Are you fruitful?

Matthew 21:18-22 ESV

In the morning, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry, and he noticed a fig tree beside the road. He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” And immediately the fig tree withered up.

The disciples were amazed when they saw this and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”

Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

I am thinking this morning about the implications of Jesus' cursing the fig tree.

William Barclay says "the symbolic action taught that uselessness invites disaster… This incident teaches that profession without practice is condemned… Profession without practice was not only the curse of the Jews; it is been through out the ages the curse of the church.… Profession without practice is something of which we are all more or less guilty… We may well believe that Jesus used the lesson of the diseased and degenerate fig tree to say to the Jews – and to us – that uselessness invites disaster, and profession without practice is doomed." (Barclay in The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2, pp. 280-281).

There are multiple implications to this scripture lesson. Fruitfulness, faithfulness, and service are key among them.