Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part IV
THE LAST JOURNEY

VII. THE BARREN FIG TREE

"And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, He was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He might find anything thereon: and when He came to it He found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And His disciples heard it." (Mark 11: 12 - 14)  "And in the morning (of the next day) as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up front the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, the fig tree Thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in God." (Mark 11: 20 - 22)

The significance of the closing phrase, "Have faith in God," and in what sense it was an answer to Peter's words concerning the withered fig tree, is indicated by what is said in Matthew where the same subject is treated of.  According to Matthew, when the Lord saw the fig tree, and "found nothing thereon, but leaves only," He said unto it, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!  Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, yet shall not only do this to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Matthew 21: 21 - 22)

After the text from Mark concerning the barren fig tree, the same teaching concerning the casting of the mountain into the sea by faith in God and the power of prayer is given; but the connection is not so obvious as that made by Matthew, where three miracles of faith in God are linked together as one, namely, the withering of the fig tree, the casting of the mountain into the sea, and the receiving of whatsoever is prayed for.

Faith in God, sometimes called also the faith of God, is the faith by which miracles were accomplished, that is, by which the Divine power was expressed in ultimates with marvelous results. This peculiar manifestation of the Divine power is called in the Word, 'the finger of God.'  By it the Lord performed all those miracles which were not purely spiritual manifestations, but were the result of an influx producing in nature unusual results visible to the natural eyes of men.  By the 'finger of God,' Jehovah in ancient days caused the manna to fall upon the camp, as veritable food for the sons of Israel.  By it the Lord, through a Divine illation, multiplied the loaves and fishes in the disciples' baskets, and fed a multitude.  By it He instilled the wine of heaven into the water in the pots at the wedding feast.  So also by this unusual exercise of power He cut off the life of the non-bearing fig tree, by causing the influx of the spirit of life into its roots, to cease.  This was done, not because there was any offence in the tree, but because that tree, bearing leaves only, when He sought to find fruit thereon, stood as a type of all fruitless things, which instead of bearing fruit, fail, and in failing bring on their own dis-continuance, this negation being the seed of death.

By Christian believers, the fig tree which the Lord cursed is regarded as emblematical of the Jewish Church. The miracle of its death by a deed of Divine power was apparently so uncalled for that no other reasonable conclusion concerning its real meaning can be made.  All believing men will agree with the statement in the Writings, that the Lord was not moved with so great an indignation against the tree as to destroy its life simply because it bore no fruit to meet the need of His hunger.  And this especially, as it is said that "the time of figs was not yet."  The tree was guilty of no offence that it should suffer a sudden death; but because of that which it represented, its life was cut off by a miracle of power.  The Lord's deed, therefore, was significant of the fact that the church, at the time, was spiritually barren, and that its restoration as a medium of salvation was impossible. Its spiritual destruction was therefore at hand. Its good, through which alone salvation is given, was purely natural, and even as natural good it was not genuine. This state of the church was signified by the fig tree which was non-bearing.  Even so, the church was in possession of some truths from the letter of the Word, signified by the leaves of the tree, but these were not sufficient to preserve even the semblance of spiritual life.  Therefore, the tree of that church was at the point of death.  It could no longer sustain itself.  It could not even maintain the formal representation of what is spiritual.  Its end, its breaking up, was at hand; and so in pronouncing its doom, the Lord said of it, "No man (shall) eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever."

From the beginning the essential virtue of this church consisted in a meticulous performance of sacred representative rites by means of which there was produced an outward seeming of holiness which veiled its real inner state from - the eyes of men and of all simple good spirits.  This deception for a time served a definite use, but such service could not endure.  The bonds of external order alone are never quite sufficient - never long lasting.  Seeming holiness rapidly degenerates into idolatry.  Yet the church with that nation was possessed of a remarkable durance, and this because it was the medium of giving the Word - because it possessed that Word in its ultimate form and held it to be holy, and also because it did draw from its sacred letter certain external Divine truths.  But the early perversion of these truths quickly destroyed any possibility of an internal development.  This church, signified by the fig tree, was from the beginning barren, and now was the time of its judgment.

In the days when the earth was like an Eden, the olive was chief among the trees. Its oil was a blessing from on high, which ran down to the hem of the garment. But when the first Paradise was lost, and the hearts of men were chilled with foreboding of non-redeemable evil, then the vine was given, and wine to make glad the hearts of men; after the vine, the fig, and at last the non-bearing fig tree which was withered by the curse of the Lord. "No man (shall) eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever."  But there was now no need for the fig, nor the vine, nor yet the olive, that men might live.  The day of symbolic churches was past, and while their representations remained in the form of sacred Scriptures - ancient revelations, to cover and include the past history of the spiritual states of the race, and to afford an ordered basis of subsequent Divine revelations, yet the churches themselves, as spiritual powers on earth, had vanished. The last of them now stood to view as little more than an empty form. The need and service of these ancient churches were no longer called for, since now the very Bread of Heaven, in the person of the Lord, was come down to give life to the world - to offer His Divine body as the Bread of Life. The barren fig tree, therefore, could not but wither at His presence, for that tree, which for long had stood in His place, was now in His way.

