Why does Jesus curse the fig tree while He is on His way to Jerusalem?
St. Ephrem the Syrian makes a fascinating observation: In the Garden of Eden, there are four trees that are directly alluded to: (1) Tree of Life (2) Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (3) Fig Tree (4) Thorn Bush (outside the garden). Each of these trees comes up prominently in the imagery of a new Garden of Eden present in the account of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Prior to tasting the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve only experienced good. Once they ate the fruit, they experienced the evil of their own disobedience, making the good fragile — it became something that they were now capable of destroying by their free will. God denied them the chance to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, knowing that everlasting life in a fragile state of sinfulness would be much worse than His plan for their redemption.
The cross is both the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. It gives us knowledge of the ugliness of sin — that the immediate and direct effect of every sin I commit was felt by Jesus on the cross. Yet the Tree of Knowledge becomes the Tree of Life: We now consume the fruit of the tree every time we receive Jesus, truly alive, in the Eucharist. These two trees proclaim the profound truth of salvation — agape love can transform every evil into a greater good!
The thorn bush represents the inhospitality and danger of the world to human life, which Jesus fully experiences as He wears the crown of thorns. The assault of the world on holiness is converted into the glorious crown of our redemption.
Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame before God. The leafy fig tree (with no fruit) symbolizes prideful self-reliance closed off to God’s gift of mercy. The other three trees – knowledge, life and thorns – can be brought into the mystery of redemption. Jesus curses the fruitless fig tree, because there is no place for prideful self-reliance in the kingdom of God.
Every time we approach the sacraments, we approach the mystery of the cross and resurrection. In the Mass, we encounter the three redeemed trees — we carry the hardships of the world into the new Eden, in which evil is reversed, and we taste the life of God Himself! But we must first let Jesus destroy the fig tree of our prideful self-reliance in reconciliation. Only then are we fully prepared to enter the heavenly banquet of the redeemed!
Father Charlie Archer is associate pastor of St. Peter Parish in Kirkwood.
