Let The Miracle Of The Fig Tree Grow Your Faith

*Toni cried out to God to save her husband. But she was terribly conflicted by the thought that in order for David to live, someone else would have to die. So, she began to ask God for a miraculous healing. By early December both Toni and David were feeling a strange peace about it. But Toni wanted more assurance that God’s miracle was on the way, so she prayed: “Lord, I will know David’s okay, if you make it snow on Christmas Day, in McAllen, Texas.”

*Now in the middle of winter, “cold” weather in McAllen is 70 degrees. And when Toni told several close people about her prayer, close friend Crawford Higgins replied, “Toni, if you’re expecting it to snow here, where we’ve lived all our lives, and never seen snow. -- And specifically on Christmas Day? -- You might as well start making the burial arrangements.”

*But it did snow on Christmas Eve, starting around 11:30 that night. For the first time in recorded history, McAllen, Texas had a white Christmas! It was their first measurable snow in 109 years. Three weeks later Toni and David drove back to Houston for tests at DeBakey Institute. There, Dr. Guillermo Torre’s jaw dropped in wonder at the report. “I can’t explain this!” he said with surprise in his voice. “You’re not sick anymore!” (2)

*Of course, God doesn’t always heal us like that, because this world is not our home. But you can be sure that every day He answers prayers in amazing ways, because all things are possible with God. Grow your faith on the Lord’s ability.

3. And grow your faith for the Lord’s priority.

*What is the Lord’s priority for our lives? -- It is fruitfulness. And we are reminded of this priority in vs. 19, “Seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, ‘Let no fruit grow on you ever again.’ And immediately the fig tree withered away.”

*What was the problem with the fig tree? -- no fruit. Now this was a most unusual miracle. It was the only judgment miracle that Jesus performed while He was on the earth.

*There was important symbolism in this fig tree. John Phillips explains that the fig tree was one of the symbols of the nation of Israel. The fig tree represents Israel from the time the nation rejects Christ to the time when Israel as a nation accepts Christ. The cursing of the literal fig tree by Israel’s rejected King was a symbolic act. It was a parable as well as a miracle. The symbolic cursing of Matthew 21 was followed in by the actual cursing of the nation that the tree symbolized. (3)

*This took place in Matt 23, where Jesus ended His righteous judgment of the scribes and Pharisees with these words:

33. "Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

34. Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,

35. that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.