Understanding Jesus and the Fig Tree
Have you ever found yourself reaching for something, hoping it would satisfy a deep hunger in your heart, only to discover it left you emptier than before? This story from Matthew 21:18-27 begins with a simple scene—Jesus is hungry on His morning commute. But what unfolds reveals profound truths about our human condition and God's solution to our deepest longings. As we learn these big important things, we also can consider how we can live this out as a church in Manchester.
The Universal Reality of Hunger
To be human means to hunger for something. When we're physically hungry, we instinctively reach for food. Perhaps you gravitate toward something savoury, something sweet, or maybe you're health-conscious and reach for fruit. This physical hunger is straightforward—we feel it, we address it, we move on.
But there's a deeper hunger that resides in our hearts. This heart-level hunger drives us to reach for relationships, careers, meaning, and purpose. We hunger to know others and be known by them, making us reach for friendships, partnerships, and family connections. We hunger for significance in this life, leading us to pursue careers, build families, and chase passions.
The challenge is this: by ourselves, we can't help but reach for things that won't truly satisfy what we need. Often these aren't inherently bad things—they're just not good-enough things. We want a fruitful life but end up trapped in a fruitless search.
Jesus, however, has the power to give us what we truly need. Through His actions and words in this passage, He demonstrates that He can provide the fruitful life we were all made for, rather than leaving us in an endless fruitless search for fulfillment.
Understanding the Fruitless Search
The Shocking Scene with the Fig Tree
When people first encounter this story, they typically have two responses: "What in the world is going on?" and "Why is Jesus killing a tree?" To understand Jesus' actions, we need to consider His original audience and the prophetic tradition He was operating within.
For Matthew's original readers, there was no embarrassment or anxiety about this scene. Jesus was doing something deliberately shocking—outside His normal mode of operation—to grab attention and teach a vital lesson. This method was similar to what Old Testament prophets employed, though they often used even more dramatic illustrations.
The fig tree itself is significant. At this time of year, it wasn't fig season, yet this particular tree was full of leaves. More leaves typically indicate more fruit potential. Through its abundant foliage, this tree was promising fruit it couldn't deliver—showing something it would never be able to provide. It was all promise, no substance.
The Symbolic Location
The location of this fig tree is crucial to understanding Jesus' point. It stood in Jerusalem—God's city—just outside the temple—God's house. Jerusalem was supposed to represent God's promise to His people and surrounding nations that He would dwell among them. The temple promised to be the meeting place between God and humanity.
Yet when the living embodiment of "God with us" arrives—when Jesus, the walking, talking representation of God and man together, shows up—He isn't recognised as such. The temple priests question His authority. Those in political power seek to kill Him. Those in religious power plot His destruction.
The fig tree becomes a powerful symbol of what can't deliver on its promises: the city, the temple, and the entire religious system. Jesus reveals the fruitless search for what it truly is—cursed. He's declaring that this place, this temple, will never produce the fruit it promises.
The Modern Fig Tree: Our Idol Cycles
While we don't live in first-century Jerusalem, this story speaks directly to our contemporary experience. The fig tree represents everything we search after that promises something it cannot deliver. Yet we keep returning to these false promises, trapped in what we might call the "idol cycle."
Here's how this destructive pattern typically unfolds:
We have a need (we're hungry for something)
We reach for something we believe will satisfy that need
It doesn't deliver what we want. We assume the problem is us, so we:
We give more of ourselves to it
We get used up by our increased investment
We get used to disappointment (it becomes our new normal)
We don't know how to fix it ("This must just be life.")
This isn't a circular pattern—it's a downward spiral that trends lower over time, grinding people down like a "cutter downer machine."
Career as a Fig Tree Example
Consider how this plays out with careers. We hunger for meaning and significance, so we excel in school to get a good job—not just any job, but a career. Initially, there's excitement and promise. But as time passes, we discover boring aspects and realise it's not as fulfilling as we expected.
Rather than questioning the system, we double down. We pursue promotions, work longer hours, invest more of ourselves. We achieve advancement but find ourselves more exhausted and no more fulfilled. Eventually, we accept this as normal: "It is what it is. Being tired and unfulfilled is just part of adult life, right?"
We go through this cycle multiple times—with careers, relationships, family dynamics—and what does it accomplish? It grinds us down. We produce nothing but leaves, no real fruit. Tragically, we often teach this same pattern to our children, passing on the heavy burden we've learned to carry.
