And on the morrow, when they were gone out of Bethany, he hungered.
Jesus had entered Jerusalem the day before and looked round the temple. He spent the night at Bethany and set out again in the morning. His hunger on that road raises two questions: what does it mean that the Lord of glory felt hunger, and what was He looking for?
Where He spent the night says something about how Jerusalem had received Him.
Bethany was His retreat at this time. Rejected, and therefore a stranger here, He finds His place in the family of faith that loved Him while the world was hostile. And He does come back, from the village to the city, from Bethany to Jerusalem. But this time it is not to renew and continue His service of love and power, as it had been up to now. It is to expose and convict Israel, and leave them under condemnation.
Only Mark records this sequence of days.
He alone has told us what the Lord did after entering Jerusalem in this way. He went into the temple, withdrew to Bethany for the night, and did not cleanse the temple until the following day (Mark 11:12, 15). Mark's character as a historian who pays attention to details comes out here very clearly.
One writer stops at this phrase and asks who it was who went hungry.
The Lord had been rejected at Jerusalem the day before, and had looked for lodging in Bethany. The following morning He set out to pay another visit to the doomed city. The journey was short, yet He grew hungry on the way — a touching hint that He had taken no food, no morning meal. A fig would have refreshed Him, but there was none. Think of this, and think of who and what He was!
This was not the only time He felt such need.
He Himself, the Son of David, knew hunger outside the gates of royal Zion (Mark 11:12), and in the wilderness too (Matt. 4:2). At Sychar He knew weariness and thirst as well (John 4:6-7).
His need was real, and the timing was no accident. He looked for what an owner may expect from his own planting.
The Lord returned to Bethany. The next day, going out from Bethany, He was hungry. The Lord was truly subject to all our infirmities — He took them — but even so, all of this was arranged. So the Lord looks for food in what He has created and planted. He did not create it to give Himself no delight, nor plant it to find no food or fruit in it.
The hunger had a second side. His soul was seeking something too.
A fig tree stands before Him by the roadside, and He comes to it to satisfy His hunger, but finds no fruit. Mark tells us it was not yet the season for figs. But the leaves on this tree promised fruit, just as Israel stood alone among the nations in professing loyalty to the one true God. Fruit could therefore be expected from her, if from nowhere else; and He, with the hunger of His soul unsatisfied, had been seeking it.
The time of year is what makes the empty branches so telling.
If it had been fig season, someone might already have gathered the fruit. But it was not, so fruit ought to have been there, unless the tree was barren. So the tree was a picture of the Jew — fruitless toward God, however much life he seemed to show before men. The tree had leaves, but no fruit.
The sentence on the tree carries further than the tree.
The sentence the Lord pronounced on the fig tree is God's lasting sentence on Israel, and on man in the flesh, who can produce nothing acceptable to God. Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nothing can improve him out of his own sinful state. Happy is the person who bows to this truth. He gives up trying to establish a human righteousness, and submits himself to the righteousness of God.
The sentence was not God's last word about the nation.
As they stood under the old covenant, they were hopelessly condemned, and that covenant was not the time of fruit. When grace receives them under the new, Israel shall blossom, and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
- Housed at Bethany — Rejected in the city, He lodged with the family of faith that loved Him. He came back not to serve but to convict.
- Hungry — The Son of David felt real hunger outside Zion's gates, with no morning meal. His need was true, and the moment was arranged.
- Hungry for fruit — He looks for food in what He Himself planted, and He did not plant it to find nothing.
- Hollow leaves — Harvest had not come, so fruit should have been there. Leaves without figs picture life before men and none toward God.
- Hope elsewhere — Man in the flesh cannot grow into fruitfulness. He must be born again and take God's righteousness instead of his own.
And seeing from afar off a fig-tree which had leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find something on it. And having come up to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the time of figs.
On the road from Bethany into Jerusalem, the Lord sees a fig tree in full leaf and goes over to it. He finds only leaves. The note that it was not the season for figs raises a hard question: did the tree, and the nation it pictured, get a fair test?
A fig tree covered in leaves was making a claim about itself, and the Lord tested that claim:
The fig tree is the emblem of the Jewish nation. He came looking for fruit and found none. "The fig tree was punished not for having no fruit, but for announcing through its leaves that it had fruit. It was punished not for being barren, but for being false. This was the guilt of Israel, so much deeper than the guilt of the nations."
The clause sounds at first like an excuse for the tree. Read another way, it condemns the tree: nobody had gathered the crop yet, so an empty tree was a barren tree:
In fig season the fruit might have already been picked. But this was not fig season, so fruit ought to have been on the tree — unless it was barren.
Commentators differ on the force of that clause. One reads it as a sign that the real crop was always meant to come later:
Many have shown that some of the old crop might still have remained, since the fig tree bears twice. But Israel was not to bear fruit under the old covenant. All the prophets bear witness to the same thing. Israel will blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit, when grace brings the nation back under the new covenant and the Messiah. The Lord had a right to seek fruit as they were; but it was not the time.
The Lord left Bethany that morning with nothing to eat. His hunger had a second layer:
On the next day, returning to the city with His disciples, we read of the King that "He was hungry." He sought fruit on a fig tree, but found "nothing but leaves." May we not say that with the Lord it was not only a physical hunger? It was also a spiritual hunger, seeking some return from Israel for all the centuries of goodness God had given the nation. Something that would be fruit to satisfy the heart of God. In the tree the Lord found plenty of leaves but no fruit. In the nation He found a great show of piety before men, but nothing in the secret life that would be fruit for God.
