Vers. 12—26. Parallel passages: Matt. xxi. 12—22; Luke xix. 45—48.—The Bighting of the barren fig tree. I. Sympouism. 1. Miracles of mercy. Mercy has been called God’s darling attribute; judgment is his strange work. The only-begotten Son, wh» has declared the Father unto us, has manifested the selfsame character. His miracles are miracles of mercy—all save two. Of these two, one was permissive and punitive, when our Lord allowed the devils to enter into the swine of the Gadarenes; the other, which is recorded in this passage, is a sort of symbol such as the old propheta used when they inculcated any solemn utterance, or wished specially to impress any predicted event. This custom was common in New as well as in Old Testament times. Thus Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. Thus also Agabus, when he fore- told Paul’s imprisonment at Jerusalem, symbolized the fact by taking the apostle’s girdle and therewith binding his own hands and feet, saying, “So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle.” In like manner our Lord, by this miracle of the blasted fig tree, most symbolically and significantly sets forth the blight of barrenness which so justly fell upon the Jewish people, and which is sure to fall upon any people or any person who has only the leaves of an outside profession, but who wants the fruits at a genuine faith or a heartfelt piety. To pro- nounce a curse on @ senseless tree might appear meaningless—it might even seem vindictive. Not so, however, when the Saviour, in order to express the hopes which the appearance of the tree excited, and the disappointment which its want of fruit occasioned, devoted that tree by a striking figure to future and for ever fruit- lessness. He thereby converts that tree into a symbol of the hypocrite or false professor, be he Gentile or be he Jew; and makes it a danger-signal, at once to warn us of the danger and ward off the doom. 2. Judyment succeeds the abuse of mercy. Another lesson which our Lord teaches us by this tree is the consequence of abused mercy. When mercy has been abused, judgment must succeed. The day of grace does not always last; and when that day has passed, and its privileges have been misused, the axe is then laid to the root of the tree, that it may be hewn down and cast into the fire. Such was the case with the body of the Jewish nation at the very time this miracle was wrought. Their day of grace was expiring. ‘Their heart had remained untouched by that most pathetic appeal, “If thou hadst known, even thon, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!” Now, however, they were hid from their eyes. A woe similar to that pronounced on Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum had gone forth against all that people, notwithstanding the fact that they had once been the people of God, and notwithstanding the many and great privileges which they had enjoyed, as well as the loud and leafy professions they had made. 38. The relation of the miracle of the fig tree to the parable of the fig tree. The fact of this relationship should be kept in view. The miracle narrated in this passage and the parable recorded by St. Luke are in a great measure the converse of each other. The parable of the fig tree long spared through the intercession of the vine-dresser, and this miracle of the fig tree suddenly withered to the very roots, are to a large extent the right opposite of each other. The one represents mercy pleading, the other judgment suddenly and surely overtaking the guilty; the one the long- suffering kindness of God, the other the swift vengeance of Heaven; the one mercy prevailing over judgment, the other judgment without mercy; the one a tree spared in hope of fruitfulness, the other a tree suddenly scathed to the very earth because of its barrenness. There is, however, one point, and only one point, in common ; and that is, the end of continued unfruitfulness is cursing, the end of barrenness is burning, and the end of all leaf and no fruit is the speedy execution of the sentence, “ Bind them in bundles, and burn them.” 4. A comparison and a contrast. In the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find a beautiful comparison and an awful con- trast: by the former the lesson of the parable is enforced, and by the latter the warn-
148 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [ou. x1. 138.
ing of this miracle receivesa solemn sahction. “The earth,” we there read, “which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.”