Trees (Mark 11:12-22)

Their eyes were now opened and they saw not only good but evil. They were overwhelmed by their shame and sought a way to cover their guilt. They had eaten the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their shameful nakedness was exposed, so they looked for help from a different tree. They chose a fig tree not for its fruit but for it’s leaf. They stripped the tree of leaves and, with a skill born from necessity, they sewed the leaves together. But when they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, they knew that they needed more than leaves to conceal their guilt. So they hid themselves from Him among the trees.

As Jesus was approaching Jerusalem during Passover Week He saw in the distance a fig tree covered with leaves. But the value of a fig tree for a hungry man is not its leaves but in its fruit, and this fig tree had no fruit; only leaves. Just as the effort of the guilty pair could not be covered by the sewn leaves of the fig tree, a fig tree full of leaves but no fruit could not satisfy the hunger that Jesus had. Jesus spoke to the fig tree and said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” Early the next day they found the tree withered from the roots up.

Adam and Eve had sought to cover their guilt by their own efforts, and in a similar way the celebration of Passover had become that for the Jews. The Passover had become a ritual. Jeremiah the prophet had warned about treating sin superficially. He had spoken of how God’s people had covered their shame and were no longer humiliated by their rebellion against God. The consequence was there would be “no figs on the fig tree, and even the leaf will wither” (Jeremiah 8:13). As Jesus approached Jerusalem the prophecy concerning the fig tree was fulfilled.

Adam and Eve hid from God among the trees after their rebellion. They had tried to hide their shame with fig leaves but, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). “The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them” (Genesis 3:21), and so something had to die to clothe their guilt. The feast of the Passover was a memorial of when God set His people free from the bondage of Egypt by the blood of a lamb.

When Jesus began His ministry John the Baptist had cried out in a loud voice, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” Jesus had said that if He were lifted up He would draw all men to Himself. How was He lifted up? It was on a tree. What began in the garden that caused Adam and Eve to hide among the trees was ended when Jesus hung naked upon the tree, taking on all our sin and shame. No fig tree could accomplish what the tree of Calvary accomplished. On that tree the true knowledge of the goodness of God and the price of evil was fully known!

*There will be a tree whose leaves will be for the healing of the nations. It’s not the fig tree it’s the “The Tree of Life” (Revelation 22:2)!