The Withered Fig Tree
by Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Isaiah 34: 1,2,4 | Mark 11:11-15, 17; 19-26
Apocalypse Explained 386e:29
by Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Isaiah 34: 1,2,4 | Mark 11:11-15, 17; 19-26
Apocalypse Explained 386e:29
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 found nothing but leaves; for the time of the fig was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And His disciples heard it. (Mark 11: 12-14)
Here, too, "the fig tree" means the church with the Jewish nation. That with that nation there was no natural good, but only truth falsified, which in itself is falsity, is signified by "the Lord came to the fig tree, but found nothing thereon but leaves," "fruit" which He did not find signifying natural good &…;. And the "leaf" signifying truth falsified, which is falsity itself. (Apocalypse Explained 403:21)
Here, too, "the fig tree" means the church with the Jewish nation. That with that nation there was no natural good, but only truth falsified, which in itself is falsity, is signified by "the Lord came to the fig tree, but found nothing thereon but leaves," "fruit" which He did not find signifying natural good &…;. And the "leaf" signifying truth falsified, which is falsity itself. (Apocalypse Explained 403:21)
The completion of the Lord's glorification, the unition of the Human with the Divine, was approaching. Soon, the final passion of the cross would be the Lord's. In a week He would eat the Passover with His disciples. He had ridden on the fold of an ass into Jerusalem. The people had called Him their King shouting Hosannas to the Highest. That evening, He and His disciples went out to a village called Bethany a few miles from the city - Jerusalem. The next day on the way back into the city and to the temple the Word says He saw a fig tree with leaves on it and that He was hungry. Upon reaching it He found no figs, but the Word says that the "time of the fig was not yet". This event of the fig tree and what follows the next day with it was something that in the literal sense that seems to have little, if any relation, to the events that were then happening and were going to happen concerning the Lord's arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
To the average person who reads the Word it is just an interesting non-related incident that was recorded in the last week before Jesus was crucified and had nothing to do with the unfolding historical events, nothing to do with the facts of Jesus' coming death on the cross. If the reader accepts this incident as what the Word says in its literal sense, he will come to apply what is false and even perhaps teach false doctrine concerning the Lord, for the Word there relates that Peter says that the Lord had cursed the fig tree. Yet, do you believe that the Lord curses? The words relating to Christ Jesus and the fig tree, its withering away, teach within the internal sense very important truths about man and the Church that then existed - the Israelitish - and that was about to come on earth - the Christian Church.
As you know, Jesus spoke in parables; the Word says that, He spoke not a word to the Jews except in parables. Here, the story of the Jesus and fig tree is a picture parable, if you will, being acted out. Figs and the fig tree are not uncommon in the Word. Fig leaves were used in the creation story - Adam and Eve sewed them for a covering to hide their nakedness. The fig tree that i spoken of in Psalm and in Jeremiah is a symbol of the Church and the man of the Church. It leaves signify the truth that come from good; Fruit means the good that stems from love and charity. Even the prophet Isaiah speaks of the fig tree using it as a symbol of the end of the Jewish Church and was depicted: "&…;. as a falling fig tree." In other words, the Jewish Church would come to its end.
In fact, Jesus talks of the fig tree as also being the New Church. He says "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branches is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that Summer is nigh" (Matt. 24:32). The fig tree is not uncommon to the Word and it is used to show the various states of the Church or the man of the Church. Tree in the Word often refers to man. You might here recall Psalm 1 where it says man is like a tree planted by the rivers of water and brings forth fruit.
So, you can understand that from a spiritual historical sense the fig tree incident of today lesson does belong in the story of the Lord's last weeks on earth, before His death on the cross. And, in fact, it fits very nicely in with the story of Jesus entering the temple, casting out all those who sold and bought and His over throwing the moneychangers tables and the seats of those who sold doves. Any new churchman will tell you that within the literal sense there lies hidden the internal truth; that the Word is entirely about the Lord, about Heaven and the Church on earth, and man - his relationship either with the Lord or against the Lord.
Our lesson begins with "And on the morrow" or tomorrow, that is, the next day "He was hungry" (v. 12). We need to raise our thought above the natural meaning of these words and try to understand what is the spiritual sense. Here, it is spiritual hunger, not natural hunger, that is meant. Love, while loving another, wants another's love itself. Anyone will tell you who loves another. It longs for good or charity; it longs for the affection of truth in another. The good with the Lord longed for truth. The Lord hungered for that spiritual food that comes from good, that is, for some charity from the Church then on earth, just as He longs of the love of His bride - the Church.
