The tree stood alone by the road, amid the arid backdrop of the city. By the look of it, the bark and the shape of the leaves, one can detect which kind of fruit it would bear. This one is a fig tree. It bears fruit three different times of the year; June, August and December. Sometimes the latter figs hang on the tree until spring..
This tree was unusual, as it had produced leaves early, but no fruit. The symbolic message found in the passage of the Bible in Matthew that I find most applicable for today, is that of the sinister nature of being fooled by appearances. That outwardly we may portray characteristics and attributes that might classify us as Christians, but when the Lord approaches the tree to partake of it’s fruit, there is none. And He curses that tree.
While the disciples marveled more at the miracle and Jesus responds to his disciples about the kind of faith that can move mountains, another message shouts out loudly to the generations, “You will know them by their fruits.” In Matthew. 7:13- 23 Jesus contrasts the ways and the fruit. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.” In a generation that calls evil good and good evil, we can become as the frog simmering in a pot of water, who adapts to it’s surroundings to the point where he cannot detect he is in danger of being destroyed. The natural alarm of the conscience that triggers us to flee approaching danger, is seared. At what price did we buy the illusion of our false security? What arguments did we make when taking our positions? What justifications are hanging upon our branches? When He approaches us, what does He find there?
While it is good for us to examine ourselves honestly. We who have a relationship with the Lord can rest in the assurance that our faith in Him has saved us.
But what a gradual and subtle deception will claim the lives of many, when there are no voices declaring Him, or living out the truth of what they believe. The faith that can move mountains. Do we believe?
