“On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.  And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it“

Jesus is hungry. He sees leafy fig tree. He goes up and finds no fruit on it. When he doesn’t, he curses it.

Why???

Especially when it says “it was not the season for figs.”

If we look at the timing, it was right at the week of Passover. The trees were just starting to get their leaves on them. This was around April, right in early spring.

When a fig tree is first starting to leaf out and bear fruit, it will first have what is called “taksh” which is immature figs. The taksh is edible (is still eaten today) and is indicative that the tree is able to produce fruit. It is not the season for the mature figs but the taksh is part of its fruitfulness.

When Jesus approached the true hungry, he was likely expecting to find taksh. It wasn’t there. And this was a sign that this true was not going to bear fruit.

There was more to it than just not getting something to eat when he was hungry. He was actually making a point about Israel.

There are multiple layers of context here. And they shed light on what he was doing.

The most immediate context is the triumphal entry. He was coming to Jerusalem as a king. But as he acknowledged and his disciples discussed, the religious leaders of Israel were going to kill him. They would have been the first to accept him and welcome him. They had the Scriptures. But their hearts were hard.

At times he was angry about this (Matthew 23). At other he was times brokenhearted that the leaders were such hypocrites (Matthew 23:37).

Then right after the cursing of the fig tree Jesus would clear the temple. Angry again that the religious leaders had made a business out of worship and prayer. It very profitable for them.

But there’s a broader context here.

The fig tree has always been a symbol of Israel and their relationship with the Lord (Jer 8:13; Hosea 9:10). Just as today the olive branch is a symbol of peace, so for Israel the symbol of the fig tree has represented their fruitfulness or lack thereof.

Jesus was making a point. The leaders of Israel looked like they were fruitful. They were leafy and had branches. But there was no fruit. They had nothing to feed the people. They were hypocrites and profiteers, profiting off of worship and prayer. No wonder Jesus was angry.