Got Figs?

On Holy Monday, Christians note the story of Jesus, hungry, passing by a fig tree with leaves that suggested it was bearing fruit, but no fruit on the tree. Christ curses the tree and it withered and died.

It is a reason I spend this week on this topic and no other topics.

We often view ourselves as involved in politics daily and faith on Sundays, if we aren’t fishing or doing travel ball or making other priorities that day.

During COVID, a lot of us, myself included, got out of the habit of regularly worshipping in person with a community of believers. Whether we know it or not, it is necessary. It helps us. It does us good to worship with others.

Likewise, we can’t just quote scripture. We have to be active in our faith. Protestants, like me, believe we are saved by faith alone, but through that faith, we express it in works.

The day after Jesus entered Jerusalem, he was hungry. He had gone to Bethany the evening of Palm Sunday and, Monday morning, returned to Jerusalem.

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

Matthew 21:18-19 (ESV)

Most fig trees produce fruit before the leaves. Depending on the season, if you see a leafy fig tree, you’d expect it to have ripened fruit. Christ sees such a tree and there is no fruit. He curses the tree.

There are a lot of layers to these passages. One is tied to the Old Testament wherein Israel’s faith is often compared to that of a fig tree. Micah shows Israel bearing fruit on the fig tree. Jeremiah shows the fig tree’s end.

But let’s just focus on the basic level.

The fig tree, full of leaves, should have been bearing fruit. In the same way, someone who proclaims Jesus’s name and calls himself a Christian should be bearing fruit for the faith.

Right now, a lot of us are so invested in bearing fruit for the country, we are not bearing fruit for the Kingdom. Our witness is for our politics when our witness should be for our faith.

Likewise, our witness for our politics is often combative and assertive. Our witness for faith should be humble and kind. There’s a reason Paul exhorted believers to seek quiet lives.

We’re not going to draw people to us or bear fruit for the kingdom if we are behaving like the world around us. Christ cursed the fig tree and, in the next passage, confronted preachers who claimed to be living for the faith, but twisted the scripture for their own ends.

This is not an issue of liberal theology or people of the left. This is an issue of people inside the church. They proclaim a Christ they don’t think will return. They profess a God they do not think is in charge. They quote a God breathed scripture for a man-inspired outcome. They are pagans professing Christ. They are fig trees full of leaves bearing no fruit.

God is either on the throne or he is not. If He is, His plan is working and all things do work for the benefit of those called according to His purposes. If He is not on the throne, we are wasting our time on a resurrection that did not happen.

I believe in the resurrection of Jesus. I cannot fight the fight the way the non-believer does. I’m bound to a cross and King. If you believe Christ Jesus is really the way, the truth, and the life, so too are you. And He said to love your neighbor as yourself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He doesn’t say to be ruthless, vindictive, or combative. He says to take up your cross and follow Him.

A last day is coming. We can feel it in the air. We see an ever quickening world. He is coming. Are you on His side or not? If you are on His team, act like it. You’ve already won. And He demands you, on His team, act like you’ve been there before — humble, meek, loving, not arrogant, combative, and brash. You’ve already won. Christ demands Christians act as gracious winners, not jerks. Act like a jerk, and you’ve got fig leaves like Adam and Eve, but no fruit of a regenerated soul.