Source/Author: Dr Michael Dalseno

Mark's Gospel does something very special with this passage of scripture on the Fig Tree and the Temple.

Prayer and Fruitfulness: Inextricably Linked                                      Dr D

Text reading:  Mark 11.12-26

The main emphasis in this narrative section of Mark’s Gospel is the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. However the way he focusses on the Temple, and what is going on there, is most interesting.

In this narrative Mark interweaves the story of the Fig Tree and the story of the Temple, concluding with a sturdy exhortation on the necessity of believing faith. It all sounds quite simple and sectioned at this point, and indeed Matthew Ch. 21 does it this way, until one has a closer look at how Mark broke up the narrative.

Mark’s narrative starts out with the story of the Fig Tree. Jesus goes to the fruit tree looking for something to eat, there is nothing on it, and Jesus subsequently curses the tree; “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” (Mk.11.14). Next we are introduced to the story in the Temple, where Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and traders declaring, “My House shall be called a house of Prayer for all the nations,” but they had instead turned it into “a robbers den” (11.17). Then we are switched back to the Fig Tree again when Peter observes, the following day, that the tree was “withered from the roots up” (11.10).

What is going on here? After all, it’s not even “the season for figs” (11.13). Why curse the tree when there is not supposed to be any fruit on it anyway? It’s not, as some scurrilous writers have suggested over the years, that Jesus is having an anger problem, similar to His reaction to the traders in the Temple. Not at all. Mark has a special purpose in ‘sandwiching’ (this is one of Mark’s many ‘sandwiches’) the Temple story in between the Fig Tree story.

The Fig Tree is ‘an interpretative guide’ to explain what is going on in the Temple. It is ‘a symbolic act’ or ‘an acted out parable,’ according to scholars, to illustrate that there is no fruit in Israel because the House of Prayer is in tatters; a “den of robbers/thieves.” The narrative thereby aptly pictures the barren Fig tree as Israel, who will reap judgment on itself and ultimately be devoid of all spiritual life and fruitfulness.

We can learn a number of things from the narrative; the most telling lesson probably being that ‘prayer is inextricably linked to fruitfulness.’ It’s a timely lesson, and reminder, for us all that corporate prayer in the Church is absolutely crucial. It is not an option to be ‘traded off’ in the pursuit of other priorities and interests. There is a place for individual prayer, of course, but nevertheless the Church, as our ‘House of Prayer,’ must never be compromised. If we do neglect it, it is only a matter of time before spiritual and practical fruitfulness inevitably begins to fade and fail.  Blessings Dr D