And what did the fig tree do that was so wrong?
(...continued)

"In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. 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. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, 'How did the fig tree wither at once?' Jesus answered them, 'Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ' Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will be done. Whatever you ask for a prayer with faith, you will receive.' "  

- Matthew 21: 18 - 22 -

"On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 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. He said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.' And his disciples heard it."

- Mark 11: 12 - 14 -

"In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, 'Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.' Jesus answered them, 'Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.' "

- Mark 11: 20 - 24 -

Where I go from here may be strange, uncharted territory for today's Christian believer because it ventures into an area of understanding that is foreign to most people of the Western Christian mindset - but an area that is most familiar to those of the Far Eastern belief systems; especially the Hindu and Zen Buddhist practitioners.

It must always be kept in mind that Jesus, the man, was in reality the anthropomorphized Word of God - the Creative Power of God. A reading of the first five verses of John the Theologian-Evangelist's first gospel chapter will bring home the point that in Jesus rested the power of not only creating everything that exists, but the power that continually sustains the Creation. It is an ongoing process that never flags even for one second. Out of Jesus came everything, and throughout everything courses the life-giving force of Jesus, the Word. He is the Master of continuity, and without him, life would cease and the deadness of nothingness would prevail. This we know by faith as gathered from not only the Gospels, which have come down through the last twenty centuries, but also we've caught glimpses of Jesus throughout creation from portrayals understood found and understood within the
Hebrew Scriptures.

We know this from logic, human intelligence and faith. The fig tree should have 'known' this from a natural, intuitive sensing of its own force of life as Jesus passed by, expressing in his human form, hunger. The fig tree was out of tune with its own nature; for had it reacted as it should when the Master expressed his desire to eat of the fig tree's fruit, it would have responded with the immediate forthcoming of its own fruit.

Is this an unreasonable supposition? Not if one recognizes and admits to the validity of the miracles Jesus wrought. Here was the Master of the Universe healing the sick, making the mentally ill whole again, raising the dead, and overriding the course of natural events such as stilling the waters of a raging sea,  walking on the waters of the sea in front of witnesses, and, the Transfiguration on Mt. Hermon. And, of course, Jesus' overcoming of his own mortal death by his resurrection to life. Thus, it is not unreasonable to expect that as the Master Creator walked by the fig tree, expressing a desire to eat of its fruit, that the tree should have produced fruit on unspoken command.
But, it didn't.

The phenomenon of life's creative source and sustaining power permeating the entirety of creation is an understanding that is very old to the Hindus and the Buddhists. The Hindu writing, the Bhagavad-Gita, has God in the human form of Krishna explaining in forceful detail to Royal Prince Arjuna just how he permeates all of creation, and that all of creation is connected to God on a soul and spirit level. Krishna tells Arjuna - as he is about to go into a great military battle with his own kinsmen - that he is manifested in every atom that exists and that he sustains all life and motion. And, they go even further in identifying the sound that initiated the first universal atomic motion. That sound is the Hindu vocal utterance of the graphic symbol that represents God: ॐ – OM (pronounced, AUM). The Eastern faith believers have long known of the harmonics of God and how these harmonics have, since existence began, provided the vibrations that eventually compose and motivate all matter. We know this power as Jesus Christ, the Word. (A reading of the Book of Job proves most beneficial here.)

It is the Western mind that has had problems grasping such an idea and seeing Jesus Christ in the way John the Theologian saw and told about him in the opening of his gospel. In so many ways, the ancients were far superior, intellectually and spiritually, than most modern men and women.

The exception to this declaration today are those people who work in the area of sub-atomic particle physics. There have been many quantum physicists who have gotten so deep into their work of discovering, and theorizing about, the smallest forms of matter and energy only to come to the realization that where matter leaves off in its infinitesimal smallness that behind all existence lies the Will of God, and the creative sustaining power of that existence: Jesus Christ. The fig tree being a part of the fabric of creation - an object that existed only because of its connection with the life force of the Christ - should, out of natural deference to its creator, have produced fruit. The thought of Jesus expressing hunger should have been more than enough motivation for the tree to produce its fruit... and yet, it didn't.

So, what is the lesson here for Christian disciples? It is this: When in the presence of Christ, we must produce our fruit of discipleship. And, seeing that we are always in the presence of Christ the moment we consciously accept him as our Lord and Savior, we have no excuse not to act accordingly and produce what we are commanded to do - be it to feed the hungry, nurse the sick, tend to the upbringing of our children, both spiritually and physically, preach the Gospel, organize and maintain a church, or give our life for another when called upon to do so. This is discipleship producing its fruit. This is the Christ living within us. We must produce or we risk being so condemned as was the fig tree. Such an example of condemnation goes double for today's church bodies. Churches must produce redemptive fruit and not serve only as a source of spiritual entertainment, distraction and the pacification of those who attend. Churches must produce!