The Fig Tree and the Anger of a Good Man

Heavy rain days make me think of God. Maybe because they remind me of mortality. In Mizoram, with thunder and lightning, and in Durtlang the whooshing of wind, it becomes reflex to say little prayers. And relax.

This Tuesday, my mind travels to Jesus cursing a lone fruitless fig tree. Why, I’ve always wondered. I suppose if you’re hangry and you have the power to instantly wither off a tree full of leaves, you would, too. But you’d think God would be different. 

Something nagged me about the timeline and fortunately somebody in office had a Bible so I didn’t have to quite freak out with unresolved theories in my head and I could just quickly check it out. And there it was. 

Two major things happened, as per this discussion.

One, Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly but has little altercation with the temple leaders and one massive freak out at the temple. 

Two, Jesus curses the fig tree for not bearing fruit while he was hungry, and it withers. 

A long time ago, someone said in a sermon that in the Bible, when things repeat, it is to show confirmation. Which is how you have four Gospels that tell, by and large, the same account with only minor differences here and there, or The Ten Commandments repeated in Exodus and then in Deuteronomy, or how Kings and Chronicles are basically the same books, or parables of the Lost Coin, Lost Sheep and Lost Son… they serve to emphasize a message.

For this muse, I’ve always taken the fig tree in isolation. I thought maybe it just stood out and people noticed. Or maybe it showed the humane side of Jesus, the man that could and did get angry. Something. 

However, if you take it into context with what happened at the Temple and with the religious leaders there, things start to fall into place. What was Jesus’ altercation with the temple leaders about? That the children recognized him for who he was as the Messiah but the leaders, who should recognise him, more so than anyone else, them being familiar with the Scriptures, could not. Why did Jesus freak out at the Temple? He did not care that the Temple grounds were being used for exploiting the poor worshippers. So in essence, his issue with the Temple and the leaders? They had the Right Image of worship and righteousness but were corrupt within and bore no fruit that the ones who needed it could consume.

This then was Jesus’ issue with the fig tree. The fig tree looked like it bore fruit, what with its multitude of leaves. But when a hungry Jesus approached it for food, he found it had none.

Repetition. And live demo.

Interestingly, Jesus has been saying this earlier as well, when he told his followers that they will know people by the fruits they bear. Point to note: not the clothes they wear, because some will be ravenous wolves that approach you in sheep’s clothing. Be careful, he had already warned.

So you know, more repetition.

I think the pitfall is the word “good”. Jesus once asked a young guy why he called him good because only God is good. I think he meant it like if you call me good, then you recognize me as God. I think in that instance it was less about humility, than it was about the young man not recognizing him as God, and Jesus just telling him he sees through him and into his soul. Or beliefs.

We call people good all the time and sometimes I think it is a plea for reciprocation. Please see me as good too, you know. It is easy to fall into this pit because once you think you are good, then it is easy to play you. I could play you. Imagine how much more so the Devil. All that we’d need to do is tell you you’re good, and therefore this or that. The real harm is when you think you’re so good that (a) other people are bad, and that (b) you could save them. Who is good?

Even Doctor Who debated this. Am I good, he kept asking himself. Clara and Twelve went into philosophy debating goodness. This was after Eleven went on a destruction spree banking on his goodness and all the people who owed him for his goodness, prompting River Song to recite a haunting poem of what happens when a good man goes to war. Am I a good man? he childishly asked of Clara. Clara thought about it and would eventually tell him she didn’t know, but that he tried to be, and maybe that was the whole point. Glum. The poem is really nice, though.

Jesus, though. He was a good man. Because He was God. And only God is good. And God in his judgement decided to be angry because Appearance was all that some people – and trees – had to offer him. 

The lesson is harsh. How can anyone be good, when only God is good? Maybe if we try, it will be enough. More precisely, if we don’t pretend to be good while rotting inside, we can begin to walk on the road to goodness. Maybe. Or maybe only God is good and we can take refuge in that. But still stop pretending to be good. They say the Devil tempts you; maybe that’s true. I suppose if I were the Devil, I wouldn’t tempt a religious man with drugs and alcohol or even sexy sex, but perhaps I’d tempt them with a boastful heart, pride, ego, the certainty of knowing oneself to be “good”.

Almost 1000 words. I guess my bottom line is: fear the anger of the good man. Or risk instant withering.

Joshua

Did you know that Joshua and Jesus are the same names? Yeshua, both of them. But somehow one is Jesus and the other is Joshua.

I feel like if they’d been consistent with translations, and kept both names the same, the story of Moses stopping at the borders of Canaan, the promised land, would have been so much clearer. 

I mean I know the one about how God was all like ya no you said "We give you water" and not "God gives you water" so now you can't go in the promised land. I mean of course no one said "petty" but it is implied, right? Like you have to be careful with your words types. 

But the names though.

Moses was leading the Israelites. He was the great Law Giver, the Jewish Manu, so to speak. But ultimately, the one who led the Israelites through to the promised land was Joshua. 

So also Law will take you as far as possible but then it will be Jesus/The Second Joshua/New Testament Joshua that will take you into heaven. Which means it was basically Moses and Joshua enacting a prophecy rather than making a verbal prophecy, which will be fulfilled with Christ.

Cool, ne?

