Mark 11:12-14

Mark 11:12-14 And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. Jesus was staying in Bethany at the home of Lazarus and his two sisters while commuting to Jerusalem during Passover week. It took Christ and His disciples almost two hours to walk the seven miles, and they would have gotten pretty hungry on the way. When Jesus saw a fig tree up ahead, his mouth began to water as he thought of the prospects of fresh fruit. But the tree had no fruit on it. Jesus was still hungry and disappointed and mad. The fig tree looked promising, but was useless to Jesus because it had nothing but leaves on it – no fruit. So Jesus cursed the tree. Now Jesus didn’t use bad language – that wouldn’t be His style. But Jesus commanded that nothing should grow on that tree from that day forward. So the next day, the disciples were surprised to see the tree dead – from the roots up. The tree had obeyed Jesus and was dead. So what do we take away from this unusual story? What do you think? I think that we should be careful and not be useless to our Creator like the fig tree was. We should produce results for Jesus and not just take up space on the earth. Hey, let’s be useful for Jesus!