This story causes a certain amount of consternation for believers, and is a favorite of Bible critics. Why would Jesus, in all His perfection, curse a poor defenseless tree for the small crime of having no fruit – especially when, as the version of the story in Mark says, it is not even the season for figs? It seems downright mean-spirited.

The answer, of course, is that Jesus was offering a spiritual lesson through the internal meanings of the things He did: a lesson about the nature of the Jewish church at the time, the nature of the church He was creating, and the nature of the “churches” we should all be building inside ourselves.

This story occurs the morning after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and a day spent chasing the money-lenders from the Temple (according to Matthew and Luke, anyway), healing, preaching, and confronting the church elders. The Writings say that in general, cities in the Bible represent doctrinal systems, the ideas and principles that give a church form. In this case, being Jerusalem, the city represents the doctrine of the Jewish church of the day. So Jesus had been assessing the church’s doctrine, and had found it wanting.

After a night in Bethany – a higher, more spiritual state of preparation and rejuvenation – Jesus was again looking to the external state of the church: heading back to Jerusalem. The fact that He was hungry represents his desire to find some true goodness in the Jewish church, an element of love and caring.

But it was not to be, a fact He illustrated through the fig tree.

A fig tree, according to the Writings, represents a state of natural goodness, a desire to be good in external, day-to-day things. Leaves represents facts, thoughts, ideas, intellectual things attached to that desire for good. Fruit represents the actual good deeds, good things performed from that desire, fed through the leaves. The fig tree, then, represents the state of the Jewish church of the time. It was intended to help people be good in their actions, in their external lives. It still had the knowledge – the leaves – that connected to that intended state. But it had no fruit – there was no actual good coming from it.

By causing the tree to wither, Jesus was showing the state of ideas – even valid ones – that are not used for good purposes: They are rendered false and lifeless. What He did to the tree showed what He was doing to the Jewish church: exposing the hollowness of its external ideas to make way for the new church He was launching.

And what would the nature of the new church be? Casting a mountain into the sea represents uprooting our deepest evil – the love of ourselves – and casting it into hell. Receiving “all things” means letting the Lord into our deepest recesses to bring His order and peace. That’s what the new church would offer, and what the Lord still offers: If we will believe – if we will acknowledge the Lord as God and follow His teachings – we can shed not only our external evils (the fig tree) but also our internal ones (the mountain) and reach a state of true blessedness.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 386 [29]; Arcana Coelestia 885 [2], 4314 [4]; The Apocalypse Explained 109 [6], 403 [21])

4302. 'And he was limping on his thigh' means that truths were not yet arranged into such an order that together with good they could all enter celestial-spiritual good. This is clear from the meaning of 'limping' as possessing good which does not as yet contain genuine truths but does contain general truths into which genuine ones can be instilled and which are such as do not disagree with genuine ones, dealt with below. In the highest sense, however, in which the Lord is the subject, 'limping on the thigh' means that truths were not yet arranged into such an order that with good they could all enter celestial-spiritual good - 'the thigh' meaning celestial-spiritual good, see above in 4277, 4278.

[2] As regards the order which truths must possess when they enter good, in this case celestial-spiritual good, no intelligible explanation of it is possible, for one needs to know before that what order is, and then what kind of order goes with truths, also what celestial-spiritual good is and then how these truths enter by way of good into that celestial-spiritual good. Even if these matters were described they would not be understood except by those who see with heavenly perception; nothing at all would be understood by those who see with merely natural perception. For those who see with heavenly perception dwell in the light of heaven which comes from the Lord, a light that holds intelligence and wisdom within it. But those who dwell in natural light do not possess any intelligence or wisdom except insofar as the light of heaven flows into that natural light and uses it in such a way that things belonging to heaven may be seen - as in a mirror or in some representative image - within things belonging to natural light. For natural light does not render any spiritual truth visible unless the light of heaven is flowing into it.

[3] This alone can be said regarding the order in which truths must exist to enable them to enter good. As with goods, all truths - not only the general ones but also the particular, and indeed the most specific - must in heaven have been arranged into that order so that one truth relates to another within a form like that in which the members, organs, and viscera of the human body relate to one another. That is, their uses relate to one another in general, also in particular, as well as most specifically, and act so as to be a single whole. From this - that is to say, from the order in which truths and goods exist - heaven itself is called the Grand Man. Its actual life comes from the Lord, who from Himself arranges every single thing into such order. Consequently heaven is a likeness and image of the Lord. When therefore truths have been arranged into an order like that into which heaven is arranged they exist in heavenly order and are able to enter good. Truths and goods exist in such order with every angel, and they are also being arranged into such order with every person who is being regenerated. In short, the order of heaven consists in the proper arrangement of truths that are the truths of faith within goods that are those of charity towards the neighbour, and the arrangement of these goods within the good that is the good of love to the Lord.