It is of record that as He came down from the mountain on His way to Jerusalem, He hungered; and in coming to the fig tree He failed to find any fruit thereon.  He hungered.  This was a part of His life as a man.  He was in need of food, both for body and mind, but the tree gave Him no fruit, and the church was equally barren of the fruit fit for His spiritual eating.  His need, on this occasion signified by His hunger, was for souls to save. It was an expression of His love seeking and not finding - His love for the salvation of all men. This then was His temptation, His anguish, His hunger.  It seemed as if man, despite the Lord's love and the power thereof, could not be saved. He perceived the desperate state of the church.  It gave Him no hope, and this to such an extent that He seemed on the way to a hopeless death. Even when He met with death on the cross, vinegar only was offered Him. This was the offering of that church when He said, "I thirst." The offering was significant of the then existing state, and also it was prophetic of the great apostasy to come.

The universal significance of the fig tree is natural good - third in the degree of descent from the original celestial good - third in degree of the trees of life. The fig stands in Scripture with this constant signification. But churches are not other than men. The fig tree represented a man. When the Lord came down from the mountain and saw the tree, the impression on His mind was intimate. He saw - Himself therein even as a barren fig tree; that is, He saw therein His human - that part of Himself which He had put on from man, and its state.  This is the deepest significance of the tree.  He saw in the tree, and therefore in the church, the race from which His human was taken.  His mortal human was in itself barren and fit only for death.  It was a body condemned by its nature, which, like a shell containing a Divine seed, must needs fall to the ground and die.

Nature's resurrection is ever a living representation of the Divine process of life. Not otherwise than through death may life renew itself. The realization of this, in its universality, enables us to see the underlying factor in the story of the Lord's life on earth. He, like all men, was, as to the human of His assumption, marked for death; and this from the beginning - marked for many deaths, for a continual death. This is the significance of those states of His mind and body called temptations, which were continual. In the series of these temptations, the death of the fig tree was an incident significant, however, of completion. It represented the total rejection from His Human of any and all apparent natural good, even that which might deceive the angels. With Him no fallacy could be disguised. His condemnation of it was entire, - "No man (shall) eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever."

In the letter there is an appearance of resentment in His words, difficult to understand, especially because of the statement that the time of figs was not yet. The time of figs, here mentioned, refers to the fact that the coming church, which also would be largely natural, belonged to the future. Many apologies have been written to mollify the Lord's curse of an obviously innocent tree. Nevertheless the spiritual meaning is that the good represented by that tree was not only evil at heart, but because of its appearance of good was profoundly deceptive.  Few there are who have not been swayed by such seeming good.  In every non-spiritual state or age it has passed, current not only as, the best, but often as the only good.  It is that good which is outwardly obvious.  It stands as the affection which provides benefactions of charity. It serves the uses of human life; yet it may, and often does, house the essence of self-love, whereby it furthers the ends of selfish ambition.  In this it is the good of self-love, and the source of all hypocrisy.  Its peculiar danger lies in the fact that it can hardly be distinguished from natural good of a spiritual origin.  Its danger is not that it deceives others, but that it is self-deceiving.  It is like a fruit tree abundant in foliage only.

This is the tree which the Lord condemned, and from which He cut off all life at the root.

Evil, at times, may from genuine charity be condoned to allow repentance, but the spurious good of the fig tree kind, with its deceit, can only be utterly condemned.  No other thing is so preventative of genuine repentance and of that humility of heart which alone opens the way to spiritual life.  Therefore the fruitless fig tree, with its deceiving foliage, which stood in His way as He went down from the mountain to the temple, withered at the presence of Him, Who by His glorification and His ascent through the heavens, was tempted by the angels.  Even angelic good was put aside by Him and reformed, and herein lay the secret of the new salvation which He offered to men. It was not as the old salvation. It was not dependent upon the angels. Yet it was little understood by men, and scarcely accepted. Only through - long ages did it become manifest, and at first obscurely. The new salvation lay in Him alone - in His person as the Divine Man, and in the Divine supremacy of that Man - in the Shiloh of ancient prophecy, who was to come and take to Himself the rule of the heavens; yet in the passing of that rule to Him, the power of the heavens increased, and with men on earth it was forever secured; and this because in destroying the false fig tree He made Himself the very and only Tree of Life.