Instead of these pursuits giving to us, we end up giving everything to them. They become vampiric, leeching life from us rather than providing the satisfaction they promised.
The Fig Trees of Power and Religion
Just as Jesus' fig tree stood near both the city (representing political power) and the temple (representing religious authority), our modern fig trees often cluster around similar themes.
The Fig Tree of Power (The City) In our consumerist culture, money represents our primary expression of control. Compared to most people throughout history, we have significant financial resources and freedom in how we use them. This economic power promises to provide security for our future through savings and pensions, and happiness through retail therapy.
While wisdom in financial planning is important, no amount of money can truly control your future. Buying things does provide momentary pleasure, but we all recognise this as shallow happiness. Yet for many in the middle class, money becomes something we constantly think about, worry over, and devote enormous time and attention to—often with diminishing returns on our emotional investment.
The Fig Tree of Religion (The Temple) The temple in Jesus' day had become a symbol of empty religiosity—not a center for people earnestly seeking God, but a headquarters for the morality police, focused on being seen as good rather than actually being transformed.
We see both conservative and liberal versions of this religious fig tree today. The conservative version involves people who claim Christian values but weaponize them against others, expecting non-Christians to behave like Christians to bolster their own sense of righteousness—which is contrary to the gospel itself.
The liberal version claims that Christianity is fundamentally harmful because it suppresses desires and limits freedom, arguing that any restriction on acting upon desires is inherently wrong.
Both approaches are fig trees, promising fruit they can never deliver, ultimately withering away. In the gospel story, these two forms of power—political and religious—united in their opposition to the one who told the truth about both institutions.
Lessons from the Fruitless Search
As we reflect on Jesus' interaction with the fig tree, several important applications emerge:
Don't Search for Figs on Fruitless Trees
The most obvious lesson is to stop seeking satisfaction from sources that cannot provide it. We might think of this in terms of "the big three" areas where we typically look for fulfillment: our wallets (money and possessions), our diaries (time and achievements), and our beds (relationships and intimacy).
When Jesus offers genuine satisfaction, why do we keep returning to sources we know will disappoint us?
Sometimes You'll Go Hungry
Notice that Jesus was genuinely hungry in this passage, and He didn't get to eat. This challenges our assumption that every desire must be immediately fulfilled. Being a disciple sometimes means not being satisfied in all the ways we think we need.
In fact, sometimes being filled by the wrong source is equivalent to being cursed. Eating from a fig tree that cannot produce actual figs means consuming nothing but leaves—you can eat, but it won't nourish you. Better to remain temporarily hungry than to fill yourself with what cannot sustain you.
When Your Fig Tree Withers, It's a Grace
When Jesus removes something from our lives that we've been depending on for satisfaction, it can feel devastating. But if we're chasing something that promises life but cannot deliver life, having that thing wither away is actually beneficial, no matter how much it hurts in the moment.
God acts like a skilled surgeon who knows exactly which fig trees in our hearts need to be removed for our health. He doesn't make unnecessary cuts, but when He does cut, it's to remove what is harmful to us.
As C.S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity: "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." When fig trees fail us, we should learn from the experience that something greater than any fig tree is available to us.
The Promise of a Fruitful Life
What Makes Life Fruitful
A fruitful life is fundamentally about having faith in the right thing. Faith itself is neutral—what matters is the object of your faith. Unlike fig trees, Jesus offers substance that truly matters because He isn't merely rooted in this world. Jesus provides access to something beyond this world.
This becomes clear in how Jesus responds to the religious leaders who question His authority. When they demand to know who gave Him the right to act as He did, Jesus responds with His own question about John the Baptist's authority—was it from God or from human sources?
The leaders find themselves trapped: they can't say John's authority was merely human because the crowds respected John, but they can't acknowledge it came from God because that would validate Jesus' claims. Through this exchange, Jesus demonstrates that what He offers transcends what this world can provide. He addresses desires that, despite our best efforts, this world simply cannot satisfy. We were made for another world, and Jesus brings that heavenly reality to bear on our earthly existence.
Characteristics of Fruitful Living
Faith and Prayer To "have faith" means trusting God with both small and large matters. Especially regarding our deepest hungers, faith means going to God rather than turning to fruitless fig trees. Prayer becomes central to this lifestyle—there is no substitute for a life of prayer. When hunger strikes, instead of reaching for fig trees, we approach God through prayer.
