GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 11:20
Healthy Roots
“I think that tree’s dead,” Alice said one spring morning, gesturing to a huge oak on our front lawn. Its limbs were intact and it was covered with bark, but it bore no leaves. Sure enough, it was dead. Its roots, somehow, had not received enough moisture to keep the tree alive.
At one time, farmers would kill trees by cutting a notch around them—a process called “girdling”—and letting them rot to clear a field. But there was no damage to the bark on this tree; it had withered from the roots. There had been no indication the previous season that the tree was struggling; in fact, the trees beside it remained healthy. So I contacted a tree service to remove the dead tree. With a crew of four, chain saws, and a large bucket truck, the workmen reduced the tree to a stump.
On their way from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples saw a fig tree in full foliage. In some varieties of figs, the fruit appears before the leaves. Someone living among fig trees would undoubtedly know the different varieties. In this instance, the early figs would appear before the regular fig crop, but this tree had none. Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” Mark wrote, “And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.” (Mark 11:20) Whether it was the next morning or some morning later, the deceptive tree had withered. Matthew said the tree withered “immediately” (Matthew 21:19); this word can also carry the meaning of “soon” rather than “instantly.”
However one reads this, the point is that the deceptive tree perished from the roots. It had been taking up nutrients and resources that neighboring trees might have needed. The huge oak on the front lawn died from the roots, not from infected leaves or storm-damaged limbs. It no longer consumes resources that could benefit the trees around it. Regardless of how one reads Mark’s story, at least one lesson is clear—occupying space, absorbing nutrients, or using resources should lead to the production of fruit.
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