Matthew 21, Part 3
Notes
Transcript
18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”
21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Remember this is just after the overthrowing of the money changers tables the day before. Jesus had friends living in Bethany, like Lazarus and his sisters (John 11–12), and Simon the Leper (Matt 26:6); and they may have provided Jesus and his disciples with or helped them find a place to stay. He Himself had said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Mt. 8:20), so he relied on others for a place to stay. The next day, on their way back to Jerusalem, Jesus saw a fig tree, and hoping to find fruits, he was disappointed because there was none.
As was the right of any Jew or sojourning alien under Mosaic Law, Jesus decided to eat figs for breakfast when he saw a fig tree growing by the road. Jesus assumed the tree had fruit when he saw its leaves. But the leaves had sent a false message. There was no fruit. The tree’s promise was empty.
In anger, Jesus cursed the tree, proclaiming that it would never bear fruit again. The tree obeyed the word of its Creator, and it withered immediately. We might wonder if the pressure was beginning to get to Jesus. He cursed an inanimate object (this is the only destructive miracle attributed to Jesus, unless we count the drowning of the pigs in 8:32). But that was not the case. The scene makes perfect sense and takes on great significance when we put it into its context.
In the preceding passage, the king had pronounced judgment on Israel and its leaders for their idolatrous behavior (21:12–13). With the fig tree, Jesus acted out a parable or “mini-drama” to illustrate the reality of Israel’s fruitlessness and its doom. Just as the leaves of the fig tree advertised fruit, so the Jewish leaders claimed to be fulfilling God’s purpose. However, the advertising was a lie. Under the “leaves” of their showy religion (6:1–18; 15:8–9) their hearts were barren and unbelieving. They had missed their opportunity to repent and to bear true fruit, and so the king pronounced their judgment. There would be no more opportunities for these hypocrites—they would never bear fruit but would die through the judgment of God.
That Jesus would curse a tree may surprise us. The same power that killed the tree could also have given it new life and fruit. Jesus certainly would not hold a tree morally responsible for being fruitless.
When we consider the time and place of this event, we understand it better. Jesus was near Jerusalem in the last week of His public ministry to His people. The fig tree symbolized the nation of Israel.
10 Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.
16 Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.
6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’
8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.
9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”
If we think of a bearing fig tree, they represented a fruitful nation.
Israel, on the contrary, was not fruitful.
The parallel is quite clear that God will only work with one who refuses to repent for so long until one is judged.
Could it be that Jesus had worked with the nation of Israel for so long that he had given them over for judgment?
Just as this tree had leaves but no fruit, so Israel had a show of religion but no practical experience of faith resulting in godly living. Jesus was not angry at the tree. Rather, He used this tree to teach several lessons to His disciples.
God wants to produce fruit in the lives of His people. Fruit is the product of life. The presence of leaves usually indicates the presence of fruit, but this was not the case. In the Parable of the Fig Tree (Luke 13:6–9), the gardener was given more time to care for the tree; but now the time was up. This tree was taking up space and doing no good.
While we can make a personal application of this event, the main interpretation has to do with Israel. The time of judgment had come. The sentence was pronounced by the Judge, but it would not be executed for about forty years. Then Rome would come and destroy the city and temple and scatter the people.
Jesus used this event to teach His disciples a practical lesson about faith and prayer. The temple was supposed to be a “house of prayer,” and the nation was to be a believing people. But both of these essentials were missing. We too must beware of the peril of fruitlessness.
Why did Jesus act with such force in destroying the tree? For the same reason He acted with such force in all of the above. Jesus always acted either to teach man or to save and help man. In destroying the fig tree, He was teaching man a much needed lesson.
The lesson: the Messiah has absolute power over all the physical universe. The unfruitful among men (symbolized in the fig tree) do not have such power. Contrariwise, He alone has such enormous power. He alone has the power to judge and to determine fruitfulness and unfruitfulness, life and death, salvation and condemnation. He alone laid down His life; no man took it from Him (Jn. 10:11, 15–18, esp.18).
Remember this was Jesus’ last week. It was Tuesday, just three days before He was to be killed by unfruitful men. Jesus had to do all He could to prepare His disciples for His onrushing death and for all they were to bear through the ensuing years. He had only two days left, so He had to undergird them all He could. He was hungry and He saw a fig tree full of leaves. He walked up to pluck some fruit, but He found no fruit. He saw an object lesson in the event—a lesson that could be uniquely used in teaching and preparing the disciples.
In destroying the tree, Jesus was showing the disciples (in an unmistakable way) that He had absolute power over all the physical world, even the power to keep from being killed. He was not dying out of weakness, not dying because He was not the Messiah, not dying because of the plots and intrigues of men. Men may be judging Him to be unfruitful and unworthy of life, but He was not dying because of them. He was dying because the death of God’s Son was the way of salvation (Jn. 3:16; 2 Co. 5:19–20; 1 Pe. 2:24). He was not being judged by unfruitful men or events; rather, unfruitful men and events were being judged by Him upon the cross (1 Pe. 2:24; see Ep. 2:13–22).
Very simply put, Jesus was picturing that He was truly God’s Son with omnipotent power, picturing it in a way that we can never forget. He had the power to save Himself and to destroy the unfruitful men who would take His life. But He of course could not—not then. Right then He was sent into the world to die for men and to save men, including the very ones who were judging and condemning Him to be unfruitful and unworthy of life. However, the day is coming when He will judge the unfruitful just as He judged the fig tree. But that day is out in the future, for the present He was to save men.
Jesus had great power over the physical world. He demonstrates His great power by three acts. These same acts are applicable to a human life.
He expected fruit.
He was disappointed by no fruit
He demonstrated His absolute power over the physical world.
The fig tree is a clear picture of hypocrisy, of false profession. If a tree is living, it is expected to bear fruit. That is its purpose for living. If it does not bear fruit, it is useless and good for nothing but to be cut down and burned (see Lu. 13:7). There is no question, the cursing of the fig tree shows the enormous power of Christ.
The demonstration of Jesus’ great power did just what He had wanted. It stirred the disciples to marvel and question. In amazement they asked, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?” (This is a better understanding of the Greek.)
Jesus had them just where He wanted them: they were asking about His great power. He wanted to teach them that He had absolute power over the physical world and that the same power was available to them in the future as they served Him. He had demonstrated His absolute power; now they were asking about the source of that power.
Note how Jesus shared the source of His power. He said in essence, “Here is the source of my power, and the same power source is available to you.” He was explaining the source of His power in the second person which makes it applicable to all His disciples. He was answering their question about His power, but He was doing it in such a way that they would know the same power was available to them through the same avenue as to Him - through faith, not doubting the power at all, and through God’s authorship.
20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”