This is not the first time that we see the Lord yearning for some evidence that the Church, then, on earth - the Jewish Church - loves Him in return as He has loved them. He had wept over Jerusalem, that is, over the Church, for Jerusalem signifies the Church. The text says, "On the morrow&…;" We live only today. Tomorrow is the Lord's, for it is as eternity with the Lord. So, what is meant is the state of the Church then on earth - the Isrealitish and Jewish Church. Spiritual food is not and cannot be preserved for tomorrow, but the Lord is infinite and eternal; there is no tomorrow. Remember the story of the Israelites in the wilderness. They could eat manna for the day, but could not preserve it for the next day. So, in our lesson, it is 'as if' the Lord was living in the Spiritual, though still here in the Natural. He had spiritual hunger. Once before when His disciples had returned from being away to gather food, they could not understand how He could have eaten. He no longer had hunger, for He had already eaten while they were away. He had appropriated truths and goods, which are spiritual food. They wondered from where He had food. He had hungered for spiritual food - good and truth - and had received it from the Samaritan woman at the well. So, now, let us learn what today's lesson teaches.
In the spiritual sense, the Lord sees the Church "afar off" from its true state of communication and conjunction with Heaven and Him. The fig tree has leaves - the Church has truths - He saw it, the leaves - the truths that the Church had - which signify the truths of the natural man of the Church. The Church should gird or clothe itself with truths even as Adam did in order that he learn and know natural knowledge and have a rational and receive an intelligent faith in the Lord. It is in this way that man covers over his filthy loves, for as these are put aside truths coming from an obedience to their good cover and falsities are 'as if' turned away from, which, in fact, do not lead man to Heaven.
The Church - the man of the Church - has been given the truth. And the truth teaches the way to bring man back to God. In other words, there should be a communication between the Lord and the Church; there should be a conjunction. The Israelitish Church had the truth; it had the way revealed - the Commandments - to them. However, we find they rejected these truths. The life they lived was contrary to the way taught.
In the text, we find the Lord wanting to find "anything" - meaning figs - on the tree, anything that could satisfy His hunger. Spiritually, He was hoping that the Israelitish and Jewish Church had produced charity or good, that is, produced natural good within them. The good that is here meant is spiritual in its origin. Here, one gets a glimpse as to the Church that the Lord came to save - the Spiritual Church that is within a person. So, this good is not good into which man is born and in which he derives from his parents. This spiritual good is what makes a man be of the Church. You might wonder what is so different in these two goods. If a man does good or well as he is taught from his parents, what is then the good that is spiritual good?
The difference is: the good done from the things that the parent teaches is from one's natural desires, but those done from a spiritual origin are not from self, but are from an interior love from the Lord who is all Good. In a spiritual sense, the Lord came to receive what was rightfully His and He found that the life given to the Church had been stolen. (Life is spiritual and is the Lord's within and man has claimed it as his.) It was kept as theirs just as the parable of the vineyard and its caretakers had, who had killed the Lord - the owner - when He came to receive its fruit.
The Lord had come. He had come on earth, born a man into the Israelitish and Jewish Church. He had come to save the Church, the man of the Church. Such a person has truths, just as the fig tree has leaves, but in this case the truth they had were turned into falsities, for as we read, that when they passed by the following day the fig tree had withered from its roots. Falsities reveal one's evils; truths followed, they 'as it were' covers one's evils.
Yes, Israel had the truth, but they did not have charity and their truth became false. We see this in the spiritual sense. In the natural sense we can find no true meaning, that is, we learn no rational understanding. In fact, if we carry this 'apparent' truth to its conclusion, we only come to a false doctrine - that the Lord curses; that He was indignant because He was hungry and found no food on the tree, when it was not the time for fruit.
Continuing, in the text we also read that when the Lord approached the fig tree that He "found nothing but leaves" on it. That was explained as, "for the time of fig was not yet". This statement alone would tell us that if the literal sense were accepted as true (that the Lord curses the fig tree) that not only does the Lord curse, but that He was angry and that He changes the Divine Order (the natural order) and many other things. It is obvious that these words, to be truly understood, must be seen in their spiritual sense and that this means the true "Church had not yet commenced" or begun (AE 386:29). The state of the Church then on earth - the Israelitish and Jewish Church - was depicted as the fig tree with leaves, but as fruit or figs.
