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Bearing Good Fruit

Bearing Good Fruit

Last updated on: October 10, 2026 at 9:56 am by Sherry Antonetti

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Bearing Good Fruit 2026-10-10T09:56:00-04:00 Sherry Antonetti

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My daughter came home frustrated with her religion class. The substitute asked everyone to write about the bibilical passage she provided. It was the moment when Jesus cursed a fig tree after discovering there was no fruit. It’s a difficult passage in Mark 11:12-25.

It’s a strange moment –did Jesus get hangry? Have an off day? No. Jesus wearies, he weeps, he gets angry, but cursing a plant such that it withers the next day? That seems to my daughter, out of character –and it does seem like not what we’re used to when we encounter Jesus. So she asked.

The person sighed. Which translates as I understand it, to meaning, she didn’t know either, but lacked the nerve to admit, this is a confounding Jesus.

Now I know there’s this thing called the internet, and there are concordias and countless examinations of every Gospel by deeply thoughful people. As such, the substitute could have done a touch of research or pointed my daughter in the right direction. I also know, as a teacher, sometimes you encourage by reminding people, wrestling with understanding is part of the eduational process.

Instead, she offered irritation at teens asking questions and struggling with the text. Not useful for evangelization or for promoting spiritual growth. A momentary google search of the USCCB gave me this:

* [11:12–14] Jesus’ search for fruit on the fig tree recalls the prophets’ earlier use of this image to designate Israel; cf. Jer 8:13; 29:17; Jl 1:7; Hos 9:10, 16. Cursing the fig tree is a parable in action representing Jesus’ judgment (Mk 11:20) on barren Israel and the fate of Jerusalem for failing to receive his teaching; cf. Is 34:4; Hos 2:14; Lk 13:6–9.

Having feed the people and healed the blind and those who came seeking Him, Jesus explains that having faith, leads to far greater moments than a plant withering on command. My plants wither under my care or my carelessness. Those green things don’t stand a chance with me. So if a fig tree died in my custody, this would be a non-story.

But this is Jesus, and he sought fruit and there was none –he is speaking to all of us who have received the gift of His good news, and us refusing it, ignoring it, being unwilling to grow and develop and share beyond ourselves.

Jesus knows we need strangeness to understand. We need the strangeness to see. If he’d merely walked by, looked at the fig tree, seen no fruit and walked on, it would be a nothing story. He wants us to see that there is a consequence to refusing to share what we have received, and it is severe. Not because He does not love us, but because He does. He sees that our selfishness is deadly, to ourselves and others. It’s that important. It’s that vital. What does not love, dies. End of story. Full stop.

So the lesson of the strange Jesus being angry at the absent fruit is simple. Love or die. Life or death, fruit or barren –when we are given the opportunity. It’s a hard truth, because we are worth a whole world, a whole galaxy of fig trees.

Full disclosure, it took two days of wrestling with the scripture to get here for me, so I can get the teacher’s frustration, but not her reaction.

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