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From Heaven With Love
still waiting for light and hope. The Jews, who had received greater
blessings from God, were held accountable for their abuse of these
gifts. The privileges of which they boasted only increased their guilt.
Jesus had come to Israel, hungering to find in them the fruits of
righteousness. Every privilege had been granted them, and in return
He longed to see in them self-sacrifice, compassion, and a deep
yearning for the salvation of their fellowmen. But love to God and
man was eclipsed by pride and self-sufficiency. The treasures of truth
which God had committed to them, they did not give to the world.
In the barren tree they might read both their sin and its punishment.
Withered, dried up by the roots, the fig tree showed what the Jewish
people would be when the grace of God was removed from them.
Refusing to impart blessing, they would no longer receive it. “O
Israel,” the Lord says, “thou hast destroyed thyself.”
Hosea 13:9
.
Christ’s act in cursing the tree which His own power had created
stands as a warning to all churches and all Christians. There are
many who do not live out Christ’s merciful, unselfish life. Time
is of value to them only as they can gather for themselves. In all
the affairs of life this is their object. God designed them to help
their fellowmen in every possible way. But self is so large that they
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cannot see anything else. Those who thus live for self are like the fig
tree. They observe the forms of worship without repentance or faith.
In profession they honor the law of God, but obedience is lacking.
In the sentence pronounced on the fig tree Christ declares that the
open sinner is less guilty than he who professes to serve God but
bears no fruit to His glory.
The parable of the fig tree, spoken before Christ’s visit to
Jerusalem, had a direct connection with the lesson He taught in
cursing the fruitless tree. For the barren tree of the parable the gar-
dener pleaded, “Let it alone, sir, this year also, till I dig about it
and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good;
but if not, you can cut it down.”
Luke 13:8, 9
, RSV. It was to have
every advantage. In the parable, the result of the gardener’s work
was not foretold: it depended on that people to whom Christ’s words
were spoken, represented by the fruitless tree. It rested with them to
decide their own destiny. Every advantage was given them, but they
did not profit by their increased blessings. By Christ’s act in cursing