[4] The fact that 'limping' means possessing good which does not as yet contain genuine truths but does nevertheless contain general truths into which genuine ones can be instilled, and which are the kind that do not disagree with genuine truths; and thus the fact that 'the lame' are those who do possess good though not genuine good because they are without knowledge of truth - good such as gentiles possess who lead charitable lives with one another - becomes clear from those places in the Word where the lame and those who limp are mentioned in the good sense, as in Isaiah,

The eyes of the blind will be opened. and the ears of the deaf will be opened; then will the lame man leap like a hart, and the dumb man sing with his tongue. Isaiah 35:5-6.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, I am bringing them from the north land, and I will gather them from the extremities of the earth, among them the blind one and the lame, the woman who is with child and her who is giving birth, together. Jeremiah 31-8.

In Micah,

On that day, said Jehovah, I will bring together her who limps and will gather her who has been driven away. And I will make her who limps into the remnant, and her who was driven away into a numerous nation; and Jehovah will reign over them in Mount Zion, from now on and for ever. Micah 4:6-7.

In Zephaniah,

At that time I will save her who limps and will gather her who has been driven away, and I will make them a praise and a name. Zephaniah 3:19.

Anyone can see that in these places 'the lame' and 'her who limps' does not mean the lame or one who limps; for it is said of them that they will leap, be gathered together, be made into the remnant, and be saved. But it is evident that people who are governed by good and less so by truths are meant, as upright gentiles are and also those like them within the Church.

[5] Such persons are also meant by 'the lame' to whom the Lord refers in Luke,

Jesus said, When you give a feast invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed. Luke 14:13-14.

And in the same gospel,

The householder said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor, and the maimed, and the lame, and the blind. Luke 14:21.

The Ancient Church distinguished the neighbour or neighbours to whom they were to perform charitable works into different categories. Some they called the maimed, others the lame, some the blind, and others the deaf, by which they meant those who were spiritually such. Some they also called the hungry, the thirsty, strangers, the naked, the sick, or prisoners, as in Matthew 25:35-36, and likewise widows, orphans, the needy, the poor, and the wretched, by whom they meant none others than those who were such so far as truth and good were concerned, who were to be furnished with whatever was appropriate to their needs, led into 'the way', and thereby receive counsel regarding their souls. But because at the present day charity does not constitute the Church but faith, what those categories of people are used to mean in the Word is totally unknown. Yet it is evident to everyone that it is not an inviting of the maimed, the lame, and the blind to a feast that is meant, nor that the householder commanded such persons to be brought in, but that those who are like this spiritually are meant. It is also evident to them that every single utterance of the Lord contains what is Divine, and so has a celestial and a spiritual sense.

[6] The Lord's words in Mark have a similar meaning,

If your foot causes you to stumble cut it off, it is better for you to enter into life lame than having two feet to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, into the unquenchable fire. Mark 9:45; Matthew 18:8.

A foot which has to be cut off if it causes stumbling means the natural which constantly sets itself against the spiritual and has to be destroyed if it is trying to crush truths, and so means that because of the disagreement and contrary-mindedness of the natural man it is preferable to be governed by simple good even though there is a denial of truth. This is what 'entering into life lame' means. As regards 'the foot' meaning the natural, see 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280.

[7] 'The lame' also means in the Word those who possess no good at all and consequently no truth, as in Isaiah,

Then the prey will be divided; the prey multiplying, those who limp will take the prey. Isaiah 33:23.

In David,

When I am limping they are glad and are gathered together; the lame whom I do not know are gathered together against me. Psalms 35:15.

Such persons being meant by 'the lame' it was also forbidden to sacrifice anything that was lame, Deuteronomy 15:21-22; Malachi 1:8, 13. Also, no lame person belonging to the seed of Aaron could serve in the priesthood, Leviticus 21:18. As with the lame likewise with the blind, for 'the blind' in the good sense means people who have no knowledge of truth, and in the contrary sense those who are subject to falsities, 2383.

[8] In the original language one word is used to express a person who is lame, another a person who limps. In the proper sense one who is lame means people who are governed by natural good into which spiritual truths are unable to flow owing to the outward natural appearances and the delusions of the senses, while in the contrary sense one who is lame means those who are not governed by any natural good but by evil, which totally blocks the inflow of spiritual truth. One who limps however means in the proper sense those who are governed by natural good into which general truths are allowed to enter but not particular and specific truths owing to lack of knowledge, whereas in the contrary sense one who limps means those who are subject to evil and so do not even allow general truths to enter in.