Mark 11:13

Mark 11:13

The words "for the time of figs was not yet" are not given as a reason why Christ found nothing but leaves. He went to this one tree which had leaves on it; and that, therefore, was one of those trees which naturalists describe as never shedding their leaves. On this species of fig-tree the fruit of the last year commonly hung to the spring of the next; and the foliage might thus well induce an expectation, which barrenness afterwards disappointed. As man, Christ perceived from the appearance of the tree that fruit might fairly be expected; and therefore, as God, He might justly condemn the plant.

I. The narrative of the curse of the barren fig-tree must be considered as designed in the first place, to represent to us the state and the doom of the Jewish people; without doubt the fig-tree itself is a figure of the nation of Israel. God had planted His vineyard, He had sent a succession of prophets and priests who, as dressers of that vineyard, might attend to its culture. But though everything had been done for it, yet the fig-tree yielded no fruit. Amid all the emblems of moral painting there could not be found a more accurate delineation, both of national privilege and of national character, than that of the barren fig-tree.

II. The uniform tendency of ancient prophecy may require that we erase the words "for ever from this curse when transferred to the Jewish nation, but we dare not blot out this awful conclusion when we apply it to the case of hypocritical professors in general. There are many ways of losing the soul; there is only one of saving it even the receiving of Jesus Christ in simplicity and faith; and then glorifying Christ Jesus in the sanctity of practice. The former is the true and vital sap: the latter is the consequence the production of fruits that glow and blossom with the bloom of the morning.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2,191.

References: Mark 11:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. x., No. 555; Homilist,3rd series, vol. v., p. 152.Mark 11:13; Mark 11:14. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 92.