Fig leaves appear at the start of the Bible too. The first covering people made for themselves was made of them:
Man's love of patchwork showed itself very early. As soon as sin entered the world, Adam and his wife tried in vain to hide their nakedness from the eyes of their Creator. "They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths" (Gen. 3:7). … This is the first mention of the fig leaf in the Bible; afterwards it becomes a symbol of man's so-called good works, the outward profession of religion (compare Mark 11:13, Luke 13:6-9).
The sentence on that tree reaches past one nation. It settles what human nature can produce without new life:
The sentence the Lord pronounced on the fig tree is the lasting sentence of God on Israel, on man in the flesh, who can produce nothing acceptable to God. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot be improved out of his own sinnership. He cannot be developed into what he is not. He must be born completely anew. Happy is the person who bows to this truth. He stops trying to build a human righteousness and submits himself to the righteousness of God.
The curse fell on that one tree for ever, but the Lord's search for fruit does not end in disappointment:
He hungered. There were no figs on the barren fig tree, no response from Israel for the heart of Christ. He hungered. His hunger will be satisfied. The actual fig tree the Lord cursed may bear no fruit for ever, yet the fig tree of Israel will bear fruit, even if God has to prune it for two thousand years.
- Hunger. The Lord left Bethany hungry, and that hunger pictures a deeper one — a longing for some return from a nation God had been good to for centuries.
- Leaves. A tree in full leaf was advertising a crop it did not have. The sin punished was falseness, not barrenness.
- Season. Nobody had gathered the crop yet, so an empty tree proved itself barren. Other writers read the clause as pointing to a crop Israel would bear later, under grace.
- Sentence. What fell on the tree fell on religious profession itself: no one can be improved out of his sinful state — he must be born anew.
- Harvest. The one tree withered for ever, yet the Lord's hunger will be satisfied; Israel will bear fruit, however long the pruning takes.
And answering he said to it, Let no one eat fruit of thee any more for ever. And his disciples heard [it].
On the road between His entry into Jerusalem and His cleansing of the temple, Jesus stops at a leafy fig tree and finds nothing on it. He speaks a sentence over the tree while His disciples are listening. The words sound harsh for a tree. That is the clue: the tree is not the real subject.
Commentators see two hungers meeting at that tree.
On the next day, returning to the city with His disciples, we read of the King that "He was hungry." He sought fruit on a fig tree, but found "nothing but leaves." May we not say that with the Lord this was not only a physical hunger? It was also a spiritual hunger. It sought some return from Israel for all the centuries of goodness God had given the nation. Something that would be fruit to satisfy the heart of God.
Commentators read the tree as a picture of Israel, and of what a long history of God's care had produced.
He curses the tree, saying, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again"; and the fig tree withers at once. This is Israel according to the old covenant, man according to the flesh. This is man in the place where God has spent all His care and used every means. This is man for whom God could give up even His only Son, to get some good from his heart. All was in vain. He had spared the tree this year also, when the keeper of the vineyard asked Him to (Luke 13). He had dug around it and fertilised it, but it had produced no fruit. Plenty of leaves, but no fruit; a pretence of piety, religious forms, but man does not have the true fruit that God's heart seeks in His own.
The tree did not look bare. It looked promising. Commentators apply that same test far beyond Israel.
How solemn the result! Those who, whatever their religious profession before men, stop living rightly before God will be set aside as a testimony before men. So the Lord has to say, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." This is surely a principle of wide application. Later the Lord has to speak in the same way to the church at Ephesus. They made such a fair show of piety with their works, but their affections were not true to Himself: "You have abandoned the love you had at first." In the end the Lord warns them that He would remove their lampstand. Their heart was not right with Christ, so they would lose their testimony before men. This is a solemn reminder to us all. The real test of spirituality is not the outward profession of piety before men, but the secret life lived before Christ.
Mark tells the fig tree story in two halves, with the cleansing of the temple between them. One writer sees a single act there, not two errands.
Next follows the cursing of the fig tree (12-26), woven together with the cleansing of the temple. The two are one — two sides of the same act. He must cleanse His house, and to do this, fruitless profession must be withered up.
The words sound final. Commentators ask how far that finality reaches.
God formed them to bear His name before the world. They failed. He dealt with them as responsible and set them aside, as looked at under the old covenant. The word to the barren fig tree was, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." The tree might bear leaves, but the Lord came seeking fruit and found none. So the tree withered at once. So God set Israel aside — the vessel meant to carry His name to the world. But this did not touch the question of God's faithfulness. He will restore Israel in the last days.
Mark ends the verse by noting the audience. The withered tree next morning startles Peter — and the surprise itself is questioned.
But should this have surprised the apostle? Was there not power in the words of Jesus for even greater wonders than this? For the voice that cursed the fruitless fig tree was the same voice that ages before said, "Let there be light," and there was light (Gen. 1:3).
- Hunger. Christ came looking for fruit, and His hunger went deeper than the body's.
- Leaves. The tree promised fruit and had none: profession before men without life before God.
- Sentence. The word spoken over the tree is a word over the nation, after God had already spent every means of care on it.
- Cleansing. Withering the fruitless tree and cleansing His house are two sides of one act.
- Future. The sentence ends fruit-bearing under the old covenant, not God's faithfulness — He will restore Israel in the last days.