ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
October 18, 2022
There are days when I wonder if there are more scriptures that leave me confused than those that leave me content. In Mark 11, Jesus encounters a fig tree. It says,
Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, Jesus went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
Notice the phrase, “…it was not the season for figs.” It’s like turning on the TV hoping to watch my Kansas City Royals playing in mid-October (that’s Bruce’s sarcasm about the Royals not playing well enough to make it to the playoffs). Why would Jesus curse a fig tree for doing the very thing it was supposed to do? There are plenty of scholarly theories, but I’ve yet to find one that feels very good.
I would never tell anyone to toss out a passage of scripture, but I wonder if there are times when we may never fully understand the meaning of a passage. And spending extensive time on something that might have been an inside joke between Mark and his community is not the best use of our time.
Don’t get me wrong, it is OK to struggle and struggle some more with passages of scripture, but I think we can struggle in more productive ways with the passages where we understand the meaning but are having a hard time figuring out exactly how to fulfill the scripture.
Be my help, O God, in determining how best to spend my time in study and reflection, for I know there is still so much for me to learn. Amen.
