Faith in the Fog

Reading today in Matthew 21. I love the story of the fig tree that is withered. I think for years this one puzzled me. I mean here is Jesus and he sees a fig tree and the thing is not in season and he is hungry. He curses the fig tree and the disciples are astonished. You would be too.

But here is the thing that always gets me. Why did he do that? This verse was what I used to confront all my environmentalist Christian friends with and say, “See, Jesus was not in to nature.”

However that is not the point of that at all. Jesus used this fig tree as a teaching moment for his disciples.

Jesus was hungry for his people to recognize Him, but the Jews were no longer in season. They were no longer even capable of producing fruit. And if you have a tree in the grove that is no longer producing, you kill it, because it is just sucking up resources from the soil.

Verses 23-27 confirm this as they fall right on the heels of 18-22. Here are the blind religious leaders who have no fruit and are just spiritually killing all fruit they might have brought in. They challenge Jesus’s authority. When the tree challenges soil’s ability to give it nourishment and it rejects Jesus, then Jesus will not unlock the mystery of heaven to them. He rejects them.

We see this in the next two parables. 28-32 is the parable of the two sons. One son says he will work for his father and doesn’t. The other says he won’t work, but does. Jesus explains he wants the one that doesn’t give lip service, he wants the one who does his will. The Jewish religious leaders talked a good game, but they bore no fruit. Whereas those who recognized who Jesus was bore much fruit, even though their lives in the beginning bore no reflection of following him, and they gave him no lip service.

33-45 finishes the chapter with another parable of a vineyard owner who is trying to collect fruit. But the tenants who were leasing his land were not coughing up the goods. They would just kill every messenger from the owner. The owner then sent his son, and they killed him too. Then the owner brought in the militia and didn’t just kill them, he utterly destroyed them.

Jesus concludes that parable with a line from Psalm 21

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This came from the Lord and it is wonderful in his eyes.

The Jews rejected Jesus and the Father was happy to offer the Kingdom of Heaven to those who would receive his son and produce and give him the fruits of their labor.

The problem I have is that I am more like the pharisees than I should be. I am not producing a harvest all the time.

Yesterday, case in point. I got my car towed. And instead of using that as an opportunity to go and share grace with the Muslim shop owner who had my car towed, I just looked at him and said,

“I can’t believe you did that. You know what I want you to go home and pray about what you did.”

The man with a long frizzy white beard and a little head hugging hat looked at me in horror and tried to make me understand why he did it.

I just looked at him and firmly said, “You pray.” and I walked out.

Never shared the gospel. Never planted the seed. No fruit to harvest. I was just mad that this guy had the audacity to have my vehicle towed at a gas station that I left there for about 3 hours. I was righteous. I was justified. I was out of season.

Are you in or out of season right now? You see Paul writing to Timothy gave this instruction

2 Timothy 4:1-2 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage– with great patience and careful instruction.

Let’s be prepared to make some fruit.

Are you in or out of season?