3.
The Fig Tree, 21:18–22
18 In
the morning, as he returned to the city, he became hungry. 19 And
when he saw a fig tree by the roadside, he went up to it and found
nothing on it but leaves only; and he says to it, “No longer may
there ever be fruit from you!” And at once the fig tree withered
away. 20 And
when the disciples saw this, they were astonished and said, “How
did the fig tree wither away at once?” 21 And
Jesus answered them, saying, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith
and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree,
but if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and be thrown into
the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And
all things whatever that you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will
receive.”
Matthew
shares the story of the fig tree with Mark, and as is usually the
case his account is shorter. Thus Mark says that this happened on the
day after the triumphal entry, that they “passed by” (coming from
Bethany?), that it was not yet the time for figs, and that it was
Peter who drew attention to the withered tree, none of which is in
Matthew. Mark makes it clear that this happened on the day after the
triumphal entry, but as we have seen, Matthew omits a good deal of
information about chronology in this part of his book: he
concentrates on what happened, not on when it took place. We should
understand this story as an acted parable: the fig tree in leaf gave
promise of fruit but produced none. The result was that it was
accursed. Those who profess to be God’s people but live unfruitful
lives are warned. This will have special relevance to the Jews of
Jesus’ day, who viewed themselves as the chosen people, as those to
whom God had committed his law and as the servants of God in a way
people of no other nation were. But they were not bringing forth
fruit worthy of such a position.
18.
In
the morning
Jesus and his followers went back again into the city. Matthew tells
us nothing about the mealtime habits of the little band, so we do not
know what breakfast arrangements they had or even whether they had
any breakfast. If they did, it could not have been much, for on his
short walk to Jerusalem (less than two miles) Jesus became
hungry.
Matthew does not say anything about the dietetic state of the
apostles, but it is not unlikely that if Jesus was hungry they were
too. Matthew concentrates on Jesus.
19.
Still omitting anything having to do with the disciples, Matthew
tells us that Jesus saw a
fig tree by the roadside
(Mark says that it was at a distance, but Matthew leaves out
unnecessary details; that it was by
the roadside
indicates that it was not part of anyone’s property). When he came
near the tree, he found no fruit but
leaves only.
This is unusual. If a fig tree is in leaf, it is to be expected that
it will be bearing figs. Until they are ripe the taste may not
delight the gourmet, but the fruit is edible (Mark tells us that it
was not the time of fruit as yet, so this is all that could be
expected). The point here is that the tree gave every outward sign of
bearing fruit but in fact bore none.32
The tree “stood out because it was in leaf. Its leaves advertised
that it was bearing, but the advertisement was false” (Carson).
Unusually Jesus addressed the tree and pronounced a sentence: the
tree will no
longer
bear fruit, not forever.34
Matthew tells us that the fig tree at
once withered away.
There is a problem in that Mark tells us that Jesus and the little
band went on their way and that it was the next morning when they
found the fig tree withered away. But, as we have seen, in this part
of his narrative Matthew is very concise and specifically ignores
chronology. He gives no indication of the time when the cleansing of
the temple took place, nor of that when the blind and the lame came
to him in the temple and were healed, nor when Jesus went to Bethany,
nor when he came to the fig tree (other than that it was “early”).
By narrating the withering of the tree immediately after Jesus spoke,
Matthew avoids another note of time and keeps this section of his
narrative short.36
20.
Not unnaturally the disciples were
astonished
at this (Mark does not mention their astonishment; he simply says
that Peter drew attention to the tree). They asked Jesus how it
happened, unless we take the words as an exclamation, “How the fig
tree withered at once!” Either way of taking the Greek is possible.
Clearly the disciples were impressed by the miracle.
21.
Matthew has been abbreviating, but he makes this part of his
narrative longer than that in Mark (Mark has no more than, “He says
to them, ‘Have faith in God,’ ” before going on to the
words about the mountain). The words are important and are introduced
with the emphatic, “Truly
I tell you”
(see on 5:18). Jesus is telling his followers about the importance of
trust; he puts the truth positively, “if
you have faith,”
and then negatively, “and
do not doubt.”
Trust in God is stressed throughout the New Testament (“faith” is
mentioned 243 times and the verb “to believe” 241 times); it is
often used of a quality of life that brings salvation, serenity, and
the like, but here it is related to what the disciple can accomplish.
