Why did he do that?

 

Matthew 21:18-22.  New Revised Standard Version

18 In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

I’ve never understood this one, at all.  I’ve preached it as Jesus having a bad hair day, or Jesus making it really clear that he is, indeed, fully human.  But I still have never understood this story.  When Mark tells the same story in Chapter 11, he says “Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.” And then he cursed it.   To me, this makes the story even more incomprehensible because, dang, it wasn’t even fig season but Jesus got mad enough to curse the tree.  Talk about being “hangry”! 

Sometimes Scripture doesn’t tell stories the way we would like them to be told, even stories about Jesus. We think of Jesus as having been perfect, completely without sin, and forget that one of the most important things about Jesus is that he was human - fully human.  Sometimes humans act in ways that are less than perfect, because to be human is to be prone to error, even when that human is Jesus.   When we ask ‘What would Jesus do?” this story is not at the top of our list of examples to follow.

But this story also makes Jesus easier for me to relate to than when I am thinking he is perfectly well behaved all the time.  If even Jesus acts out now and again, that makes the rest of the stories even more amazing, because here is a normal human who is able to put aside typical human self centeredness in order to follow the will of God as close to perfectly as a human can.  If Jesus, a man prone to error and the occasional unprovoked outburst, can be such a devoted follower of God, then his example may be difficult for me to follow, but not impossible.   

Holy God, Lord of all, we thank you for sending Jesus to us as a human, with quirks and foibles like the rest of us, who follows your will to the best of his ability. May we remember his humanity as we follow in his footsteps along the path you have set for us.  Amen.