The Fig Tree - Great Profession without Reality

I have just finished listening to a sermon on Matthew 21:18,19 about the Barren Fig Tree. I thought it would be appropriate to share what I have learnt.

Matthew 21: 19 - And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it, and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever by any fruit from you,” And at once the fig tree withered.

Well, there is something I learnt about fig trees. Fig trees are deciduous, meaning they shed their leaves during the winter season. During summer, however, the tree would be in full foliage. Along with the luxuriant appearance of leaves, there would be figs on the tree.

However, this was one special fig tree that Jesus came across. The tree was in foliage, but strangely there was no fruit. Guess what? Jesus cursed the tree and it withered and died.

This has a great deal of application for us. Many times, we are like this fig tree. This fig tree was a pretensious fig tree, donning the appearance as if it bore much fruit, but in reality, there wasn’t a single fruit on it. Similarly, we often don the appearance of being religious by participating in a lot of religious activities, but our lives, in reality, are not pleasing to Christ.

There was once a well-known bible teacher was asked to go out and play the piano for a swedish church. Not knowing what he was in for, he agreed to go. The church members were sweds, carrying out their service in swedish. He sat at the piano and heard them sing the songs that he was playing, but didn’t understand a word they were singing. Then, the announcements were made in swedish too and he didn’t understand anything about them. The sermon came and it was in swedish and he didn’t understand anything about that either. As he was going home, he reflected upon the fact that this was much like life.

There are people who go through life, but do not really understand what is happening. They are like people who read a book and read only the words and don’t understand what is being said.

He said that this are true of us spiritually as well. We are attending church, reading the word of God, hearing the word of God, but we don’t understand anything about God. We are like him who sits in the swedish church, not knowing anything that is going on, hearing everything, seeing others singing, seeing others understanding things, but we don’t grasp it at all. We can put on a facade that makes people think that we really are getting it when we are really not.

Are we like this barren fig tree, having a luxuriant appearance of leaves but without any fruit? When in front of others, are we pretending to be holy, but in reality, our lives bear no likeness to Christ? When we attend church, are we merely following the flow, but actually we do not know the purpose of attending? When we pray aloud in a group, are we ‘beautifying’ our prayer to please others, or are we praying sincerely to God? When we serve in church, are we trying to show others that we are good christians, or are we serving God genuinely? Do we go around telling people how much we read our bible or how much we pray or how much we love God, when in reality, we do not do these things?

In many things that we do, it is very easy to be hypocritical, to have great profession but without the reality of it. There is a need to examine our actions and our motives behind our actions very carefully. We need to ask God for the inward reality of our profession.