[18] In the early dawn the next morning, as He was coming back to the city, He was hungry. [19] And as He saw one single leafy fig tree above the roadside, He went to it but He found nothing but leaves on it (seeing that in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves). And He said to it, Never again shall fruit grow on you! And the fig tree withered up at once. [20] When the disciples saw it, they marveled greatly and asked, How is it that the fig tree has withered away all at once? [21] And Jesus answered them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith (a firm relying trust) and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done. [22] And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and (really) believing, you will receive.
[23a] And when He entered the sacred enclosure of the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came up to Him as He was teaching..... [27b] And He said to them..... [28] "What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He came to the first and said, "Son, go and work today in the vineyard." [29] And he answered, "I will not"; but afterward he changed his mind and went. [30] Then the man came to the second and said the same [thing]. And he replied, "I will [go], sir"; but he did not go. [31] Which of the two did the will of the father? They replied, "The first one." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the harlots will get into the kingdom of heaven before you. [32] For John came to you walking in the way of an upright man in right standing with God, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots did believe him; and you, even when you saw that, did not afterward change your minds and believe him (adhere to, trust in, and rely on what he told you)." MATTHEW 21:18-23a & 27b-32
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21&version=AMP;KJV
The morning after the table-tipping incident, Jesus encountered a deceiver. The fig tree, all full of leaves promised much but delivered little in the way of nourishment, it wasn't doing either what it was supposed to do or doing what it looked like at that moment. When I met my N partner, he looked and acted a certain way and was as timely coming into my view as that solitary fig tree was for Jesus. I had no cause to doubt that the outward presentation he showed to the world may not be the full picture and it wasn't until I got up close & personal that I discovered a lot of his 'fruit' didn't exist, he was showy leaves and deception. Disappointed? Devastated! I certainly shot him a lot of 'withering' glances and hoped he'd get a blast from the Almighty for sure... But just like the fig tree encounter, Jesus had more to reveal through the situation than it first appeared.
I had thought I was finally getting a nourishing partner for myself after being widowed, this was a promising semblance of 'just what I needed at just the right time' - the reward at the end of a long walk with my late husband & his 'issues'. But that was me making it all about what I wanted, God had other plans for what He wanted for me and my narcissistic 'fig tree'. What I learned was that there are periods when your life isn't about your needs primarily but about somebody else who has need of you.
Jesus told the chief priests and elders that God did not look at the outward appearance of people, not at what they have behaved like repeatedly nor what labels they have been given and all the bias that goes along with those labels. The tax collectors & harlots in those days would have been severely looked down upon and ostracised by polite society because they were morally bankrupt and all manner of 'sin full'. They were marginalized as the 'bad people' and today there is still rather a lot of that going on with NPD. ...
[ Continued ]