Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, March 11, 2020
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
I honestly feel that this passage in scripture should actually bear the subtitle “Jesus the meanie.” For one, I get it . . . it’s a parable. Jesus was trying to teach that in not bearing fruit, Israel would suffer God’s wrath, just like in the Old Testament.
That’s all fine and good until you get to reading the second half of verse 13:
“When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.”
It wasn’t the season for figs! That is, the tree was behaving as God had created it through evolutionary processes!
What are we supposed to take from this?
Well, for one, the Bible can sometimes seem weird, but when it’s weird, there mostly is a disconnect between how moderns think and how the ancients thought. Every source I can find on this text states that it hearkens back to a passage in the Prophet Micah:
Micah 7:1: "Alas...there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave."
The “early fig” refers to the case that, sometimes, fig trees will produce a special crop of figs.
Jesus went to the tree, there was no special crop.
So, that means that God’s people should realize that we always have the capacity to produce God’s fruits, somehow. In some fashion. Even when it seems inconvenient or difficult to do so.
Might I produce fruit for you, O God, at all times. Amen.
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