As the story continues, we find that the tree has withered and lost its leaves, having dried up from the roots. This shows that in that state the man of the Church that there was no natural good, because there was nothing spiritual within him, that is, no fruit or charity, but only were seen truth from the sense of the letter - apparent truth - and, thus, that had become false. By the words, "it was not the time of the figs" shows that the state of the Church in which regeneration begins had not come. This is because bearing fruit, that is, having charity, is an act of the will. In examination it shows the Church of the Israelites and Jews not only had not reached the state of reformation and regeneration, but truths with them were rejected. The understanding in man is seen as the act of reformation, for it receives instruction. These are called truths, and are to be believed and are what ought to have been done, which is to follow the commandments. Instead they had made them of no effect even profaning the house of the Lord as He says when He entered the temple and overturned tables and seats.
The state of the Church with man on earth in which are the acts of reformation and regeneration had not yet begun. It was one of the reasons or the purpose for the Lord's coming. Thus, one can see in the spiritual sense that these words refer to the beginning of a new Church - the Christian Church. The old one coming to its end, it's consummation, as one sees, even, in the historical facts when Jesus has cast out the sellers and buyers in the temple, which happened later that day. This was an obvious rejection of that Church by the Lord. The Lord saying "let nothing grow on thee (the fig tree) hereafter for ever" or "let no man eat fruit of thee forever" signifies that that nation would never do any natural good from a spiritual origin, that is, any spiritual natural good. One sees here that the Lord came to save the spiritual Church in man, for such good comes from the spiritual degree from the Lord.
This picture parable 'as it were' of the fig tree was a fulfilling of the Lord's parable to the disciples where He tells them to "learn a parable of the fig tree, when its branches is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know Summer is near." So, also, "you see there things come to pass that you know that it is nigh, even at the door" are referring to the Jewish Church's devastation and its vastation and finally its consummation. It seems that the disciples had forgot what He said, for Peter states that the Lord cursed the fig tree when he saw that the tree had withered from its roots. We cannot be judgmental, for the disciples had not the advantage that we have - the truth of the Divine Human. Peter remembered what Jesus had said earlier. The truth of the parable in its internal sense reveals that the Jewish nation was no longer a Church, not even a representative Church. One understands this when reading another parable that the Lord also spoke of.
This was the parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; he therefore came seeking fruit thereon, but found none. He said unto the vine-dresser, Behold, these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig tree, but found none, cut it down, for "wherefore does it make the ground fruitful?" (Ground here signifies the Church.) Even after when it was dig about and fertilized there came no fruit and was cut down, thus signifying that no good from Jewish nation would proceed from anything spiritual.
Again, in the text, the question in which Peter asks the Lord concerning the fig tree that had withered away we learn from its internal and spiritual sense that truth or faith signified by Peter must "have faith in God". In this way, when you ask for help to remove the evils and falsities within you, the Lord will grant your prayer and you will be enlightened to see spiritual things - internal truths and goods. All other faith not in God is fruitless 'as it were', not only does it not bear charity, but truth is lost as can be seen by the withered up fig tree, its leaves having fallen.
Each of us must go through that state in which the Jewish Church depicts for the development of the Church within us. It is the man in whom there are truths that are from within, that is, from the Lord within and in whom is charity or love produced that makes the Church within us a true Church. And, it is the Lord who comes to that man to receive what is His own that make the 'cycle of life' complete in him and in which he truly lives in Heavenly joy and happiness.
Amen.
To the average person who reads the Word it is just an interesting non-related incident that was recorded in the last week before Jesus was crucified and had nothing to do with the unfolding historical events, nothing to do with the facts of Jesus' coming death on the cross. If the reader accepts this incident as what the Word says in its literal sense, he will come to apply what is false and even perhaps teach false doctrine concerning the Lord, for the Word there relates that Peter says that the Lord had cursed the fig tree. Yet, do you believe that the Lord curses? The words relating to Christ Jesus and the fig tree, its withering away, teach within the internal sense very important truths about man and the Church that then existed - the Israelitish - and that was about to come on earth - the Christian Church.
As you know, Jesus spoke in parables; the Word says that, He spoke not a word to the Jews except in parables. Here, the story of the Jesus and fig tree is a picture parable, if you will, being acted out. Figs and the fig tree are not uncommon in the Word. Fig leaves were used in the creation story - Adam and Eve sewed them for a covering to hide their nakedness. The fig tree that i spoken of in Psalm and in Jeremiah is a symbol of the Church and the man of the Church. It leaves signify the truth that come from good; Fruit means the good that stems from love and charity. Even the prophet Isaiah speaks of the fig tree using it as a symbol of the end of the Jewish Church and was depicted: "&…;. as a falling fig tree." In other words, the Jewish Church would come to its end.
