Mark 11:12-14 - May no one ever eat fruit from you again!

11:12,13

We are now on the Monday of Easter week. The normal cycle for a fig was that it produced leaves in March and April, but did not produce fruit until June. “Nothing but leaves”. While it was not time for the fruit to be eaten yet, if a tree was going to produce fruit there would be green early figs, which would ripen over the next couple of months or so. This tree had none, indicating that it was not going to produce any fruit at all.

11:14

Jesus was using the fig tree as a parable, an illustration of what was going to happen to Israel. So how do we take this? Does it mean, as some take it, that Israel no longer has any special place in God’s plans? One could cite Jesus’ words here, and then point to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 66-70 as grounds for believing this. However, one then has to point to Romans 9-11, and in Acts 1:6,7 Jesus seems to imply that a time will come when the kingdom will be restored to Israel. Moreover, if one looks at the whole of the Old Testament it is not just the number of promises about Israel that render such a conclusion problematic at best, it is the whole tenor of Scripture. The Bible is both brutally honest about the sinfulness of Israel, and absolutely persistent in saying that one Israel will truly turn to God and be restored. To say that all the promises to Israel have just been transferred to the church seems to be a misreading of Scripture. Finally, history and current events would seem to be consistent with Israel still having a special part in God’s plan. I look forward to the day when Israel as a whole recognises who Jesus is , and recognises her desperate need of Jesus.