Meditation on the fig tree

I was thinking about Jesus and the fig tree. You will recall that the Lord, being hungry, had approached the squat, gnarly plant and found no fruit. He then spoke words to it: "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." The words went out with power and accomplished their goal.

A new detail of the story came to my attention this time: Matthew says "And the fig tree withered at once" (21:18). Mark says "the disciples heard" Jesus curse the tree (11:14); it was only the next morning, as they passed that way again, that "they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots" (11:20).

So when did the fig tree wither? Well, "at once," says Matthew. I suppose even the morning after (Mark's version) can be considered "at once" if you were expecting long, drawn-out death convulsions. But let us assume that "at once" means what we normally mean by it. Even at that, I suppose that a tree could be withered "at once" in some sense before the withering is apparent to the human eye. (I am always sobered when I pick a dandelion and realize that I have just ensured its imminent decomposition, though at the moment of picking, and for hours later, it still looks as good as a living flower.)

Whichever of the above scenarios is the case, there is no manifestation to the apostles' view of the results of Jesus' words until the next day. That struck me because of my recent experience of the healing of my long-term insomnia. It had appeared that the prayers, and the anointing by the elders, didn't "work" for weeks or months. But the fig tree incident suggests another explanation.

Perhaps the moment I and others prayed, the prayer was answered, but its effects took time to manifest, just as Jesus' curse, though immediately efficacious and "bound" in the heavenly realms, did not rise to the threshold of human observation until the following morning. In other words, there may be a time lag in the physical world that is not in the heavenlies, between word pronounced and effects made visible.

Why is that a happy observation for me? Because thus informed, I will henceforth be more patient---and more believing---about prayers that seem unanswered. After all, when the psalmist prays "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry" (40:1), there may well be 40 years that elapse between part "a" and part "b" of that verse.

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