daily java

Daily Java:

The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it. … The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up. Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!” Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”  (Mark 11:13-14, 20-25)

There are things that Jesus did that are strange, and some of them make no sense. Sometimes he will even explain them to the apostles but they still make no sense.

Jesus and the apostles are walking along and he is hungry and goes to get some figs off a tree. The tree doesn’t have anything on it to eat, so Jesus curses it. The next day when they come back from where they were Peter sees the tree and comments, rather amazedly , that it is dead.

Jesus goes into this long explanation of faith in God and in prayer, something that has nothing to do with the tree or his actions.

What does it mean? I will confess that I do not know.

Is it a comment that if you believe you can do something enough, even to the point of destruction, you can accomplish anything.

Is it that Jesus was human, too, and got irritated when something didn’t go his way? The Bible doesn’t show this anywhere else, so I don’t think it fits here. Jesus was not that kind of person to fly off the anger handle like that.

But he does temper it a bit. He says that no matter how strong your faith may be, if you are holding a grudge against someone else, you need to take care of it so you can get forgiveness, too.

How this fits into the tree thing I don’t know and have never read anything that satisfies my curiosity.

It comes out in the end that Jesus is not some person you can put into a box and say, “This is what he will do every time.” You just plain old do not know what Jesus would have done and neither do I.

And you can accept him and believe the Bible even though you can’t nail down everything in it. The mighty written word of God is not something you can read off the back of a cereal box. It is deep and strong and comes from the mind of the Everlasting God.