Mensa Otabil - The Danger of Unfruitfulness
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Matthew 21:19: And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, «Let no fruit grow on you ever again.» Immediately, the fig tree withered away. It is just stunning to see what Jesus did to this fig tree, as it seems uncharacteristic of Him. Why do I say that? Jesus was noted for miracles; miracles were the hallmark of His life and ministry. When you look at the ministry of Jesus, you see many miracles. In the miracles of Jesus, He takes something bad and makes it good; He takes something that is not doing well and makes it thrive. The sick become healed; the blind see. He doesn’t make a situation worse off. When there is a storm, He calms it. That’s how Jesus works.
However, in this particular miracle, Jesus takes a situation that is not good and makes it worse, and that should puzzle us. Why was Jesus so vehement against this tree? There could be other eschatological explanations for it, but I’m just going to consider it from a surface-level perspective. Why did Jesus react so vehemently? Why did He look at a tree that was not bearing fruit? Why didn’t He just say, «Bear fruit»? He had the power to do that, but He actually denied it further from ever being useful.
This is not rare if you take into account the parables and teachings of Jesus. In the Parable of the Talents, we see that Jesus talked about the fact that the person who was unproductive had his talent taken from him and given to the one who was productive. Our normal response would be to encourage someone who is unproductive. If somebody is wasting resources, we would encourage them. However, that is not God’s approach. God does not take kindly to wastage. So when He says to us, «Be fruitful,» it’s a command, and if we persist in not being fruitful, He takes from us the power to ever be fruitful again.
That is a very severe judgment on us. That means if God gives me His grace, He gives me gifts, He gives me abilities, He opens doors for me, He gives me opportunities, and I mess it up; if I don’t work hard and I am lazy, and I don’t use His gifts well, He will take what He has given to me from my hand. That is God’s judgment. God does not pamper fruitlessness; He does not encourage it.
The warning to all of us is that if we keep living unproductive lives-squandering opportunity and abusing the gifts of God, misusing His grace-He will actually deny us everything that He has given to us. He took the one talent from the person and gave it to another, and He took life from this fig tree because that story later says it withered and died on the ground, as it was wasting the nutrients of the soil. If we fail to use God’s gifts to be fruitful, unfortunately, He will take His gifts and abilities from us.
So we have no other recourse except to be fruitful and maximize the opportunities that God has for us. So this week, let us be fruitful. Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, make my life fruitful. Help me to use all the gifts You have given me to their fullest. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.»