Jesus Cursed a Tree?!

Matthew 21:18-21

Jesus curses a fig tree. Wait...Jesus curses a fig tree? Just because it didn't have any fruit on it? That seems...random and unnecessary.

But like everything Jesus did, no matter how cryptic, there was meaning behind it. Are there shiny, pretty things in your life that look good from far away, like the tree, but up close they bear no fruit? Or maybe things that look good on the outside--maybe even look God-honoring on the outside--but on the inside, God is nowhere to be found? Maybe you have those shiny, pretty things in your life that  draw you away from God. Or maybe that shiny, pretty thing in your life is you. You look like you have it all together from the outside, but on the inside, you are lost.

There is another part to this passage that is worth noting. Jesus told the disciples that if they had faith and did not doubt, they could move mountains. This is such a crazy thought to me. What kinds of mountains can he possibly be talking about here? I'm not strong enough to do anything like that! But then I think about it. I think about the things that have happened in my life through faith. And yes, I had the faith, but it was really God who did those things. And the older I've gotten, the stronger my faith has grown, the more and more I've been able to pick out the fruit-bearing, life-bringing things in my life to keep, and throw away the shiny, pretty things that distract me from God. Cursing my own fig trees, in a way. And moving my mountains, with the strength of the Lord.

Reflect:
1. What are the fig trees in your life? Things that seem attractive, draw you away from God. They may even be things or people that are related to God or the church, but you put your faith in that instead of God.
2. What mountains have God helped you move in the past? Reflect and praise him.
3. What mountains need moving? Pray and ask God for the faith and the strength to move them.