"Nothing but Leaves"
I have seen a picture of a fig tree, and I want to describe it to you,
that we may understand a little about one of our Lord's Parables.
There are a great many Parables in the New Testament: they are
word-pictures to teach us God's great lessons.
At school your teacher has a large blackboard, and sometimes she
sketches an object, and explains it to you, does she not?
One day she drew a cracked cup, the crack of which grew wider under
her clever fingers, and she turned round and said to her class, "Is
this cup of any use?" And there were plenty of "No's" from all over the
room; but one child ventured "Perhaps it could be mended!"
And then the teacher gave a bright look, and she said, "Yes, Charlie,
you are right! And so are the others with their 'No's' all over the
room. For unless the cup is mended, it is of no use. The cup is a
picture of our characters! If there is a flaw in them, a crack that
gets wider and wider, then the cup is of no use, is it?"
"It might be thrown away!" ventured another child.
"Yes," said the teacher; "but, if it could be mended—as Charlie
said—then it could be used again. So what must we do, Charlie?"
She turned her face to the little boy, and a smile came over his
features as he answered, "There's a china-mender comes down our road
every week—he could do it!"
And the teacher smiled back. Did Charlie know that he had touched on a
great truth? So she went on—
"Yes, we must 'have faith in God.' We must take our cracked cups, and
our faulty characters, to the Great Mender, Jesus our Saviour, and ask
Him to make us useful, serviceable little Christians!"
So now, I am going to make an imaginary blackboard and show you a
branch of a fig tree!
Look at that fig growing out of the stalk; it is large, and oblong, and
plump, and it is firmly fixed to the big branch.
And then, above and below it are little sprouting leaves, some just
come out, some not yet burst from their little buds; and soon the
fruit, which is already ripe, will be covered up by the leaves, as they
grow larger and larger.
But suppose, when you lift the leaves, there is no fruit?
Then you come to the conclusion that the tree must be a barren tree,
and you turn away sorry and disappointed.
[Illustration: THE BARREN FIG TREE.]
And this is a little word-picture of the barren fig tree, about which
our Lord gives us a Parable.
He was coming from Bethany, and it says He hungered. Perhaps the Lord
Jesus had been up all night praying to His Father.
So, as He came near to the fig tree, He saw it was full of leaves;
but when He got close to it, He found there were no figs under the
leaves—it was barren.
And as He turned away He said, in the disciples' hearing, "Let no fruit
grow on thee henceforward for ever."
Oh, how sad He was to have to say that!
And presently the fig tree withered away.
Just before this, the Lord came down the side of the Mount of Olives,
and in turning a corner of the steep path a sight of the beautiful city
of Jerusalem burst upon their view. It says in the Gospel of Luke—
"And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it,
saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the
things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine
eyes."
Jesus wept for all the sorrow that was coming on the beloved city, and
because the Jews would not have Him as their Saviour.
This was indeed like the fig tree, which had leaves, but no fruit.
The Jews ought to have known from their own Scriptures of the Old
Testament, which they read every Sabbath, that on this very day it was
foretold in the Book of Nehemiah, and also in Daniel and Zechariah,
that the Messiah was to enter Jerusalem as King, meek and lowly, and
riding on an ass's colt.
They were proud of their knowledge, and of their possession of God's
Temple, and His Scriptures; but they had not fruit under the leaves of
their pride and unbelief. They had even been plotting to kill Him. They
had rejected Him in their hearts, and in a few days' time they were
going to crucify Him!
The next day Jesus and His disciples passed by that fig tree again, and
it had begun to wither and dry up; and the disciples said, "How soon is
the fig tree withered!"
And the answer of our Lord must have astonished them. "Have faith in
God!" He said.
Now, like the teacher with the blackboard, I want to gather up the
lesson I have learned from this story—
Do not let our dear Lord, Who died for us, come and look into our
hearts and find no fruit, but only leaves!
How He must long to have us all we should be!
Do not let us be like the cracked and useless cup! But let us go to the
great Healer and Mender and Cleanser of our poor characters, and ask
Him to make us what He would like to see us.
The only way to get "mended" and to bear fruit instead of only leaves,
is to go to Him Who died on the Cross to save us, and to find in Him
forgiveness, strength, and peace.