Mark 11 – Cursing Fig Tree

Mark 11:12-14 – "Why did Jesus have an emotional outburst at the fig tree – couldn’t he just have made figs appear?"

This objection is rather a desperate attempt to find fault with Jesus. As Jesus so often does, he uses everyday objects and images as metaphors to teach his disciples a spiritual point. The fig tree was an object lesson for the disciples that human lives which do not bear fruit when they should be bearing fruit are in danger of being cursed and cut down (Luke 13:6, John 15:6,7). The cursing of the fig tree was also a lesson about the potential power of prayer. In Matthew 24:32, he alluded again to the same fig tree again in his teaching. So clearly this was no emotional outburst but a carefully-crafted object lesson for his disciples.

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