In fact, Jesus talks of the fig tree as also being the New Church. He says "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branches is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that Summer is nigh" (Matt. 24:32). The fig tree is not uncommon to the Word and it is used to show the various states of the Church or the man of the Church. Tree in the Word often refers to man. You might here recall Psalm 1 where it says man is like a tree planted by the rivers of water and brings forth fruit.
So, you can understand that from a spiritual historical sense the fig tree incident of today lesson does belong in the story of the Lord's last weeks on earth, before His death on the cross. And, in fact, it fits very nicely in with the story of Jesus entering the temple, casting out all those who sold and bought and His over throwing the moneychangers tables and the seats of those who sold doves. Any new churchman will tell you that within the literal sense there lies hidden the internal truth; that the Word is entirely about the Lord, about Heaven and the Church on earth, and man - his relationship either with the Lord or against the Lord.
Our lesson begins with "And on the morrow" or tomorrow, that is, the next day "He was hungry" (v. 12). We need to raise our thought above the natural meaning of these words and try to understand what is the spiritual sense. Here, it is spiritual hunger, not natural hunger, that is meant. Love, while loving another, wants another's love itself. Anyone will tell you who loves another. It longs for good or charity; it longs for the affection of truth in another. The good with the Lord longed for truth. The Lord hungered for that spiritual food that comes from good, that is, for some charity from the Church then on earth, just as He longs of the love of His bride - the Church.
This is not the first time that we see the Lord yearning for some evidence that the Church, then, on earth - the Jewish Church - loves Him in return as He has loved them. He had wept over Jerusalem, that is, over the Church, for Jerusalem signifies the Church. The text says, "On the morrow&…;" We live only today. Tomorrow is the Lord's, for it is as eternity with the Lord. So, what is meant is the state of the Church then on earth - the Isrealitish and Jewish Church. Spiritual food is not and cannot be preserved for tomorrow, but the Lord is infinite and eternal; there is no tomorrow. Remember the story of the Israelites in the wilderness. They could eat manna for the day, but could not preserve it for the next day. So, in our lesson, it is 'as if' the Lord was living in the Spiritual, though still here in the Natural. He had spiritual hunger. Once before when His disciples had returned from being away to gather food, they could not understand how He could have eaten. He no longer had hunger, for He had already eaten while they were away. He had appropriated truths and goods, which are spiritual food. They wondered from where He had food. He had hungered for spiritual food - good and truth - and had received it from the Samaritan woman at the well. So, now, let us learn what today's lesson teaches.
In the spiritual sense, the Lord sees the Church "afar off" from its true state of communication and conjunction with Heaven and Him. The fig tree has leaves - the Church has truths - He saw it, the leaves - the truths that the Church had - which signify the truths of the natural man of the Church. The Church should gird or clothe itself with truths even as Adam did in order that he learn and know natural knowledge and have a rational and receive an intelligent faith in the Lord. It is in this way that man covers over his filthy loves, for as these are put aside truths coming from an obedience to their good cover and falsities are 'as if' turned away from, which, in fact, do not lead man to Heaven.
The Church - the man of the Church - has been given the truth. And the truth teaches the way to bring man back to God. In other words, there should be a communication between the Lord and the Church; there should be a conjunction. The Israelitish Church had the truth; it had the way revealed - the Commandments - to them. However, we find they rejected these truths. The life they lived was contrary to the way taught.
In the text, we find the Lord wanting to find "anything" - meaning figs - on the tree, anything that could satisfy His hunger. Spiritually, He was hoping that the Israelitish and Jewish Church had produced charity or good, that is, produced natural good within them. The good that is here meant is spiritual in its origin. Here, one gets a glimpse as to the Church that the Lord came to save - the Spiritual Church that is within a person. So, this good is not good into which man is born and in which he derives from his parents. This spiritual good is what makes a man be of the Church. You might wonder what is so different in these two goods. If a man does good or well as he is taught from his parents, what is then the good that is spiritual good?
The difference is: the good done from the things that the parent teaches is from one's natural desires, but those done from a spiritual origin are not from self, but are from an interior love from the Lord who is all Good. In a spiritual sense, the Lord came to receive what was rightfully His and He found that the life given to the Church had been stolen. (Life is spiritual and is the Lord's within and man has claimed it as his.) It was kept as theirs just as the parable of the vineyard and its caretakers had, who had killed the Lord - the owner - when He came to receive its fruit.
The Lord had come. He had come on earth, born a man into the Israelitish and Jewish Church. He had come to save the Church, the man of the Church. Such a person has truths, just as the fig tree has leaves, but in this case the truth they had were turned into falsities, for as we read, that when they passed by the following day the fig tree had withered from its roots. Falsities reveal one's evils; truths followed, they 'as it were' covers one's evils.
