Posted July 30, 2010 By Jay Pike
It’s a little known fact that one of Bishop Miller’s favorite snacks are Fig Newtons. I’m not a fan. Out of respect for him, I’ve shared a few with him in our travels. They, nor the funny little fruit they are derived from, don’t do anything for me.
I have to give it to the Bishop, however, figs are a biblical fruit. Jesus himself went hunting for a fresh fig snack. Figs happen to be the first named fruit in the Bible. The familiar story of Adam and Eve “sewing fig leaves together and making themselves garments” tells us that the fig tree was in Eden. Unfortunately for our fig friends, this was not a good omen. In the story of our first parents, fig leaves come to represent our own efforts to cover our sins and present ourselves acceptable to God. As was true for Adam and Eve, and equally true for you and me today, fig leaves are never sufficient.
In one of the most beautiful pictures in the Bible, God responds to this first inception of man-made religion. “The Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” (Gen 3:21) “Your leaves won’t do”, says God, “I’ll provide you a skin covering”. The story of redemption told in a single sentence: “Let go of your man-made leaf covering and receive God’s bloody skin covering.”
Several thousand years later, Jesus becomes the ultimate fig-banisher. He is God’s ultimate and sufficient skin covering. So when He arrives, it’s no surprise to find him calling disciples away from fig trees. He saw Nathaniel ‘under the fig tree’ and called him away from it (John 1:48).
Has it ever occurred to you that the only thing that Jesus ever cursed while he was here on earth was . . . . . a fig tree?
That’s really what Jesus is all about, isn’t it? Cursing fig trees. His prophetic act wasn’t just a manifestation of anger because he had a hankering for a fig flavored snack—He was symbolically speaking to the world – to you and to me – That he came to bring life to the world, and he came to bring death to man-made religion that tries to produce coverings for itself.
So what about you? Got any fig trees still alive in your life? The tricky thing about fig trees is that they can look like the best trees in the world. They dress up in religious garb — extra fasting, extra praying, extra serving, extra giving. All wonderful if they are not an attempt to make me acceptable to God. He’s already provided all that’s necessary for that.
So let Jesus speak a final death blow to all the fig trees in your life. Like the tree he cursed, they are a fruitless bunch.
As I’ve been trying to tell Bishop all these years, life really is better ‘fig-free’!
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