JESUS USES THE FIG TREE AS A LESSON FOR US - A LESSON IN ANTISEMITISM

Matthew 21:

8 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

COMMENT: Jesus got it to wither fast indicating that he has no tolerance for systems that fail to bear the fruit of good works. He will even block them from bearing fruit in the future. The fig tree is definitely meant to be a parable in action. The fig tree is Jesus himself or any religious leader who fails to have fruit. It shows he does indeed give up on people which is what the doctrine of Hell is trying to say. It says God disregards how sinners may repent and ends their chances by locking them in sin.

Mark 11

12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

COMMENT: This older version of the story says it was not the fruit season! The idea is that Jesus is not accepting a religion or system as good just because it does predictable good works. He wants supernatural heroism. It is like how he said there is no salvation for those whose goodness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees.

A bad system that knows it is bad has to do good works in order to protect itself for it knows empires fall. Empires fall essentially for they do not do enough good. The evidence is that Jesus did not regard normal goodness as grounds for saying a religion or faith is good. It is evidence that they are bad.

Jesus is clear.    The good religion or true religion must be able to produce fruit when it should not and when nature itself is against it.  In fact in doing this he shot himself in the chest.  Christianity shows no sign of being any better than an atheist charity or anything else.

Another point is that it looks like Jesus expected the fruit to be there miraculously.  He expected the fruit to be there just because he wanted it to be there.  This reminds of how he had told the Devil that it's a sin for him to feed himself when starving by turning stones into bread for that is a waste of a miracle.  The fruit was not there so he cursed the tree to wither and die.  Instead of managing a good miracle, it seems he managed a bad one for the tree was withered the next day.

Regardless of the occult black magic overtones, the message is still there.  "Don't take a religion that can't get fruit out of season seriously!"

The fig tree is used as his voodoo doll for Judaism.  He hopes the success of the curse on the tree will correspond to one that destroys the Jewish people.