During Holy Week, my family and I like to talk and read about what happened on each day as Jesus went from a celebrated hero on Palm Sunday to a crucified rebel on Friday to our risen Savior on Easter Sunday. So, long about Tuesday, it was time to discuss how Jesus got hangry.
Hangry is a familiar feeling in our home. If you have never experienced it, count yourself lucky, I suppose, but for the rest of us, it is when feeling a little hungry leads to being really irritable–hungy plus angry equals hangry.
In both Matthew 21 and Mark 11, we find the story of Jesus and his disciples walking once again toward Jerusalem. Jesus was hungry. He stopped by a fig tree to pick a fig to fill his belly, and the tree had no fruit! Jesus cursed the tree and said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” They walked on to Jerusalem, and this is when Jesus flips tables and runs the crooked money-changers out of the Temple. Quoting Jesus in Mark 11: 17, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
The next morning, the fig tree had completely withered to never make fruit again!
Now, who am I to question the Creator of the universe?! But it seems to me that Jesus, the One for whom and by whom all things were made, could have just as easily said to the fig tree to make fruit and it would have done so. Immediately. We do, afterall, serve the God of “and suddenly”, but instead Jesus curses the fig tree for not having fruit and it never makes fruit again.
Talk about hangry….
But I believe this is just the human side of me, looking at the human side of Jesus. There was more to this story, and more that we can take away from it.
First of all, being hangry is real, both for our physical bodies and for our emotional selves. We need not just physical food, but spiritual food. Yes, it is important to nourish our physical bodies, but maybe even more important is to feed our spiritual selves. In Matthew 4:4, when Jesus was fasting in the wilderness before going to work (by work, I mean, His ministry), Satan tempted Him with food, and Jesus replied, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Prayer, time with God and His Word, communion with other believers, serving others: all of these are ways to nourish and feed our souls and replenish our weary hearts.
Secondly, Jesus cursing the fig tree that wasn’t producing fruit is really just another parable about living lives that express our faith. The religious leaders of their time had created a church environment that was no longer about worshiping God, but about appearances, money, greed, and so many other of the big ten sins. (Sounds just like today, right?!) Jesus flipped tables and cleaned the Temple out, not because He was physically hangry, but because He was passionate about His Father’s house being used as intended. Our lives should represent who we serve; our actions should be born out of a genuine faith in Jesus. Anything less is fake religion and is not what Jesus came to teach us. Cursing the fruit tree that wasn’t producing fruit was an illustration of those “fake religious” leaders–they say one thing with their words but their lives don’t produce fruit. A life of real faith produces fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5: 22-23)
If your life feels empty, if your faith feels weak, if your soul feels hangry, maybe it is time to go back to the Bread of Life and eat of the fruits that never fail. Feast on a love that will never lie and never leave. Fill yourself to content with something that will outlast this lifetime. Jesus was fully man and fully God–He gets us. He gets you. And He loves you so much that He died for you!
This Easter season, I pray you remember what my Memaw always said: Jesus loves you, and so do I!
Dr. Allison Key
