GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 13:28
Fig-tree Parable
We have two fig trees, and I checked on them yesterday (7/14/26). They have put out leaves, and they have fruit about the size of a grape. These trees usually put forth fruit twice a year: the early fruit appears sometimes in June, and the late fruit, sometimes in August. It’s a sure sign that spring has arrived, and summer will soon follow.
Jesus and his disciples were on the way to Bethany, and they stopped at the Mount of Olives, where Jesus taught the lesson described by Mark. Jesus described for his students some of the events ahead for Jerusalem, and then he made a shift in the lesson, from prophecy to parable. “But from the fig tree learn this parable: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.” (Mark 13:28)
One writer says that fig trees grow abundantly on the Mount of Olives, so there were likely fig trees close by. The Asian fig tree requires a good amount of warmth and sunshine to put forth leaves and fruit. The tree puts forth leaves and fruit at the same time, and they rapidly mature.
Jesus told his disciples to “learn,” and the verb is in the imperative mood—that is, a command. They were to take notice of what was near at hand, what they could obviously see. Of the many obvious applications of this parable, one is surely that we should learn and pay attention to events close at hand and take instruction from them.
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