“On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. Seeing at a distance a fig tree in leaf, 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. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening… As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. Being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God. “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.”

First let me remind us that we should never question Jesus in the wrong spirit. Whatever He does is perfect and good and proper. But quite often His actions raise eyebrows and grab our attention, which is just what He wants!

The secular, carnal man will look at this text and see an impatient human being who was hungry, and got ticked off when the fruit he was expecting to find and eat, was not there. Cursing followed, as men will do when they are upset.

People of God filled with God’s Spirit and knowing even a little of God’s ways can in no way attribute such characteristics to the Son of God. Human means sinful to us. But originally, Adam was created perfect. This is the second Adam, still walking in perfect humanity and subjected Divinity.

Humanly speaking, He did get hungry. He saw a fig tree. He really did expect a small meal to emerge, but it did not.

The Heavenly part kicks in here. The Father, with whom He was in constant contact, brought to the Son’s attention a golden opportunity for teaching from this incident.

You will see no anger in this passage. None. No out of control man governed by his belly. That’s a Western thing, not a Godly one. He was disappointed, but immediately the thought came to Him to say something about this happening that would teach an invaluable lesson – 2 lessons actually – to the disciples.

The first of the two lessons Jesus also taught in a parable in Luke 13:

“And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ “And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”

The allusion is clear. Here and elsewhere the “fig tree” is Israel, God’s special planting in Canaan land that was such a disappointment. Oh how God wanted fruit from that tree! So much effort and love seemingly gone to waste. I say seemingly, though we know that God cannot waste any effort. Something good comes from Israel, for sure! The Scriptures, the example of the fathers, the prophets, Jesus Himself, the first church, and eventually “all Israel” will be saved. (That’s another subject.)

And dare we also mention that a tree that does not bear fruit is also like a Christian who does not do the same? I think it is fair to mention that we are included in the parable and in the “incident.” Disappoint Him long enough, and the curse is swift and sure.

But as you can see in Peter’s response and then Jesus’ the next day, there was a two-fold lesson to be learned here. Lesson 2 had to do with the power of God and our use of it by faith. Though nothing “happened” when the words were uttered – as in our seemingly unanswered prayers – the next day the results were clear. And when we wait long enough and believe long enough, what we say to God and even to men will have results.

No, this was no idle anger from a hungry man. This was God the Master Teacher taking advantage of a teachable moment to instill wisdom in His followers then and now.