Community One crucial detail often missed in English translations is that the verbs related to prayer in this passage are plural. Jesus isn't talking about individual prayer practices but about the prayer life of a united community. Healthy prayer requires full participation in church community. As we consider how the church should interact with the world, we recognise that spiritual vitality flows through communal connection rather than individualistic spirituality.
Wholeheartedness Jesus emphasizes having faith "and not doubting." This doesn't mean perfection or the absence of questions. Rather, "not doubting" means avoiding divided loyalty—not being of two minds about our commitment to God.
Being a Christian involves more than Sunday attendance; it's an every-day-of-the-week lifestyle. This doesn't require perfection. We will experience fears, disagreements, resistance to God's direction, and struggles with belief. Wholehearted faith means bringing all of these challenges directly to God rather than compartmentalizing our spiritual life.
When we practice faith this way, God redirects our hungers appropriately. We may think we know best how to use our resources, time, and relationships, but we don't. In our wholehearted—though imperfect—faith, we bring everything to Jesus and surrender control.
The Fruit of a Fruitful Life
How We Live The Bible frequently uses "fruit" as a metaphor for how God's people should conduct themselves. The fruit of a fruitful life includes kindness, humility, generosity—all the significant qualities that contribute to a meaningful existence.
This means living according to God's commands, especially when we don't feel like it. When we experience hungers that tempt us to seek satisfaction outside of God, fruitful living means resisting those fig trees and coming to Him instead.
God's Blessing in Our Lives In Old Testament imagery, fruit (especially from fig trees) symbolizes the good life—not just the kind of life God expects, but the blessings God provides. This represents both how we attain the good life and the good life itself, which God delights in giving lavishly.
God's Blessing Through Us to Others To protect us from toxic individualism, we must remember that fruit is never produced solely for the tree itself. Fruit trees produce abundance so that others can be nourished. This benefits not only the tree but the entire ecosystem.
We become what we worship. If we reach for fruitless fig trees, we become fruitless ourselves. But when we surrender wholeheartedly to Jesus, He produces in us a fruitful life that extends beyond what we could accomplish alone for others. The way God blesses others through your life is by making you fruitful.
Empty fig trees offer nothing but leaves, but a fruitful life provides abundance. Jesus is both the way to that life and the essence of that life itself.
The Ultimate Answer
You might wonder why Jesus seemed evasive when speaking with the religious leaders instead of being more direct. The answer relates to His careful timing. Jesus had "set His face toward Jerusalem" knowing He would die there, but He had a specific plan for His death that would unfold in chapter 26.
Why did Jesus need to go through death and resurrection? Because without these pivotal events, we would remain forever trapped, lifting our hands toward the base of fruitless fig trees. We are so entrenched in our fruitless search, so completely committed to it, that nothing less than God Himself coming to earth and taking our place could rescue us.
We created and were born into a chasm between us and God that no amount of human effort could bridge. So God, from heaven, accomplished what we could not. He saved us from our fruitless search and saved us to a fruitful life. He rescued us from reaching for what cannot satisfy and provided everything we need in Jesus.
Living the Fruitful Life
This life of faith, prayer, and community that we pursue wholeheartedly benefits not only us but others around us. When we consider what it means to be part of a church in Manchester that lives this way, we see the broader impact of choosing fruitfulness over futility.
The fruitful life isn't for the perfect but for seekers, skeptics, and those who know they "could do better." It's for people who may appear successful on the outside but still feel that persistent hunger inside. It's for those who want to follow Jesus and be part of making a God-sized difference in the world.
This is the invitation that stands before us: to stop the fruitless search and embrace the fruitful life that Jesus offers. Rather than continuing to reach for things that promise but cannot deliver, we can find in Jesus both the satisfaction our hearts crave and the power to live lives that bear fruit for others.
The choice is ours: will we continue the exhausting cycle of reaching for fruitless fig trees, or will we embrace the abundant life that Jesus provides? The path to fruitfulness begins with recognising our hunger, acknowledging the failure of fig trees to satisfy us, and turning wholeheartedly to the One who offers life abundant.
At Redeemer, we're discovering together what this fruitful life looks like in practice—imperfect people learning to trust perfectly in the One who can satisfy every hunger of the human heart. We’d love to have you join us on a Sunday!