Why does Jesus kill the fig tree?

[Jkuehn]

In Mark 11, Jesus is hungry and curses a fig tree that is not in season so it withers and never heard fruit again. Later he says that anything is possible if you ask for it and believe it has been done; but why would he demonstrate the power of prayer through destruction, the taking of a plant’s life?

 

[Maximilian75]

This is in the middle of the week of the Passion.

Jesus does this symbolically, hearkening back to the Garden of Eden.

By killing the tree and making it unable to bear fruit, he metaphorically takes the temptation of sin from our lives.

 

[jcrichton]

Hi!

Here’s what I can get from this passage…

Jesus is about to encounter a mess of things at the Temple’s courts… people have made a holy place into a place of business and, as Jesus emphasizes, a den of thieves… animals are brought in and housed; sold for profit… and I suspect that some of the vendors would take advantage of both the wealthy (over charge for the best animals) and the poor (over charge for even the worst animals) and, as a custom, cheat the unsuspecting travelers–double/triple the price). So the fig tree offers a Teaching experience (consider St. John 15:1-10 and the various parables of the good tree yielding good fruit and the bad tree being cut off and burnt): that which does not yield fruit will be cast off.

Maran atha!

Angel

 

[bsy]

"not in season" is “at an unexpected time”… either death or the Second Coming will come at an unexpected hour. The one who fails to produce fruits will be cut down.

Matthew 21:18 (The Cursing of the Fig Tree) When he was going back to the city in the morning, he was hungry.
Matthew 25:31-46 (the Great Judgment)
“…‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”