Patrick Comerford
The 50-day season of Easter, which began on Easter Day (5 April 2026), came to an end on Sunday with the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026), and in the Church Calendar we have been back in Ordinary Time since Monday.
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Mark 11: 11-25 (NRSVA):
11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.’ And his disciples heard it.
15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16 and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”?
But you have made it a den of robbers.’
18 And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. 19 And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.
20 In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’ 22 Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. 23 Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea”, and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. 24 So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
25 ‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.’
Today’s Reflections:
If I had the space and the soil, the patience and the time, the two trees I would like to try to grow are an olive tree and a fig tree.
They are signs of life and God’s blessings in creation, of life and of continuity in life. There is a very large fig tree off the High Street in Stony Stratford and small potted olive trees outside some of the restaurants in Milton Keynes. Fig trees and olive trees at any time of the year also bring back warm memories of Greece.
But during a visit to Saint Mary’s Church, Watford, last year I heard the story of one of the most unusual fig trees in an English churchyard.
The churchyard has 13 prominent tombs, including the Fig Tree Tomb, once a popular tourist attraction in Victorian Watford. Local lore says the person buried there was an atheist who had asked that something be buried in the tomb that could germinate if there was life after death. If there was a God, this would grow and burst the tomb to prove to his family that his soul was alive. If not, then nothing would happen and he would be proved correct.
The existence of God was said to have been proven when a fig tree sprouted up from the tomb and dislodged the lid. The strange sight drew visitors to the graveyard in large numbers, who came to hear the story and left taking a twig from the tree as a souvenir.
Whoever was buried in the tomb must have come from a wealthy family as the tomb is of Portland stone with an elaborate design, and the slate panel once had crisp carving with the name and details of the dead person. It is unlikely though that an atheist would have been given such an impressive tomb so close to the church. But, the slate panel is eroded, the inscription is no longer legible, and the details of the legend are impossible to verify.
Yet details in the story were embellished as the story of the Fig Tree grew, attracting visitors in ever-increasing numbers. Henry Williams, in his History of Watford (1884), described the fig tree growing through the tomb and how each year it ‘exhibits considerable luxuriance and sometimes produces figs.’ He said the fig tree had ‘probably grown there for close upon 100 years’, dating it to the 1790s or even the 1780s.
Williams described hundreds of people visiting the churchyard, many making long excursions to see the fig tree and taking home a leaf or small branch. However, he said that when the tomb was opened it was found that the root of the tree was four or five feet above where the dead man’s head must have been. Some tendrils had become attached to the bottom of the vault and this was said to explain the luxuriant growth of the fig tree.
Yet another theory suggests the seed of the fig tree could have been accidentally thrown into the tomb by the Revd the Hon William Robert Capel (1775-1854), Vicar of Saint Mary’s (1799-1855) and a son of William Anne Capell (1743-1799), 4th Earl of Essex. The vicar grew fig trees and had a taste for eating figs as he walked to church, spitting out the pips along his way from the vicarage.
Sadly, the Fig Tree itself died in 1963 after a long and cold winter, though some writers suggest it was helped on its way by local officials who thought it was in the way. The fig tree may be long gone, but the legend and the tomb remain with several versions of the story.
In this morning’s Gospel reading, Saint Mark uses an intentional ‘sandwich’ technique, wrapping the story of the cleansing of the Temple within the narrative of the withering fig tree (Mark 11: 12-14, 20-21).
The fig tree represents the religious leadership of the day: it has the appearance of bearing fruit, but upon closer inspection, it is barren. The cleansing of the Temple serves as an acted-out parable. The Temple has become a place of exclusion, extortion, and superficiality rather than a house of prayer for all nations.
The fate of the fig tree in this morning’s reading is in sharp contrast to the fate of the fig tree in a parable in Saint Luke’s Gospel (Luke 13: 6-9). In that parable, it seems to make logical, economic and financial sense for the owner to want to chop down the fig tree that is bearing no fruit – after all, not only is it taking up space, but it also costs in terms of time, tending, feeding, caring and nurturing. The owner knows what it is to make a quick profit, and if the quick profit is not coming soon enough he wants to cut his losses.
It takes much tender care and many years – at least three years – for a fig tree to bear fruit. Fig trees are planted in vineyards to shelter the weaker vines. An old and elegant fig tree is a common site in many Mediterranean vineyards and has its own intrinsic value. It may even have vines wrapped around it, bearing their own fruit, which are a generous bonus, beyond the purpose of planting the tree.
Even if a fig tree bears early fruit, the Mosaic Law said it could not be harvested for three years, and the fruit gathered in the fourth year was going to offered as the first fruits. Only in the fifth year, then, could the fruit be eaten. So, if Saint Luke’s fig tree was chopped down, and another put its place, it would take longer still to get fruit that could be eaten or sold. In his quest for a ‘quick buck’, the owner of the vineyard shows little knowledge about the reality of economics.
The gardener, who has nothing at stake, turns out to be the one who not only has compassion, but has deep-seated wisdom too. The gardener, who is never going to benefit from the owner’s profits, can see the tree’s potential, is willing to let be and wait, knowing what the fig tree is today and what it can do in the future.
It takes much tender care and many years – at least three years – for a fig tree to bear fruit. And even then, in a vineyard, the figs are not a profit – they are a sweet bonus.
When a tree bears fruit, the Mosaic Law said it could not be harvested for three years, and the fruit gathered in the fourth year was to be offered as the first fruits. Only in the fifth year, then, could the fruit be eaten.
In Saint Luke’s parable of the fig tree, we are called on to wait, we are urged not to be too hasty to pass judgment on those who seem in our eyes to do nothing to improve their lot.
But I can decide where I place my trust – in the values that I think serve me but serve the rich, the powerful and the oppressor, or in the God who sees our plight, who hears our cry, and who comes in Christ to deliver us.
The destruction of the Temple’s corrupt system offers hope of the birth of a new way of accessing God. Christ connects the effectiveness of prayer directly to our capacity to forgive others. Right worship of God and right relationships with our neighbours are intrinsically intertwined. This passage is a challenge to us to ensure our own spiritual lives are bearing real fruit and that our churches and communities are places of grace and mercy rather than exclusion.
In the latter part of today’s reading (Mark 11: 22-26), our focus shifts to the nature of faith, prayer, and forgiveness. We are called on to wait, to not be too hasty in our judgment on others, and to be forgiving: ‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses’ (verse 25).
Today’s Prayers (Friday 29 May 2026):
This week in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), from 24 to 30 May 2026 (pp 58-59), the theme is ‘Carriers of the Flame’ and was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 29 May 2026) invites us to pray:
Bring justice and dignity to the oppressed and the forgotten, and guide USPG and its partners in our mission to uphold the worth of every person.
The Collect:
O Lord, from whom all good things come:
grant to us your humble servants,
that by your holy inspiration
we may think those things that are good,
and by your merciful guiding may perform the same;
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Gracious God, lover of all,
in this sacrament
we are one family in Christ your Son,
one in the sharing of his body and blood
and one in the communion of his Spirit:
help us to grow in love for one another
and come to the full maturity of the Body of Christ.
We make our prayer through your Son our Saviour.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
