the miracle than the presenting of so impressive an object lesson for
the instructions that followed, that smitten tree has proved of greater
service to humanity than have all the fig orchards of Bethphage.[1083]
To the apostles the act was another and an indisputable proof of the
Lord's power over nature, His control of natural forces and all material
things, His jurisdiction over life and death. He had healed multitudes;
the wind and the waves had obeyed His words; on three occasions He had
restored the dead to life; it was fitting that He should demonstrate His
power to smite and to destroy. In manifesting His command over death, He
had mercifully raised a maiden from the couch on which she had died, a
young man from the bier on which he was being carried to the grave,
another from the sepulchre in which he had been laid away a corpse; but
in proof of His power to destroy by a word He chose a barren and
worthless tree for His subject. Could any of the Twelve doubt, when, a
few days later they saw Him in the hands of vindictive priests and
heartless pagans, that did He so will He could smite His enemies by a
word, even unto death? Yet not until after His glorious resurrection did
even the apostles realize how truly voluntary His sacrifice had been.

But the fate that befell the barren fig tree is instructive from another
point of view. The incident is as much parable as miracle. That leafy
tree was distinguished among fig trees; the others offered no
invitation, gave no promise; "the time of figs was not yet"; they, in
due season would bring forth fruit and leaves; but this precocious and
leafy pretender waved its umbrageous limbs as in boastful assertion of
superiority. For those who responded to its ostentatious invitation, for
the hungering Christ who came seeking fruit, it had naught but leaves.
Even for the purposes of the lesson involved, we cannot conceive of the
tree being blighted primarily because it was fruitless, for at that
season the other fig trees were bare of fruit also; it was made the
object of the curse and the subject of the Lord's instructive discourse,
because, having leaves, it was deceptively barren. Were it reasonable to
regard the tree as possessed of moral agency, we would have to pronounce
it a hypocrite; its utter barrenness coupled with its abundance of
foliage made of it a type of human hypocrisy.

The leafy, fruitless tree was a symbol of Judaism, which loudly
proclaimed itself as the