P.S.: There is a really nice The Office style mockumentary on YouTube called The Promised Land series. Do check it out. It’s grand fun. I mean in Bible comics and/or Bible films, they add tints to the scene, give it atmosphere, make it ultra dramatic and all that so it never registered how extremely odd it is that the only thing Moses was doing while they were fighting the Amalekites was raise his staff. Go out on a random day with your walking stick, stand somewhere on a busy street, and just raise your staff. You’ll see how very, very odd that command was. The ultimate message being, of course, implicitly trust God and God will do right by you. But how it plays out? Very random, very weird.

Near Death

1. If someone asks if you want to go fishing in the dead of the night and you said yes, and suddenly it’s 11PM and you’re “fishing” in places you’re not allowed to fish which means you have no light, and it’s nine grown people on a small wooden boat, calculate your best chances of surviving the night namely, where both sides of the banks of the river are, pray. Text your sister where you are, then put your phone in your jacket, zip up your pocket (wear a jacket that has zippers on its pocket), and pray.

2. If your sense of responsibility finds you wading through a mudslide in a drizzle with promise of more thunder and lightning, when everyone else is at home, cozying up with family, and chatting with friends (and arguing with foes) online, and discussing climate and government roles and duties, pray. Text your sister where you are because that shit is time stamped, then wear sensible footwear, light jacket that doesn’t get too heavy in the rain (because even wool is just a burden if it gets wet, because then it’s no use, it gets really heavy and very very cold), pants with pockets where you have an SAK, a ORS powder pack, a small bottle of water, a hanky, and of course one waterproof pocket with zippers where your phone can stay dry, and pray.

3. If your call of duty demands you’re in the middle of a rainstorm, neck deep in the middle of nowhere, bang in the midst of a16-wheeled trucks traffic jam, transporting god-knows-what, and it gets dark, and you have no light but the light in your Samsung mobile, your vehicle and driver about 27 trucks away, slightly drunk and irate truck drivers calling you to ‘babe, calm down’, and they’re not listening to your logic, pray. Text your sister where you are, in case you die, or worse, then put your phone inside your jacket pocket, zip it up (ensure your waterproof jacket has zippered pockets), bad-mouth the truckers and order them – and the policemen – to listen up, and pray.  

4. If your journey takes you to the top of a mountain which you’ve reached on the back of a pick-up truck, and your driver is talented but you’re not sure if he is wholly in his senses, because you know for damn sure your companions aren’t anymore this side of 5PM, and the nearest village is way nearly 90 degrees downhill, and the cute boy you know has told you last night that he had scaled that peak on foot and not on a pick-up, and you’re wondering if that was smarter than being on a mechanical cart, driven by someone you never met once in your life until 10AM that day, and you’re wondering if you just make very random bad choices in your life, take a deep swipe of your favourite beverage, text your sister (zippered pocket or not, makes no difference), then pray. 

5. Bottom line is tell your sister, and then pray. She knows enough to delete your phone history and what you have inside your locked trunk in your locked closet. That bitch knows what to do. You’ve never talked about it, but she knows. Then you make nice with Jesus and surrender.

C’est la vie. Such is life. And it never stops.

The Pope

I had a good night's rest so I was thinking of adult-like important things this morning. Namely how the Catholic Church is so good at politics.

I’d say they read the winds and see the signs coming. 

When a pope dies and they choose the next one, they make it into such a big spectacle, no? Like it was divinely ordained, the whole black smoke, white smoke thing. I mean it worked in the days pre-science & tech, but they continue so as to keep up tradition and also make it into this grand symbolic shit. And I think it works. 

But also I was thinking last time they chose a pope, they must have known they’d probably need an American pope. Seeing how the US is behaving; more importantly, how it was behaving by the time 2025 rolled around.

When my screen showed me Trump being Trumpy about Pope Leo, I was thinking: damn the Cats have survived 2000 years, seen regimes and monarchs and governments fall and yet they persevere and now I know why. They know their politics, man! 

Religion and god, sure, but also yk, POLITICS! We can talk of God-ordained priesthood all day long, and I appreciate how much the symbolism stands, and also I can even acknowledge divine intervention in giving wisdom to the Conclave that ultimately selects (elects?) the Bishop of Rome. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that however a Bishop becomes a Pope, other men are involved; it’s like arguing Bible is not written by God because it was literally technically written by men. Sometimes, inspiration is god-breathed.

It got me thinking that this is why when you put people who deserve their spots in governance and not based on their pedigree, you get good collective wisdom!! On a tangent, this is of course what democracy wants, but that falls flat on its face because people are dumb.

Meanwhile, the Cats have smart people in governance, who've spent their lives in the game – and only the game – not worrying about salary and family, their logic and calculations tempered by religion... this is why The Vatican survives. And thrives quietly.

Regardless of their politics and religious takes, these men spend their whole lives primarily thinking about how to make the Catholic religion go on. They have their prayers and meditation to calm them down, they regularly make confessions so they are less burdened with guilt and shit – I mean this religion comes with its own built-in therapist sessions, how can it fail? – and they're unbothered with fashion trends and luxurious living and shit and they have their hands in every single space on human-occupied earth so their intel, when they want, is impressive.

All due respects to Catholics and the church, of course. I am just exercising a little political sociology here!