We return to Jerusalem on the morning after Jesus's triumphal entry as he curses a fig tree. We'll learn why he did such a strange thing, why he insisted to Greeks that he himself was a grain of wheat, and what all of this reveals about the Garden of Eden - and ourselves. This episode is all about the “nature logic” of the Gospel, and the way the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is woven into the very fabric of the cosmos.

You have to die before you can live. Jesus' paradoxical teaching about the "grain of wheat" may seem strange at first, but as St. Cyril of Alexandria, Pope Benedict XVI, and Larry Chapp point out, it's written all over the natural world for us to see plainly, foreshadowing the redemptive suffering of Jesus on the cross and echoing the eternal life and love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• 00:00 Introduction
• 01:02 Reading of Matthew 18: Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
• 01:41 Why is Jesus hungry?
• 02:31 The importance of a fig tree in the Gospel
• 03:42 God is working to restore paradise for all creation
• 04:41 The Garden of Eden and gardens in the Gospels
• 07:12 God is the gardener of salvation history. Examples in the Old Testament
• 08:27 Jesus’ action is foreshadowed by the prophet Ezekiel
• 09:44 It was “not the season for figs” but God expects fruit anyway
• 10:11 Jesus teaches about the “dying seed”
• 12:19 St. Cyril of Alexandria and the “analogy of nature”
• 13:21 Cardinal Ratzinger explains the “mystery of the dying grain”
• 14:41 Larry Chap and the mystery of redemptive suffering
• 15:11 Reading of John 12 - “He who loses his life will save it”
• 16:43 Suffering on earth is an image of the inner life of the Trinity
• 17:17 Jesus “leaned obedience through what he suffered”
• 19:24 The Fathers of the Church took the Gospel’s “nature logic” seriously
• 20:43 St. Clement of Alexandria: The Word of God is the pruning knife of the soul
• 22:20 Reading of Luke 13: Jesus’ parable of the master’s vineyard
• 23:46 Application of the parable
• 24:19 Conclusion

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The Extraordinary Story is a podcast about the life of Jesus Christ, who entered the maze of our world to transform it into a path to Him, today and always. The Extraordinary Story is produced by Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, and is written and hosted by Tom Hoopes.