In human strength, very little can be done, but when the disciple
trusts God wholeheartedly and without doubting, then great things are
possible. Jesus says that in that case the disciples would do not
only what
was done to the fig tree,
but they would also be able to move mountains. He puts it
graphically, picturing the disciple as speaking to this
mountain
(apparently the Mount of Olives), commanding it to be raised up and
be thrown into the sea, with the result that the command would be
obeyed. Jesus had earlier said much the same thing in slightly
different words (17:20; see the note there for Jewish use of the
expression), and the meaning here, as there, will be metaphorical.
There is no record of any disciple ever moving a literal, physical
mountain; for that matter, Jesus himself is not said ever to have
done such a pointless thing. But throughout the history of the
Christian church mountainous difficulties have often been removed
when people have prayed in faith. There can be no doubt that it is
this to which Jesus is referring.
22.
There is a very similar promise, and again it is related to faith.
This time, however, Jesus is not referring to moving mountains but to
making requests. Prayer is concerned with a good deal more than
making requests of God, but that is certainly part of what it means.
Jesus encourages his followers to make their requests in faith (“if
you believe”),
and his “all
things whatever”
makes the promise limitless in the possibilities it opens up. The
proviso “if
you believe”
excludes the bringing of purely selfish requests, for they are no
part of the outworking of faith. But Jesus is saying that the
believer who looks to God for anything at all in the path of
Christian service can be confident of an answer to prayer: “you
will receive.”
Doctrinal
and Ethical
[1. The
cursing of the fig-tree is both a Parable
and a Prophecy
in action, performed on the public road near the city and the temple,
on Monday of the Passion-week, exhibiting Christ as the final Judge
of that people which soon afterward crucified Him.—P. S.]
2. Jesus
did not so much curse the fig-tree, as make manifest the curse of its
internal blight It was, as it respects a fig-tree, only dead wood,
fit only for the fire. To this destination He now gave it up. That
Jesus had in view the spiritual condition of His people as figured by
this tree, is plain from the parable, Luke 13:6. Yet Israel was, in
God’s purpose, the early fig-tree among the nations, Hos. 9:10.
3. The
withered fig-tree was a sign of many judgments: (1) A sign of the
withering congregation of the temple or the expiring of the
theocracy; (2) of withering Canaan; (3) of withering external church
organizations and sects; (4) of the withering old earth: The sudden
blight was a token of the instantaneousness of the judgment—of the
catastrophes which had been in secret long prepared for.
[4. The
Saviour performed innumerable miracles of mercy on living and feeling
men, but only one miracle of judgment, and that not on a human being,
which He came to save, but on an unfruitful, unfeeling tree, and with
a view to benefit all impenitent sinners by timely warning them of
their danger. Thus we have even here a proof of Christ’s goodness
in His severity. Thus even the barren fig-tree bears constant fruit
in the garden of Holy Scripture as a symbol of the fearful doom of
hypocritical ostentation and unfruitfulness. (Comp. similar remarks
of Hilary, Grotius, Heubner, Trench, and Wordsworth.)—P. S.]
[5. The
tree was not cursed so much for being barren, as for being false. No
fruit could be expected of any nation before Christ; for
the time of figs was not yet.
The true fruit of any people before the Incarnation would hare been
to own that they had no fruit, that without Christ they could do
nothing. The Gentiles owned this; but the Jews boasted of their law,
temple, worship, ceremonies, prerogatives, and good works, thus
resembling the fig-tree with pretentious, deceitful leaves without
fruit Their condemnation was, not that they were sick, but that,
being sick, they counted themselves whole. (Condensed from Trench and
Witsius.)—P. S.]
[6.
Striking simultaneous exhibition of Christ’s humanity in hungering,
and of His divinity in the destruction of the fig-tree by a word of
Almighty power which can create and can destroy. Bengel:
Maxima
humanitatis et deitatis indicia uno tempore edere solitue est.
John 11:35, 40. Wordsworth:
“He hungers as a Man, and withers the tree as God. Whenever He
gives signs of human infirmity, some proof of His divine power is
always near.” Comp. the poverty of His birth, and the song of
angels and the adoration of the shepherds and magi; the circumcision,
and the name of Christ; the purification in the temple, and the hymn
of Simeon and Hanna; His obedience to His parents, and astonishing
wisdom in the temple; the baptism on Jordan, and the voice from
heaven and the Holy Spirit descending on Him; the announcement of His
passion, and the transfiguration on the mount; the payment of
tribute-money to the temple, and the miracle of the fish with the
stater; the cross, and the royal inscription, etc.—P. S.]
