Fruitfulness

I’ve been thinking a lot about The Fruits of The Spirit lately. To be more specific, I have been thinking about fruit in relation to the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree in Matthew 21. For anyone not familiar, Jesus is hungry and goes up to a fig tree looking for figs and when he sees that it does not have any figs, he curses it and says it will NEVER bear fruit again.

This entry gets a very cursory pass in most sermons because of two things, in my opinion. One, it occurs shortly after Jesus cleanses the temple. That gets a lot of attention because Jesus is flipping tables and driving out the moneychangers and other cheaters and scammers with a whip. That is a big deal and gives a different side to him that we don’t really see in scripture. The second reason the fig tree incident gets little coverage is that it seems kind of confusing. Why did he curse a tree? What did the tree do to deserve to be cursed? It is uncomfortable to have something occur in the bible that bears mentioning, but seemingly with no context. However, we do have context. We have the cleansing of the temple that occurred beforehand. The sequence of events gives us a hint at what Jesus was conveying.

But, back to the tree for a minute. If Jesus approached the tree because it looked fruitful. In verse 18 it tells us that it was leafy. It wasn’t dead and it was in season. The tree had one job.

Sometimes when I read this, I feel bad for the tree. Just out there treeing around. Minding it’s own business and it gets cursed. If we look at this story literally, it feels out of place and maybe unnecessary. But if we look at the concept of being fruitful to nourish the people around us, it makes a little more sense.

On a personal note, my husband and I have prayed for physical fruitfulness. We want kids in any way that God wants to give them to us. I pour my heart out to God over it. I cry. I yell. I plead. I do research and read articles. I pray daily for this desire to come to pass. (I do believe it will!) However, after reading about the fig tree I began to think about my spiritual fruitfulness. Do I pray fervently about that? Do I cry when I find an area where I am lacking? Do I read my bible and research what it means to be a nourishment to the people around me? Short answer, no.

So, what is spiritual fruitfulness? The Bible gives us The Fruits of The Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. They are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”. These are the attributes I should have available to people around me at any given time. That if someone is lacking in joy, they can come to me and get a little joy. Or kindness. Or goodness. Or whatever they hunger after.

I gotta say. We Christians have not been fruity trees for a while. We eschew self-control when we behave poorly and then point out that “those guys over there get away with it all the time!” Are we displaying kindness and goodness when broken and overwhelmed people come to us and we call them snowflakes or laugh at their brokenness? Am I showing peaceful fruit when all I want is to argue my rightness? No. We think when we do these things, we are table flipping Jesus. But what we are doing is chancing an encounter with Jesus who is searching for fruit and is unable to find any.

Guys, I don’t want to be the tree that beckons Jesus with lush leaves but with no fruit upon closer inspection. He took it seriously and we should too.