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Jesus and the Fig Tree
Jesus used a fruitless fig tree to teach his disciples about faith in God, prayer, and forgiveness.
One morning, as Jesus was going back towards the city, he was hungry. He saw a fig tree with leaves, and he went to see whether it had any fruit.
But the tree had only leaves. Mark notes that it was not the season for figs. Jesus spoke against the tree so that it would no longer give fruit, and his disciples heard him.
Matthew tells it this way: the fig tree withered immediately. When the disciples saw this, they were amazed and asked how the tree had withered so quickly.
Mark tells the discovery on the next morning. As they passed by, the disciples saw that the fig tree had withered from the roots. Peter pointed it out and remembered what Jesus had said to the tree.
Jesus answered by telling them to have faith in God. He said that without doubting, even something as impossible as a mountain thrown into the sea is within God's power. He taught them to pray in faith, and when they pray, to forgive others so that their Father in heaven may also forgive them.
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A children’s retelling of Matthew 21:18–22; Mark 11:12–14; Mark 11:20–25. You can read the Bible passage together too.
Matthew presents the withering immediately, while Mark records Jesus speaking to the tree and the disciples noticing its withered roots the next morning. This retelling preserves both accounts' sequencing without merging them into one timeline.
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Source: World English Bible Classic, a public domain translation. This page is a retelling, rather than a word-for-word Bible text.
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