Jesus Curseth a Barren Fig Tree

Mark 11:20-24; Mark 11:12-14; Matthew 21:18-22; Why did Jesus curse the fruitless fig tree? Unique among our Lord's miracles, this manifestation of divine power teaches a number of great truths:

Mark 11:20-24; Mark 11:12-14; Matthew 21:18-22;(1) By exercising his power over nature, Jesus was testifying in language written in the earth itself that be was Lord of all. As the Lord Jehovah he had in times past created all things in heaven and on earth; now, though tabernacled in mortal clay, he possessed the same eternal powers over life, death, and the forces of nature. By using these powers—as he had before done in calming the tempest, multiplying loaves and fishes, walking on the water, healing multitudes, and raising the dead—he was leaving a visible and tangible witness of his own divine Sonship.

Mark 11:20-24; Mark 11:12-14; Matthew 21:18-22;(2) Though Jesus had come to bless and save, yet he had the power to smite, destroy, and curse. "It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:11); if blessings are born of righteousness, their opposite, curses, must come from wickedness. True gospel ministers seek always to bless, yet curses attend rejection of their message. "Whomsoever you bless I will bless, and whomsoever you curse I will curse, saith the Lord." (D&C 132:47.) It is fitting that Jesus should leave a manifestation of his power to curse, and the fact that he chose, not a person, but a tree, is an evident act of mercy.

Mark 11:20-24; Mark 11:12-14; Matthew 21:18-22;(3) Withering and dying at Jesus' command, the fruitless fig tree stands as a type and a shadow of what shall befall hypocrites. On fig trees the fruit grows first and then the leaves. But here was a precocious tree, holding itself out as bearing fruit because its leaves were now grown, but in fact being deceptively barren. "Were it reasonable to regard the tree as possessed of moral agency, we would have to pronounce it a hypocrite; its utter barrenness coupled with its abundance of foliage made of it a type of human hypocrisy. " (Talmage, p. 527.)

Mark 11:20-24; Mark 11:12-14; Matthew 21:18-22;(4) Also: "The leafy, fruitless tree was a symbol of Judaism, which loudly proclaimed itself as the only true religion of the age, and condescendingly invited all the world to come and partake of its rich ripe fruit; when in truth it was but an unnatural growth of leaves, with no fruit of the season, nor even an edible bulb held over from earlier years, for such as it had of former fruitage was dried to worthlessness and made repulsive in its worm-eaten decay. The religion of Israel had degenerated into an artificial religionism, which in pretentious show and empty profession outclassed the abominations of heathendom." (Talmage, p. 527.)

Mark 11:20-24; Mark 11:12-14; Matthew 21:18-22;(5) Perhaps the most obvious lessons to be drawn from this unusual display of divine power are that by faith all things are possible and that faith is a principle of power which operates in the temporal as well as the spiritual realm.

Matthew 21:21. See Matthew 17:14-21.

Matthew 21:22; 22. "And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." (3 Nephi 18:20; Mormon 9:21; Moroni 7:26.)