Bethany and the Fig Tree
Bethany and the Fig Tree
The Lord between those who sincerely love Him and those who hypocritically conspire against Him
Among the touching expressions in the story of Christ’s Passion is what the Scripture says about Him: “And He left and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.” (Matt. 21:17).
Perhaps some may ask: what is touching about this phrase?
We answer that many rose up against Christ: the chief priests, the elders of the people, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and others.
Amid the conspiracy that was being plotted against Him in the holy city of Jerusalem, there were sincere hearts that loved Him in the village of Bethany!
Jerusalem the great, the city of the great King, was filled with noise and clamor, intrigues and conspiracies, and weary leaders… As for Bethany, there was Lazarus in it, for whom Christ wept, and the people said, “See how He loved him!” (John 11:36)… And there were the people who gathered around Him after the raising of Lazarus, and there was Mary who represents contemplation, and Martha who represents service…
Jerusalem, the wide great city, did not have a heart as wide and great as itself.
The city of the great King conspired against the great King and did not deserve Him.
But the village of Bethany opened its doors and its heart to the Lord. It was not as famous as Jerusalem, but it was full of love and sincerity.
The Lord had kept for Himself a remnant of sincere hearts there…
Examples of “Bethany” in the love of God:
At the time when corruption prevailed and God destroyed the world with the flood, He found His rest in the house of Noah, so it was a “Bethany” for Him. And when the Lord saw Himself a stranger in Sodom, He found for Himself a Bethany in the heart of Lot and his two daughters. And as an example of Bethany, there was righteous Joseph in the land of Egypt.
God did not leave Himself without a witness in any age. In every region there was a “Bethany” in which the Lord found rest from the weariness of Jerusalem and from the conspiracy of the envious…
The Lord kept for Himself a remnant that loves Him, worships Him, and remains steadfast with Him in His tribulations, saying to Him: even if all leave You, I will not leave You.
The Fig Tree:
The Scripture says: “Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it” (Matt. 21:18–19). It is strange that Christ would be hungry in the morning, whereas it is usual for the fasting person to become hungry at the end of the day.
There is no explanation except that He was fasting and did not eat the previous evening; Martha had prepared food, but He did not eat. He was occupied with matters more important—the cause of salvation for the whole world.
Or perhaps He was in Bethany being nourished by the love of sincere hearts, and when He approached the conspiring city, He became hungry…
The hunger of the Lord indicates that He emptied Himself and left Himself to suffering and hunger. Likewise His saying on the cross, “I thirst.”
So He came to a leafy fig tree, perhaps to find fruit on it. But it had also abandoned Him and offered Him nothing in His hunger.
The fig tree reminds us of the sin of Adam who covered his nakedness with fig leaves. And Christ came to save him at the same time that the fig leaves appeared.
Fig leaves are a symbol of covering sin without treating it. They are evidence of hypocrisy: merely an outward appearance… And the same hypocrisy the Lord found in the tree. It is known that the fruit of the fig appears first, then the leaves grow to cover it, protect it, and hide it…
But in this tree, there was no fruit. The leaves did not cover fruit, but rather nakedness, just as in the story of Adam.
And when Christ found no fruit on it but leaves, He cursed it… He found it like whitewashed tombs on the outside, like a cup clean on the outside, like those who wash their hands while their hands are full of blood.
Therefore, when He cursed the tree, He cursed in it the false appearances and hypocrisy. And He saw in it an image of the scribes and Pharisees, who were like it—leafy trees without fruit… so He shamed them by cursing the tree.
Shortly after, He pronounced woe upon the scribes and Pharisees who were like the fig tree (Matt. 23). He also spoke about the priests in the parable of the wicked vinedressers, and about the temple which outwardly was a form of worship, but inwardly “they made it a den of thieves”… And He had previously spoken about the vineyard that He expected to bear fruit but did not.
The sins of the whole world were clear before Him, a cause for His sufferings…
The hypocrisy of the world, its appearances, the leaves without fruit—the scribes, the Pharisees, the wicked vinedressers… the whole world in its sin.
Therefore, He became hungry at last. He did not find in the world anything to be nourished by.
He found no fruit in the vineyard He planted, nor in the vinedressers, nor in the temple… And although He cursed this hypocrisy—in the tree and in the blind leaders—He carried this hypocrisy upon His shoulder to erase it with His blood, for those who repent among them…
All these whitewashed tombs outwardly—Christ bore what was inside them of rotten bones!!
How many examples resemble the leafy fig tree!…
- It resembles the people of whom the Lord said: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Mark 7:6)… Their lips are green fig leaves, but their heart—which represents the fruit—is far away… unfruitful.
- A person who speaks good things, meditates on them, preaches them, and serves, yet his heart does not dwell with God.
- A person active in the Church, with a name, reputation, and fame, yet empty of the love of God and knowledge of Him.
On the last day, God will weigh the hearts from within. He will not care about the outward green leaves, but about the fruit…
Would that in Holy Week we produce fruits worthy of repentance…
A strange thing…!
This week in which the Lord presents the depth of His love for the world—for there is no greater love than this, that one lay down his life for his friends… and “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”…
In this week of love, we find the Lord using His strongest rebukes and punishments!!
The gentle, meek Christ takes a whip, drives out the sellers, and overturns the tables of the money changers, and rebukes them saying, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves” (Matt. 21:13). And on the next day He curses the fig tree and it withers. Then He explains to the priests the parable of the wicked vinedressers and says to them, “The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing its fruits” (Matt. 21:43). Then He rebukes the scribes and Pharisees saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites” (Matt. 23)… Then He weeps over Jerusalem and says to its people, “See! Your house is left to you desolate” (Matt. 23:38)… Strange—what happened?!
The sins of the people were accumulated before the Lord, in their ugliness and in their judgment. It was fitting to warn their owners before removing them.
Some take matters lightly as they wish and think to hide in the blood of Christ. But in this week in which Christ bears the judgment of the world, the judgment of sin must be shown to them: the curse of the fig tree, the desolation of the house, the removal of the kingdom, the woes of the teachers.
Yet all these curses and punishments, the Lord gathered on Friday and carried on behalf of the repentant among them…
“Be at peace, O poor fig tree, I am the One who will wither instead of you.”
Thus Christ appeared on the cross like a dry tree, as though cut off from the land of the living; His throat dried from thirst; He had no form nor comeliness nor appearance that we should desire Him.
Maundy Thursday
Be ready for Communion
On Maundy Thursday, be ready for Communion.
Every liturgy celebrated throughout the year takes its origin from this great day.
Remember the Lord’s saying about Communion: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56).
And remember the priest’s saying in the liturgy: “Given for us for salvation, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life to all who partake of Him.”
We partake “for the purity of our souls, bodies, and spirits,” as we pray in the Divine Liturgy.
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