would say to us, “I have no delight in the withering away of this tree, but thus I would convey
to you, that I have not designed to do this without any cause for it, but only because I desired
thereby to convey to you a lesson you might the more regard. It is not this tree that I have
cursed, it is not on a tree without sense that I have inflicted punishment, but I have made
thee fear, whosoever thou art that dost consider the matter, that thou mightest not despise
Christ when He is an hungered, that thou mightest love rather to be enriched with fruit,
than to be overshadowed by leaves.”
4. This one thing is that which the Lord intimates that He designed to signify by what
He did. What else is there? He cometh to the tree being hungry, and seeketh fruit. Did He
not know that it was not the time for it? What the cultivator of the tree knew, did not its
Creator know? He seeketh on the tree then for fruit which it had not yet. Doth He really
seek for it, or rather make a pretence of seeking it? For if He really sought it, He was mistaken.
But this be far from Him, to be mistaken! He made then a pretence of seeking it. Fearing to
allow this, that he maketh a pretence, thou dost confess that He was mistaken. Again, thou
dost turn away from the idea of His being mistaken, and so run into that of His making a
pretence. We are parched up between the two. If we are parched, let us beg for rain, that we
may grow green, lest in saying anything unworthy of the Lord, we rather wither away. The
Evangelist indeed says, “He came to the tree, and found no fruit on it.”2965 “He found none,”
would not be said of Him, unless He had either really sought for it, or made a pretence of
seeking, though He knew that there was none there. Wherefore we do not hesitate, let us
by no means say that Christ was mistaken. What then? shall we say He made a pretence?
Shall we say this? How shall we get out of this difficulty? Let us say what, if the Evangelist
had not said of the Lord in another place, we should not of ourselves dare to say. Let us say
what the Evangelist has written, and when we have said, let us understand it. But in order
that we may understand it, let us first believe. For, “unless ye believe,” says the Prophet, “ye
shall not understand.”2966 The Lord Christ after His Resurrection, was walking in the way
with two of His disciples, by whom He was not yet recognised, and with whom He joined
company as a third traveller. They came to the place whither they were going, and the
Evangelist says, “But He made a pretence as though He would have gone further.”2967 But
they kept Him, saying, in the spirit of a courteous kindness,2968 that it was already drawing
toward evening, and praying Him to tarry there with them; being received and entertained
by them, He breaketh Bread, and is known of them in blessing and breaking of the Bread.
So then, let us not now fear to say, that He made a pretence of seeking, if He made a pretence
2965 Matt. xxi. 19.
2966 Isa. vii. 9, Sept.
2967 Luke xxiv. 28.
2968 More humanitatis.
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On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxi. 19, where Jesus dried up the fig-tree;…