Bear Fruit, Not Foliage

“And when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.” (Matthew 21:19)

I have a picture of my son when he was a little boy about five or six years old. He is standing in our garden, between two rows of potatoes. The potato vines are up to his shoulders. With all that foliage I anticipated a bumper crop of potatoes. But, I was wrong. The potatoes were few, very small and hardly worth digging. It was the worst yield of potatoes I have ever seen. I was very disappointed.

The Bible says Jesus was hungry. He came to the fig tree and found no fruit, but leaves only. He was disappointed. The fig tree has long been a symbol of the nation of Israel. Jesus had observed the nation and its fruitlessness and used the cursing of the fig tree and its withering and dying as a lesson in what was soon to happen to that nation. Israel continues to be fruitless to this day but after the Lord comes back that will change.

There is a lesson for Christians in this event. God wants us to bear fruit, not foliage. The church of Sardis, in Revelation 3:1-7, had a name that it was alive, but was dead. It was all foliage. The fruit of the Spirit living in us is, “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Foliage is no substitute for fruitfulness.