On Cursing Trees (Bright Year: Day 27)

I planted a dozen trees today. Little ones, to replace the trees I cut down in anticipation of the emerald ash borer, an insidious beetle that threatens to annihilate every ash tree in North America. It takes time to plant trees, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll reach maturity. The two apple trees I planted a few years back have yet to produce a single fruit.

One of the more puzzling stories in Scripture involves Jesus cursing a fig tree. Puzzling, because, as the text clearly states, “it was not the season for figs” (Mark 11:13). Jesus tells the tree, “May you never bear fruit again,” and, sure enough, the tree is withered the next time the disciples come across it.

Lo and behold, I finally found a good explanation of this passage, from Steven M. Bryan. He writes, “In Jesus’ estimation, the tree should have been laden with figs whatever the season; since fig trees were to bear fruit perpetually in the eschaton [the resurrection age], Jesus asserts that it should have been possible to find figs even if it was not the season for figs.” This was Israel, after all, the place of God’s blessing, the home of the temple and the prophets, including John the Baptist. Yet no spiritual fruit. The punishment comes because of “the nation’s fruitless failure,” not having lived within the conditions of the end time, which should have been in place already. (Jesus and Israel's Traditions of Judgement and Restoration, 225)