And Jesus answered and said unto it,
No man eat fruit of you hereafter forever.
And his disciples heard it.
Read Chapter 11
Bede
AD 735
As the time of His Passion approached, the Lord wished to approach to the place of His Passion, in order to intimate that He underwent death of His own accord: wherefore it is said, "And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple.” And by His going to the temple on first entering the city, He shows us beforehand a form of religion, which we are to follow, that if by chance we enter a place, where there is a house of prayer, we should first turn aside to it.We should also understand from this, that such was the poverty of the Lord, and so far was He from flattering man, that in so large a city, He found no one to be His host, no abiding place, but livedin a small country place with Lazarus and his sisters; for Bethany is a hamlet of the Jews. Wherefore there follows: “And when He had looked round about upon all things, (that is, to see whether any one would take Him in,) and now the eventide was come, He went out into Bethany with the twelve.”Nor did He do this once only, but du...
Remember at the time of the sin of Adam and Eve they clothed themselves—with what? Fig leaves. That was their first act after the fall. So now Jesus is making the same figure of the fig tree the very last of his wondrous signs. Just as he was headed toward the cross, he cursed the fig tree—not every fig tree, but that one alone for its symbolic significance—saying: “May no one ever eat fruit of you again.” In this way the curse laid upon Adam and Eve was being reversed. For they had clothed themselves with fig leaves.
The owner of the fig tree did not obey the law but spurned it. Our Lord came and found that there was [nothing] left on it, so he cursed it, lest its owner eat from it again, since he had left [nothing] for the orphan and widows…. He cursed the fig tree and it shriveled up to show them the power of his divinity, so that by means of [this] action near at hand which they could see, they might believe that which was to come. Because [Jerusalem] had not accepted the law, he cursed [the fig tree], so that there might no longer be fruit on it, according to its law…. He sought fruit from the fig tree at an inopportune time, that it might be a symbol of one who had deceitfully withheld the fruits of the law at the opportune time. For, if he had sought fruit from it at the opportune time, no one would have known that there was a figurative meaning embedded here. Instead of the fig tree, therefore, he showed that it was Jerusalem that he was reproaching, for he had sought love in her, but she ha...
He went in the morning to the Jews, and visits us in the eventide of the world. Hungering therefore, that is, desiring the salvation of mankind, He saw the fig tree, which is, the Jewish people, having leaves, or, the words of the Law and the Prophets, and He sought upon it the fruit of good works, by teaching them, by rebuking them, by working miracles, and He found it not, and therefore condemned it. Do thou too, unless thouwouldest be condemned by Christ in the judgment, beware of being a barren tree, but rather offer to Christ the fruit of piety which He requires.
In Matt. Hom., 87: How is it that He was hungry in the morning, as Matthew says, if it were not that by an economy He permitted it to His flesh? Now it is evident that this expresses aconjecture of the disciples, who thought that it was for this reason that Christ came to the fig tree, and that it was cursed, because He found no fruit uponit.For it goes on: “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. "He therefore curses the fig tree for His disciples’ sake, that they might have faith in Him. For He everywhere distributed blessings, and punished no one, yet at the same time, it was rightto give them a proof of His chastising power, that they might learn that He could even cause the persecuting Jews to wither away; He was however unwilling to give this proof on men, wherefore He showed them on a plant a sign of His power of punishing. This proves that He came to ...
Wishing to show His disciples that if He chose He could in a moment exterminate those who were about to crucify Him. In a mystical sense, however, the Lord entered into the temple, but came out of it again, to show that He left it desolate, and open to the spoiler.
