Farmers in the English county of Kent have a term for certain kinds of crops: “road-proud.” A road-proud crop may appear to be of excellent quality when viewed from the road that runs past the field, but turns out to be poor when inspected more closely.

The New Testament writer Mark gives an account of Jesus’ encounter with a road-proud fig tree: “Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, ‘Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.’ And His disciples heard it” (Mark 11:12-14). Later in the chapter, Jesus and his disciples pass the same tree on their way back to Bethany from Jerusalem the next morning. The apostles were amazed to observe that the tree was withered from the roots (verses 19-21).

Why did Jesus condemn and destroy the fig tree? Because it was road-proud, in full leaf, giving all the appearance of a tree producing fruit though it bore no figs. In fact, as Mark points out, it wasn’t even the time of year when one might reasonably expect to find figs on the tree — figs weren’t in season.

Jesus, of course, knew all along that the fig tree was barren. His quest for figs didn’t stem from His lack of knowledge either about the proper time for fig production or the current fig capacity of this particular tree. Rather, Jesus used the tree as an object lesson for His followers, one that He would later illustrate using a parable:

“A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down’” (Luke 13:6-9).

A fig tree is only of value if it produces figs. If it fails in this task, the tree is wasting space and resources. It doesn’t matter if the tree looks like a fig-bearing tree if it is not. Indeed, as Jesus demonstrated, a tree that is road-proud — one that appears to be bearing fruit, but isn’t — is in some ways worse than one whose unfruitfulness is apparent from a distance. Not only is the road-proud fig tree unproductive, but it’s a distraction, drawing people to itself in search of figs and wasting their time in a fruitless (no pun intended) search.

The Bible has a name for road-proud people: hypocrites. Let’s be honest — we’re all hypocritical in one way or another. None of us is as fruitful as we know we ought to be, or as we might tell others they should be, and we all do many things we should not and fail to do many things we should. But we would do well to consider Jesus’ attitude toward the road-proud fig tree. He condemned and destroyed it, not simply because it was unfruitful — after all, with figs out of season, none of the other fig trees was producing either — but because it appeared to be something it wasn’t.

Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1-2). One thing is certain: Jesus is not a road-proud vine. He expects His branches to bear fruit, not just look busy. Though He has great patience — the gardener in the parable in Luke 13 gave his unproductive tree another year of cultivation before cutting it down — He will, in the end, divest Himself of those who fail to bring forth figs, even though they put on a good show of leaves.