Homiletical
and Practical
How Jesus,
with holy self-forgetfulness, early hastened to the scene of His
great day’s work.—He spiritualized everything natural: even His
own hunger and thirst were made awakening sermons.—Christ
everywhere, in the best sense of the phrase, made a virtue out of
necessity.—The barren fig-tree on the mountain of the temple a
perpetual exhortation to the Church: 1. A faithful image of the
priestly community in Israel as it then appeared (full of leaves,
empty of fruit); 2. a warning example in its sudden blight under the
curse (revealed as a dead tree, and as such given up to the
fire).—The withering fig-tree as a warning to self-examination also
for individual believers.—A sound fig-tree must put forth blossom
earlier than leaves.—The interpretation of His act by His word: 1.
The fig-tree has a close reference to the temple mountain; 2. as the
fig-tree stopped Jesus in His way, so the temple mountain stopped the
disciples; 3. as the Lord removed the hindrance by His miraculous
word, so the disciples must overcome it by a miraculous faith, which
should remove the hill of Zion into the midst of the nations
(although, in doing so, the Jews were dispersed among the
peoples).—All that the Christian asks in faith is given to him: 1.
In faith it is given to him what he should ask; 2. in faith he asks
what shall be given to him.
Starke:—The
world often lets Christ’s servants suffer hunger and need.—When
we are in want, we suffer what Jesus suffered.—Faith lays low all
imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, 2
Cor. 10:4, 5.—Teachers remove mountains when they overcome in
faith, and remove out of the way, the hindrances which are thrown in
the way of their vocation.—Faith and prayer: Faith is the source of
prayer; prayer the voice of faith.
Lisco:—Jesus
in His human necessity, ver. 18; and in His divine power and dignity,
ver. 19.
Heubner:—Warnings
in nature: Life killed by frost; blossom cankered by worms; fruit
poisoned from within.—There was one even among the twelve disciples
to whom this curse applied; and every one who is unfaithful to Christ
has such a judgment of hardening, abandonment of God, to
expect.—Jesus, after miracles of love, performs yet one miracle,
which should demonstrate His power to punish and to ruin, as it
belongs to the Judge of all flesh; He did not, however, perform this
on man, whom He was not come to destroy, but on an inanimate
object—Faith is here, and everywhere, the firm assurance of the
heart concerning that which God wills.
Rieger:—We
are reminded of the weeping over Jerusalem, Luke 19; of the parable
of the two sons, Matt 21:28–31; of Rom. 11:20: “Be not
high-minded, but fear.”1
Now
in the morning, when He returned to the city, He became hungry. And
seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it, and found nothing
on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No
longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig
tree withered. And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, “How
did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered and said to
them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you
shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say
to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall
happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall
receive.” (21:18–22)
On Monday
morning of Passover week Jesus rode into the city on a donkey colt to
a Messiah’s welcome and was acclaimed the Son of David, as the
people shouted hosannas and placed clothes and palm branches on the
road before Him (Matt. 21:1–11). On Tuesday He came into the city
again and cleansed the Temple of the sacrifice merchants and
moneychangers (vv. 12–17). Now, on Wednesday, He entered Jerusalem
for the third time since coming up from Jericho.
From Mark
we learn that the encounter with the fig tree involved two successive
days. Jesus cursed the fig tree on the morning He entered Jerusalem
to cleanse the Temple, and it was on the following day, Wednesday,
that the disciples noticed that the tree was “withered from the
roots up” (Mark 11:14, 20). Matthew condenses the two events into
one account, which He mentions only in regard to Wednesday.
In light of
Jesus’ just having been hailed by the populace as Israel’s great
Messiah and King, His cleansing the Temple and cursing the fig tree
were of special and monumental significance. The cleansing of the
Temple was a denunciation of Israel’s worship, and the cursing of
the fig tree was a denunciation of Israel as a nation. Instead of
overthrowing His nation’s enemies as the people anticipated He
might, the newly-acclaimed King denounced His own people.
