Learn the Parable of the Fig Tree: Urgent Lessons from Mark 13:28–29 on Christ’s Near Return

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: so ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.” (Mark 13:28–29, KJV)​

The Fig Tree and the Nearness of Summer

In this brief but powerful parable, Jesus points His disciples to something they saw every year: the fig tree changing with the seasons. In winter its branches are stiff and bare, but when “her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves,” everyone knows that “summer is near.” The Lord takes this everyday picture and uses it to teach us about spiritual discernment and readiness.

Jesus has just spoken of great shaking in the heavens and His coming “in the clouds with great power and glory.” Right on the heels of that, He says, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree.” He wants His followers not to be confused or paralyzed by fear, but to recognize that God’s purposes in history move as surely as the seasons move from winter into summer.

Learning to Read the Signs

The heart of the parable is this: if you can read a tree, you should learn to read the times. “When ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.” Just as the tender branch and new leaves tell you that summer is close, the unfolding of God’s foretold events tells you that His kingdom purposes are drawing near.​

This does not mean believers are called to date-setting, because Jesus will go on to say that “of that day and that hour knoweth no man.” Instead, He calls us to spiritual sensitivity: to notice when the world’s shaken foundations, the spread of the gospel, the rise of opposition, and the fulfillment of His word are like leaves on the fig tree, telling us that He has not forgotten His promise.

The Tender Branch and a Tender Heart

There is also a more personal application in the picture of the tender branch. In the spring, the hard wood of the fig tree softens as life moves through it and leaves appear. In the same way, the Lord desires that our hearts not remain cold and rigid in a spiritual winter, but become tender to His word and responsive to His Spirit.​

When God is at work in us, there are “leaves” that begin to show: repentance, a hunger for Scripture, a new sensitivity to sin, growing love for Christ and for others. These are signs that something is near—not just the completion of history, but the deepening of God’s work in your own life, the approach of a new season of fruitfulness. The parable invites us to ask: what are the leaves that show God is drawing me closer to Himself?

“It Is Nigh, Even at the Doors”

The phrase “it is nigh, even at the doors” is full of comfort and urgency. Doors are thin barriers; what is at the door is not far off, but immediately close, ready to enter at any moment. Jesus’ return, and the fulfillment of all His promises, are not distant ideas for another age, but realities pressing on the very threshold of our own.

For weary believers, this means hope: history is not wandering aimlessly; summer is coming. For complacent hearts, it is a wake-up call: if He is at the doors, then this is not the time to drift, but to watch, pray, and live as servants who know their Master could appear at any moment.

Watching in the Last Light of Winter

If you have ever stood at the end of a long winter in the Midwest and noticed the first buds and tender leaves, you know how quietly the change begins. One day the branches look as dead as ever, and then, almost suddenly, the trees hint that a new season is on its way. Jesus’ parable in Mark 13:28–29 reminds us that God often works like that: silently, steadily, and then, in His time, unmistakably.

We are not merely invited but commanded to learn this parable—to discipline our eyes and hearts to recognize, in the trembling of the nations and the unrest within our own souls, the first leaves of God’s approaching summer. When these signs appear, we dare not shrug them off or delay; we must know—truly, soberly—that “it is nigh, even at the doors,” and order every day in the light of that nearness, walking in faith that clings to Christ, repentance that refuses to make peace with sin, and readiness that lives as though the Lord might step through the threshold at any moment, because He is surely coming. Are you READY?

Study in the parables of Matthew

Study in the parables of Mark

Discovering the Path of Salvation series by Stephen Luckett