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Preached on 07-11-99

THE BARREN FIG TREE

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"Now the next day, when they had come from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. And when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, 'Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.' And His disciples heard it." (Mark 11:12-14)

DURING THE LAST WEEK of His ministry, the Lord and His disciples had left Jerusalem, and had retired for the night to Bethany, a small village a couple of miles outside the city. The next day they returned to Jerusalem. Just after leaving Bethany, though, the Lord saw a fig tree. He was hungry, and so He walked over to the tree to see if there were any figs to eat. But though the tree had leaves, there was no fruit on it at all. In response, the Lord cursed the fig tree. "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again." The next day, when once again they passed by the fig tree, it had withered away. In another Gospel, in Matthew, the effect of the Lord's words on the tree is described with even greater drama. It is said that "immediately the fig tree withered away" (Matt. 21:19). As soon as the Lord had cursed the tree, it withered away right before the disciples' eyes (Matt. 21:20).

It seems a strange incident. It sounds as if the Lord was indignant at the tree because He had found nothing to eat (AE 386:29, 403:21), and so had used His power to destroy it. It might seem as if the Lord was allowing Himself to be angry at a tree. And yet this obviously could not be the case: there had to be another reason, a deeper reason, for the Lord's actions.

We are told in the Gospel that the Lord went over to the fig tree because He was hungry. The Lord may well have been hungry for physical food at the time. But the real hunger the Lord was experiencing was far deeper than a need for natural food. The love that was in the Lord, the love that was the Lord's very soul and His very life, was hungering. We are told that "from His Divine love He willed and desired the salvation of the human race" (AE 386:28). He wanted to save people. He wanted to draw them close to Himself. This is what He hungered for. And this is why He went over to the fig tree.

The fig tree was a symbol. Time and time again throughout the Scriptures, the fig tree is used as a symbol of the Lord's church here on earth. Specifically it represents "the church in relation to natural good" (AE 386:29). To the Lord, the church was of the greatest importance. In the church His Word was present with people here on earth. Amongst the people of His church, the Word could be received, and be understood, and could be lived. And through the Word, and by means of His Church, all people, both those inside and those outside the Church, were able to receive something of spiritual light, and so could be saved.

This is why the Lord cared, cared deeply, about His church. And yet His church was dying. At that time, the Lord's Church was the Jewish Church. And the fig tree that the Lord went over to, represented this church. We are told that the people of that church knew "some truths from the sense of the letter of the Word" (AE 386:29). This is why the tree had leaves on it: leaves stand for truths, and those of the Jewish church knew some truths. But they were also "in dense falsities and evil loves" (ibid.). They had no real conception of spiritual truth. And many of them, especially those amongst their leaders, loved what was evil. The corruption was so deep, and so widespread, that we are told there was not even any natural good left in that church (AC 4314:4, AE 386:29, AE 403:4). This is why the tree had no figs on it.

By that time of year, in Jerusalem, most fig trees would have developed a large number of immature figs -- small, but already edible. Many of these tiny figs would fall off before fully ripening, but some would be left. The tree the Lord approached, though, did not have any fruit at all. It was completely barren. It was a picture -- a symbol -- of the complete failure of the Jewish Church at that time to lead its people towards what was good.

The Lord's curse upon the fig tree was not made from anger. It was done with sadness and from love. He hungered for people's salvation, but the church was not providing for the genuine spiritual welfare of its people. The leaders were, in general, interested only in their own prestige and their own profit. Indeed, we read in Mark that after He cursed the fig tree, then, as soon as He entered the city, He went into the temple and overturned the tables of the money-changers, telling them that from a house of prayer they had turned the temple into a den of thieves (Mk. 11:15-17).

The Lord was zealous: zealous for His church, and zealous for the people whom the church was failing to serve. And part of the Lord's mission on earth, part of His work of redemption, was the establishment of another church -- the Christian Church -- a church which would in time reach out not only to Jews, but to Gentiles as well -- a church which would, at least to begin with, teach people the truth and lead them towards what was genuinely good.

But this church had not yet been established. It had not yet begun (AE 386:29). And this is what is meant when it is said in our text, that the Lord found no fruit on the tree because "it was not the season for figs." There was not quite yet a church which would lead people towards natural good.

Natural good, which is represented by figs, is of fundamental importance. The Jewish Church was vastated -- it withered away -- because no natural good remained. Without natural good, a church is no longer really a church. When there is not even natural good, the church no longer provides a pathway to heaven.

Now it is important to understand what is meant here by natural good, because the term is used in a number of different ways in the Writings. Sometimes it refers to the good into which a person is born -- the good which is present in the natural degree from birth (AC 3469:3). Here though, the term "natural good" is used to refer to that good which descends into the natural from the spiritual (AC 3408). It is sometimes referred to as "spiritual-natural good."(AE 403:21; other terms used are "spiritual good in natural," AC 3408, and "natural good from spiritual," AC 403:16). And spiritual-natural good, which a church must produce, is very different from the merely natural good into which many people are born.

It often happens that some children inherit from their parents a tendency to appear gentle and kind. They might inherit a natural, likeable charm. Sometimes, when the parents are genuinely good, the children indeed inherit a tendency to receive what is genuinely good (AC 3469:3). But it often happens that within inherited natural good there lies hidden a great deal of selfishness, a great deal of pride, conceit, contempt, and so on (Cf. AC 3408). Underneath their kind exterior, people in inherited natural good may well have inherited also a tendency to be extremely manipulative, extremely vengeful, or even extremely adulterous (AC 3469:4).

