Mark 11:12 Commentary and Bible Study

It is Monday, the day after the triumphal entry. This is the divine Son of God. He knows what he is doing. He sees the fig tree some distance away and goes to it, and the disciples follow; they are possibly hungry too, and they are all wondering. And he makes as if to examine it for fruit, knowing perfectly well that there will be no fruit. Mark’s Gospel tells us that it wasn't the time for fruit; the leaves come first on the fig, and the fruit comes later. But there, in that location, small fruits came with the leaves, and no doubt that was what the Saviour was looking for. It wasn't the time for the large fruits. But he knew it wouldn’t have any fruit at all. ‘When it came to it, he found nothing but leaves.’ That's going to be very significant. For the time of figs, the full bearing yielding wasn't yet, but there should have been small ones. This tree however was going to be fruitless both ways. What did it mean? The Lord condemned it: ‘You will not bear fruit ever’, and Matthew tells us, the tree promptly began to wither. By the next day it was completely shrivelled and dead, but it began straightaway to lose its colour and its rigidity and die. Well of course, as he taught, so we wrought, and the other way round. He is going to cast out the moneychangers and the cattle from the temple. He is going to denounce the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees. He is going to bring to an end the Jewish order. He will fulfil the ancient prophecies and suffer and die on Calvary. The age of special Jewish privilege will come to a close, and after that will be the international church of Jesus Christ the Lord – Jews and Gentiles together, saved by the blood of Christ, all elect Jews, all elect Gentiles among the redeemed who will be saved. He is going to change everything, and this fig tree is a picture of that. Only leaves! What bustling activity there was in the temple. An uninformed visitor may come and say, ‘There’s life here. It is full of life. Look at everything that's going on: the sacrifices, the ritual, the ceremonies, the crowds coming. This headquarters, this focal point of Judaism is thriving.’ But it was all leaves and no fruit. No godliness, no recognition of the Saviour, no receiving of their Messiah; they would shout for his crucifixion.