The Barren Fig Tree

Jesus returns toward the city hungry, inspects a fig tree with leaves but no fruit, and speaks judgment over it. The tree withers at once, and Jesus answers the disciples with a word about faith and prayer.

I¹⁸n the morning, as Jesus was returning to the city, He was hungry. ¹⁹Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered. ²⁰When the disciples saw this, they marveled and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” ²¹“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ²²If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”