This is certainly not the kind of good the Lord was looking for in His church. There was no shortage of such hypocritical good amongst the Pharisees at that time. On the surface, many of them appeared good men. But such a pretense of good was merely natural. It was not spiritual-natural good.

There is a condemnation of merely natural hypocritical good in the Book of Jeremiah. In our first lesson we read about two baskets of figs. "One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad" (Jer. 24:2). Those bad figs represented natural good which really isn't good at all. The good figs, though, represented natural good which has something genuinely spiritual within.

If the Lord's church is to survive, if it is to be established within the hearts and minds of individual men and women, then it must bear good fruit within them. It must bear fruit in their lives. What is spiritual must descend into the natural, and cause a person to do what is genuinely good on the natural plane of everyday worldly life. The Arcana refers to this as "real natural human good" (AC 3408).

And such genuine natural human good is called good for two different reasons. When we do what is good in our everyday lives, then what we do is good, is of service, to others. But it is also good for us as well. Genuine natural good is not only good for others, but is also delightful and pleasurable to the person who does it. As we read in the Arcana, "natural good is all the delight and pleasure that come from having as an end the being of service to what is spiritual, thus to the neighbor, still more to the public welfare, and still more to the Lord's kingdom, and above all to the Lord" (AC 3167:2).

A hypocrite can be of service to others. Externally he can appear extremely good. And he can accomplish many things that are of use to others. But because he does all this for selfish reasons, the good that he does is not delightful for him. He does not and cannot take delight simply in being of service.

But a good person does take delight in the doing of what is good. He even feels this good, this delight, in his very body. "The good of the natural," we read, "is the delight which is perceived from charity, or from the friendship which is of charity; from which delight there comes forth a pleasure which is properly of the body" (AC 2184e). He knows that by being of service to others, he is, in the final analysis, serving the Lord Himself. And there is a delight in this which can actually be felt. When a person does what he knows is right, then this is something, you might say, that he feels in his very bones, that he feels in his heart, that he feels in all his actions. It feels good to do what is right. It feels good to live according to spiritual principles, according to the truths of the Lord's Word (cf. AC 4231:1).

And this is why natural good is represented by the fig. A fig is sweet (cf. Jud. 9:11), a sweetness which represents the delight, the sweetness, of natural good. "Everything sweet in the natural world," we read, "corresponds to what is delightful and pleasant in the spiritual world" (AC 5620:1). And it was important, if the Lord's church was to be re-established upon earth, that people be given to experience once again the delight, the sweetness, of spiritual-natural good.

When the multitudes gathered around the Lord to listen to His teachings, not everybody enjoyed what He had to say. Many of the leaders of the Jewish Church came to despise the Lord for the way in which He so openly condemned their hypocrisy. But for most people, the Lord's teachings were a source of wonder and delight. They enjoyed listening to the Lord. And time and time again, the Lord told them not just to listen to Him, but to do what He said -- to bear fruit -- for until a person actually bears fruit, the Lord's church cannot be established within him (AC 4231:1). It is not enough just to know the truth, represented by bearing leaves: the truth must also be lived in a life of good. It is said in the Arcana that "good is man's chief thing, even as the fruit is the chief thing of a tree" (AC 9337:1). And so the Lord told them to do what He taught them. He wanted them to experience the delight of spiritual-natural good, of living according to what the truth teaches.

Now to begin with, the Lord's followers received His teachings in a very simple way. Their understanding was, for the most part, external and natural. But still, within the Lord's teachings there was spiritual truth. And by receiving these teachings in simplicity, and by living according to what they received, they experienced delight -- the delight of living according to the truth of the Word (cf. AC 5620:13).

Now we all know that to live according to the truth is easier said than done. We all know that to enter fully into a life of good requires that we fight against evils within ourselves. As our understanding of the truth develops, and as we seek to apply the truth to ourselves, we will inevitably end up doing battle with ourselves. We will undergo states of temptations, states that are far from pleasant.

But still, the path to heaven is not as hard as we might imagine. Natural good can sustain us. There is a sweetness, a satisfaction, to be found in doing what we know to be true. We may have to fight within ourselves against selfishness, conceit, anger, lust -- all kinds of hidden evils. We have to face the hells within ourselves. But in our struggles we can be strengthened and nourished by the delight of natural good. It is one of the ways the Lord sustains us.

We may have far to go along the road to heaven. We may have many struggles ahead of us. But even now we can have a taste of the sweetness of heaven. When we do what we know to be right, and when we serve the Lord by being of use to our fellow human beings, then we can experience pleasure. It feels good to do what is right. It can remind us that good is something that is meant to be enjoyed.

There are other fruits mentioned in the Word besides the fig. Olives and grapes, in particular, signify celestial and spiritual good, good that is deeper and more interior than the external good represented by figs (AE 638:3). But when the Lord made His last visit to Jerusalem, it was a fig tree which He approached. The Lord hungered for our salvation, and our salvation depends upon the doing of spiritual-natural good. We may, eventually, be introduced into the deeper goods of heaven itself. But this can only happen if we are spiritually fruitful in our natural lives. We have to take what spiritual truth we know from the Word, and live according to it in our everyday lives.

Though this may be difficult at times, and though there may be times when we would prefer to act otherwise, there is, nevertheless a delight and a sweetness to be found in simply doing what we know to be right, in simply doing what the Lord tells us to do.

It feels good to obey the Lord.

Amen.

Lessons: Jer. 24; Mk. 11:11-21; AC 9337