Chapter Seven: The Fig Tree

As we followed Jesus back to Martha's house the gravity of Jesus' actions sank into my brain. I was already trying to get around the fact that Jesus was calling himself God, but his actions in the Great Temple where mind-boggling enough.

Regardless of my own personal feelings towards what went on in the temple before Jesus put a stop to it, I had to admit that it was a way of life that seemed to be working. Sure, I wasn't particularly happy to find a huge market place within the house of prayer. But it had created a place for venders to sell their products, and for others to buy them. The Great Temple had become an informal social gathering, which wasn't really a bad thing.

Even if Jesus didn't like what was going on the temple, even he would have to admit that it was an organized system that people were content with. It was so easy for Jesus to tear it down, but how easy would it be for him to come with another way of worship? I became fearful that if Jesus didn't succeed in doing so, he would die trying.

Jesus showed his true mission in the Great Temple. He wasn't just set on spreading a message of love and peace to his fellow man. His ambitions were going far beyond that. Jesus didn't want to just show to the world what hypocrites the Pharisees were. He wanted to change the very ideals of organized religion.

I remembered the things that Jesus said to Caiaphas.

"Very truly I tell you, when the corner stone falls, it will crush the third corruption that I have mentioned!"

When I first heard them, I thought that they were the words of a slightly cocky self-confident rabbi. I now saw that Jesus was totally convinced that he could change the world. Like a madman he was turning the whole world upside down!

The worst part was that Jesus was totally fearless about doing so. He didn't care if he had to be a complete fanatic and destroy valuable things. Jesus didn't care who he had to danger in order to establish his kingdom on Earth. He didn't care that he had to call himself God so that people would listen.

And they were! People were blindly following Jesus. His popularity increased daily. Jesus had the entire Jewish population wrapped around his finger. People thought that he was the Messiah, and would do whatever he told them to.

It was a two hour walk back to Martha's house. Two hours was a long time to be thinking about Jesus' mission. We walked in awkward silence the whole time. The followers had left us, and only the official twelve, the two Marys, Jesus, and I were left.

When we were back at Martha's neighborhood Jesus suddenly said, "I'm hungry."

He walked over to a fig tree growing beside the sidewalk. When they are in season, fig trees produce some of the most delicious fruit that I've ever tasted. But it was fall, and this tree was bearing no fruit. I knew that the reason that the tree had no figs was because it was out of season. Jesus, however, seemed to be offended by its lack of fruit.

"You have nothing for me to eat!" Jesus yelled at the tree. "Because of this, I curse you! Never again will you ever bear any fruit!"

With these words the tree withered away and died. Everyone but I gasped at this in awe. Jesus resumed walking to Martha's house. Everyone was amazed that Jesus killed the fig tree just by speaking. I wasn't.

I had seen Jesus turn water into wine, walk on water, and heal the sick. I'm sure that Jesus would have liked me to think that he could do these things because he was the son of God. But I had seen pagan priests summon spirits, Greek wizards predict the future, and Roman philosophers cast spells over their enemies. Not all supernatural powers are owned by God. Whatever the source of his power was, Jesus was using them to further his own agenda.

While the disciples were even more convinced that Jesus because of what he did to the tree, and became more and more fearful of him. When we walked into the house I was the only disciple who asked himself, Who have I been following these past three years?