Matthew 21:18-22
¹⁸ In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹ And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. ²⁰ When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” ²¹ Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. ²² Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”

I have always been puzzled by this passage from Matthew. Does Jesus show his human side and have a hissy fit? This fit of pique seems so out of character for the miracle-working, gentle, healing, loving Jesus. On the surface, Matthew seems to put on display the fact that Jesus is indeed human with human emotions, including frustration. And who would deny that Jesus gets frustrated, particularly with his Disciples’ difficulty in understanding the meanings behind the parables and miracles.

There is, however, a deeper meaning behind this story about Jesus’ “temper tantrum.”

The story of the cursing of the fig tree occurs not only in Matthew, but also in Mark 11:12-14. Mark’s accounting differs from differs from Matthew’s in that in Mark the tree does not immediately wither away. In Mark’s account, Jesus and the Disciples return from overturning the money changers’ tables and causing a ruckus at the Temple in Jerusalem to find the fig tree withered away. What is the difference?
Both Matthew and Mark “sandwich” the fig tree episode with Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem.

Matthew: Jerusalem → Fig tree → Jerusalem
Mark: Fig tree → Jerusalem → Fig tree

In Mark, Jesus is hungry and spies a fig tree in full leaf and expects it to have figs ready for plucking (as fully leafed fig trees would normally have.) But, alas, no figs. So, Jesus curses the tree:

¹³ Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

After that episode with the fig tree Jesus went to Jerusalem and cast out the buyers and sellers in the Temple. He then left the city in the evening with the Twelve. Upon returning to the location of the fig tree in the morning, the Disciples saw the sad condition of the withered plant and were amazed.

Mark’s Gospel inverts the sequence. Jesus enters the city in triumph, with the crowds shouting “Hosanna!” Then, as the evening came, they went to Bethany. The next day, on the way back to Jerusalem, Jesus was hungry, saw the leafy fig tree, found no fruit and cursed it. Then they went back to Jerusalem where Jesus proceeded to chase the merchants and money changers out of the Temple.

Wow. Maybe Jesus got up on the wrong side of the bed that day. We’ve all been there. Waking up and feeling really out of sorts, grumpy, irritable, short-tempered, I could go on. But the Gospel writers had intended a deeper, more complex meaning to this situation. I believe that the Gospel writers intended the scenarios and episodes of Jesus’ life and ministry to be multi-layered, particularly in this case. As Jesus used Parables to explain the Kingdom of God, the writers sought to use seemingly ordinary occurrences in Jesus’ life to more fully examine what was behind the teaching. In this case, the fig tree, in both Matthew and Mark, appeared to be fruitful, healthy, and desirable. Upon closer inspection, the healthy appearance of the fig tree was an illusion. So, too, was the appearance of the Scribes and Pharisees, proclaiming the beauty and strength and worth of their faith. But the self-righteous bluster concealed their true nature. Jesus was trying to show that Godliness and holiness come from within, not to be showcased in public displays of piety and rituals. As the fig tree was useless for providing fruit, so the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem were useless in fulfilling their task of leading their people into a sincere worship of God. And so, both the tree and Jerusalem will be destroyed.

The episode also portends the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. It was a magnificent structure, the Jews considered it to be the dwelling place of God and worshipped its existence. But Jesus foretold the destruction of the Temple, as was written in Mark 13:1-2:

¹As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” ² Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

Jesus, in a similar way, saw the awesome beauty of the Temple, just as he saw the awesome beauty of the fig tree in full bloom. But appearances deceive. The Temple, in itself, was an empty edifice to which the Jews cast their adoration and worship, but whose faith bore no fruit in any meaningful way. They may have performed all the correct rituals and sacrifices, but in returning to daily life they ignored the poor, sick and needy among them. Just as the healthy-appearing fig tree bore no fruit, neither did the Jews, Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus condemned them both.

So, Jesus was not just in a vengeful mood about the lack of figs. He knew he had to give his Disciples a message of what was to come and the trials and difficulties ahead. They may have not understood it or grasped its meaning at the time, but as the years went on and Christianity grew, Jesus’ message of being fruitful in Faith became, and is still becoming clear.