no record of a compensation made to the owners even as it is a forbidden animal, so who is to speak for this tree in a public place?
Faith, never the less, has indeed proven to work wonders. It is not a respecter of persons. Whether it is Jesus, or you and I, faith will empower us to do things beyond ourselves if we would step on it.
When Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, coming to Bethphage he basically sent his companions off to go rent a ride (even though he did not pay for it).
"And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth'phage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you
will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to
me. If any one says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and he will send them immediately." This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble,
and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass." The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted,
"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?" (Matt 21 : 1-10)
Why is it important for him to enter Jerusalem on a ride ( an ass ) besides what the prophet wrote?
Jesus knew the script on him and he was playing it out. I can say there are scripts written for all of us, but we don't know it like Jesus knew his; so we grope. At best we do whatever seems right, and if it goes well with us, we say we found our calling. Really?
And why the ass and the colt? He only rode on one?! It seems to me he walked all the way to Bethphage. Why not walk right on into Jerusalem, after all, he was depicting humility? Hiring a ride to enter Jerusalem seems to me pretentious. He was born in a manger and we don't have any problem with that. His parents did not go and insist that a paid guest at the inn should vacate a room with a note saying ' the Master is about to be born.'
It is worldly and mundane sentiments like that which encourages churches to go out of their way to prop up pastors, making them live like divinity itself. They give people the wrong idea that the ministry has glamor and is to be equated to a secular profession. When they have visiting pastors, a struggling church would walk 'on the skin of their teeth' to task members with hiring for them luxury cars and lodging them in Five-star hotels.
But, if Jesus had walked into Jerusalem maybe the crowd that accompanied him ahead and around would not have been attracted, not to speak of getting involved. Perhaps, riding on the ass was a rallying act signalling that something momentous was about to happen, inspiring them to shout,
"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
What will you give me if I get rid of the incriminating evidence for you? What will you give me if I got rid of your opponent for you? The possibilities are limitless. What will you give me if I soiled my hands for you while you maintain your facade with the people?
"They gave him 30 pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him".
Have you too compromised yourself that you are now bound to seek out an opportunity to sell out your confidant, betray a trust?
Judas Iscariot discovered too late that what he expected wasn't going to happen and he hated ever taking those 30 pieces of silver. In fact, he hung himself for it because he could no longer live with himself.
Can you live with yourself after what you are about to do?
Do you really believe things will go as you planned? And even if it does, is it worth this betrayal you are doing?
Judas got eternally hurt from his betrayal of Jesus. As for Jesus, his hurt was already written and was for a greater good. But you, why does it have to be by you this temptation must come?
It's not too late to have a change of mind. But, it's really up to you. Like Judas, if you must, go on and do it!
