On this day also we remember how the Lord entered to Jerusalem on Monday morning after having spent the night in Bethania. On His way to Jerusalem, He saw a leafy fig tree, but when He approached it He found no fruit and it deserved to be cursed immediately.
“Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” [Mtt. 21:18]
Fig trees are not very user-friendly. They contain an enzyme call “ficin,” which, when touched, can cause severe skin irritation. St. Augustine understood these itchy coverings to signify the “irritations of lust to which “humanity” had been reduced by sinning.” In other words, just as these leaves cause irritation to force us to scratch, they signify how the irritation of lust beckons us to sin. The fig tree is a symbol of the Jewish nation, which had the outward appearance of fruits, because they had followed the letter of the law and boosts to be a blessed people. But they lacked fruits in that they didn’t abide by the Spirit of the Law; and lacks the faith, love and holiness to accept Jesus Christ and obey His commandment. As Adam and Eve covered their sin with the fig tree, Christ rebukes the fig tree to tell us that we can no longer cover our sins with a cloak of hypocrisy. “The fig tree,” St John Chrysostom said, “with its broad leaves represents the wide road. Also its reminds us of the sin which Adam tried to cover with its leaves”.
You cursed it, Lord, not only because it had no fruits, but it was full of broad green leaves. The leaves gave a false promise of fruits, a kind of pretense. How you hate hypocrisy, you examines the heart and tests the kidneys. This is how God rebukes a fruitless person, “ These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” [Jude 1]. You then remembered, Lord, when our our first parents had tried to hide their nakedness with the same leaves and cover themselves with these itchy, irritating leaves and was only covered by the work of Your hands when you made clothes of skin for him. Nothing can cover your nakedness, O my soul, except the blood of the slain Lamb. Draw near to Him, O my soul, without deception or hypocrisy so that He sanctifies you. He doesn’t see your attractive appearance that people see, but testes your heart.
