Blog (2) Lee Gomila

     My favorite passage in the gospel of Mark is Chapter 11 verses 12-14. Jesus curses a fig tree. He what? That's right. He curses a fig tree. To recap the passage, Jesus sees a fig tree in the distance and goes over to get a snack. When Jesus approaches the tree, he finds no figs, only leaves. It wasn't the season for figs. Jesus becomes angered by this, and he curses the tree saying, "May no one ever eat fruit from you ever again!" Jesus, the Son of Man, has just yelled at an inanimate object. At first, this seems silly and unnecessary, but definitely aligns with Mark's tendency to present a very human, emotion-driven Jesus. As we know about Mark though, he doesn't go out of his way to add pointless or silly stories in his gospel, so there must be a deeper purpose for this passage.

     The first possibility here is that Mark is just adding a small anecdote to show Jesus' humanity. Even the Son of God gets moody when he's hungry. The more likely possibility, I think, is that there is a deeper symbolic meaning. The symbol of the fig tree is often used for the nation of Israel. The idea is when the people of Isreal obeyed God, the tree would produce fruit. On the other hand, when the people disobeyed, the tree would be barren [1]. Is the same symbolism being applied here? Is Mark making a statement about the Jewish leaders of the time (as he does many other places)? The symbolism seems rather cold in this case. Is Jesus just cursing the religious leaders or the nation of Israel as a whole? I'm not sure the answer to that question, but I think this way of viewing the passage is closer to what Mark intended, because what happens next is the famous scene of Jesus driving out the sellers and money changers from the temple. An obvious symbol of things gone wrong.

     What makes the issue of the fig tree a little more confusing for me is what happens when Jesus leaves the temple. He and the disciples pass back by the tree from before to find it withered and dead. Jesus turns this into a message about how if you pray to God for something and believe it with all your heart, He will answer. This confuses the issue for me, because I don't see how this relates with the first passage about the fig tree.

[1] Mark Golli "Does Jesus Hate Trees?"

Bibliography:

Ehrman, B.D. The New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 


Golli, Mark. "Does Jesus Hate Trees?." Ignite Your Faith66 (2007): 16.