In Mark 11:12-26, the Bible reports how Jesus searches in vain for fruit on a fig tree. Jesus then says that the tree will never bear fruit again and withers. A bizarre story. What is Jesus trying to say?

The story only makes sense if we understand it as a symbolic action (parable / symbol) by Jesus.

The key to this text lies in verse 25: ‘So that your Father also, who is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.’

God wants to remove everything that stands between us and him. If our guilt reaches like mountains to the sky, God wants to sink it into the depths of the sea.

Jesus looks for the fruit of faith in Israel that the forefathers had and does not find it.

Jesus uses the fig tree to show that the temple service has come to an end, because he does not find the fruit he is looking for in the temple.

The temple was destroyed in the year 70. It is no longer ritual acts that sanctify us before God, it is the belief that God sinks the mountains of guilt into the deepest sea.

God longs for us to long for this deep connection with him. A faith that changes our heart and behaviour.