“Early in the morning as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. He saw a fig tree along the road, but when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘You’ll never again bear fruit!’ And immediately the fig tree dried up.”
– Matthew 21:18-19
See, I think Jesus is a funny guy. I mean ha-ha funny. All that power and he gets pissed at a tree because his breakfast is not ready. So he smites the tree. Classic. Can you imagine Peter right behind him? “OH SNAP! Jesus, you did NOT just smite the crap out of that tree!” All the disciples, hiding out in the Upper Room, kind of freaking out, and then James says, “Remember when he smote the fig tree?” and everyone just cracks up. Thomas had to go check and see if the fig tree was still all dried up. Sho ’nuff, dead tree.
Me and Jesus have had it out on more than one occasion. There have been some things go down about which I was unhappy. As far as I was concerned, the failure to prevent these events was Jesus’ fault. Eventually I will come back around to the understanding that there may be more considerations in any given scenario than I’m privy to. At the same time, Jesus will admit that, if the situation were reversed, he’d be pissed too. So we make a little deal. Jesus keeps his eye on the big picture, and I give him a hard time every now and again. It is how I show my love.
There are other ways to go about this relationship. I know that other folks may view Jesus as more funny spooky than funny ha-ha. They might not like my jokes so much. And of course, I’ll pay more attention to the one who doesn’t laugh than the 5 who do. I do wish we would all just be walking down the hall together one day, and Jesus could smite the snack machine for not having a pack of nabs. They could see how funny Jesus is, and I’d be all “OH, SNAP!”