Yes, Israel had the truth, but they did not have charity and their truth became false. We see this in the spiritual sense. In the natural sense we can find no true meaning, that is, we learn no rational understanding. In fact, if we carry this 'apparent' truth to its conclusion, we only come to a false doctrine - that the Lord curses; that He was indignant because He was hungry and found no food on the tree, when it was not the time for fruit.
Continuing, in the text we also read that when the Lord approached the fig tree that He "found nothing but leaves" on it. That was explained as, "for the time of fig was not yet". This statement alone would tell us that if the literal sense were accepted as true (that the Lord curses the fig tree) that not only does the Lord curse, but that He was angry and that He changes the Divine Order (the natural order) and many other things. It is obvious that these words, to be truly understood, must be seen in their spiritual sense and that this means the true "Church had not yet commenced" or begun (AE 386:29). The state of the Church then on earth - the Israelitish and Jewish Church - was depicted as the fig tree with leaves, but as fruit or figs.
As the story continues, we find that the tree has withered and lost its leaves, having dried up from the roots. This shows that in that state the man of the Church that there was no natural good, because there was nothing spiritual within him, that is, no fruit or charity, but only were seen truth from the sense of the letter - apparent truth - and, thus, that had become false. By the words, "it was not the time of the figs" shows that the state of the Church in which regeneration begins had not come. This is because bearing fruit, that is, having charity, is an act of the will. In examination it shows the Church of the Israelites and Jews not only had not reached the state of reformation and regeneration, but truths with them were rejected. The understanding in man is seen as the act of reformation, for it receives instruction. These are called truths, and are to be believed and are what ought to have been done, which is to follow the commandments. Instead they had made them of no effect even profaning the house of the Lord as He says when He entered the temple and overturned tables and seats.
The state of the Church with man on earth in which are the acts of reformation and regeneration had not yet begun. It was one of the reasons or the purpose for the Lord's coming. Thus, one can see in the spiritual sense that these words refer to the beginning of a new Church - the Christian Church. The old one coming to its end, it's consummation, as one sees, even, in the historical facts when Jesus has cast out the sellers and buyers in the temple, which happened later that day. This was an obvious rejection of that Church by the Lord. The Lord saying "let nothing grow on thee (the fig tree) hereafter for ever" or "let no man eat fruit of thee forever" signifies that that nation would never do any natural good from a spiritual origin, that is, any spiritual natural good. One sees here that the Lord came to save the spiritual Church in man, for such good comes from the spiritual degree from the Lord.
This picture parable 'as it were' of the fig tree was a fulfilling of the Lord's parable to the disciples where He tells them to "learn a parable of the fig tree, when its branches is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know Summer is near." So, also, "you see there things come to pass that you know that it is nigh, even at the door" are referring to the Jewish Church's devastation and its vastation and finally its consummation. It seems that the disciples had forgot what He said, for Peter states that the Lord cursed the fig tree when he saw that the tree had withered from its roots. We cannot be judgmental, for the disciples had not the advantage that we have - the truth of the Divine Human. Peter remembered what Jesus had said earlier. The truth of the parable in its internal sense reveals that the Jewish nation was no longer a Church, not even a representative Church. One understands this when reading another parable that the Lord also spoke of.
This was the parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; he therefore came seeking fruit thereon, but found none. He said unto the vine-dresser, Behold, these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig tree, but found none, cut it down, for "wherefore does it make the ground fruitful?" (Ground here signifies the Church.) Even after when it was dig about and fertilized there came no fruit and was cut down, thus signifying that no good from Jewish nation would proceed from anything spiritual.
Again, in the text, the question in which Peter asks the Lord concerning the fig tree that had withered away we learn from its internal and spiritual sense that truth or faith signified by Peter must "have faith in God". In this way, when you ask for help to remove the evils and falsities within you, the Lord will grant your prayer and you will be enlightened to see spiritual things - internal truths and goods. All other faith not in God is fruitless 'as it were', not only does it not bear charity, but truth is lost as can be seen by the withered up fig tree, its leaves having fallen.
Each of us must go through that state in which the Jewish Church depicts for the development of the Church within us. It is the man in whom there are truths that are from within, that is, from the Lord within and in whom is charity or love produced that makes the Church within us a true Church. And, it is the Lord who comes to that man to receive what is His own that make the 'cycle of life' complete in him and in which he truly lives in Heavenly joy and happiness.
Amen.
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