It was
inconceivable to Jews that their Messiah would condemn them instead
of deliver them, that He would attack Israel instead of Rome. That is
why the accolades of the triumphal entry were so short-lived, turning
in a few days to cries for Jesus’ death. He had conclusively
demonstrated what both His words and His actions had testified all
along-that He had not come as a political-military Messiah to free
Israel from Rome and set up an earthly kingdom. When that truth
finally dawned on them, whatever else Jesus did became irrelevant to
most Jews. They had no use for such a Messiah and certainly no use
for such a King. By joining their leaders in calling for Jesus’
death, the people would declare in essence what Jesus had predicted
in the parable of the nobleman: “We do not want this man to reign
over us” (Luke 19:14).
Jesus’
cursing of the fig tree was not nearly so powerfully dramatic as the
cleansing of the Temple, but it was equally significant.
The
Predicament
Now
in the morning, when He returned to the city, He became hungry. And
seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it, and found nothing
on it except leaves only; (21:18–19a)
As noted
above, the
morning
refers to Wednesday, the day after the cleansing of the Temple and
two days after the triumphal entry. Jesus returned
to the city
of Jerusalem after spending the night in Bethany as He had been
doing, doubtlessly with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (see Mark 11:11).
It seems
certain that Jesus’ hosts would have prepared breakfast for Him had
He wanted it, but He may have gone out very early to pray on the
nearby Mount of Olives, which He often did, and had no time to return
to Bethany to eat. Or it may have been that He had eaten breakfast
many hours earlier and that His intense prayer and His climbing the
Mount of Olives rekindled His hunger. In any case, He
became hungry.
Although He was the Son of God, in His incarnation Jesus had all the
normal physical needs characteristic of human beings. Therefore, when
He saw a
lone fig tree by the road, He
hoped to find fruit on it to eat.
Fig trees
were common in Palestine and much prized. It was not uncommon for
them to grow to a height of twenty feet and equally as wide, making
them an excellent shade tree. When Jesus called him to discipleship,
Nathanael was sitting under a fig tree, probably in his own yard
(John 1:48). Before the Jews had entered the Promised Land, the Lord
described it to them as “a land of wheat and barley, of vines and
fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey” (Deut.
8:8). Through Zechariah the Lord promised His people that at
Messiah’s second coming, He would “remove the iniquity of that
land in one day” and “every one of you will invite his neighbor
to sit under his vine and under his fig tree” (Zech. 3:9–10). A
favorite place for people to gather was under a fig tree.
Just as the
presence of the fig tree was a symbol of blessing and prosperity for
the nation, its absence would become a symbol of judgment and
deprivation. Largely because of the many conquests of Palestine after
the rejection of Christ, the land became greatly denuded and barren.
Some invaders used the trees to build their war machines and others
simply to fuel their fires. When lumber trees were gone, fruit and
shade trees were cut down. During one occupation the rulers began
taxing according to the number of trees on a piece of property, with
the predictable result that many landowners cut down some of their
remaining trees in order to lower their taxes.
Normally, a
fig
tree
produced fruit before it sprouted leaves. Therefore when Jesus found
nothing on it except leaves,
He was disappointed, because a tree with leaves
should already have had fruit. Fig trees bore fruit twice a year, the
first time in early summer. In the much lower elevation and much
hotter climate of Jericho, some plants and trees were productive
almost year round. But in April, a fig tree at the altitude of
Jerusalem would not usually have either fruit or leaves, because, as
Mark observes, “it was not the season for figs” (Mark 11:13).
Nevertheless,
if the tree produced leaves early it should have produced fruit early
Whether because of too much or too little water, the wrong kind of
soil, disease, or other reason, it was not functioning as it was
supposed to.
Jesus used
many subjects from nature-birds, water, animals, weather, trees,
flowers, and others-to illustrate His teaching. On this occasion He
used a barren fig tree to illustrate a spiritually barren nation. The
illustration was a visual parable designed to portray the spiritually
degenerated nation of Israel.
The
Parable
and
He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”
And at once the fig tree withered. (21:19b)
Because the
fig tree was barren when it should have had fruit, Jesus said
to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”
With those words He pronounced the tree’s doom. It was under a
divine curse (see Mark 11:21) and would be perpetually unproductive.
In Matthew’s account it appears that the
fig tree withered
instantly. But as already noted, although the tree may have died at
once,
the withering was not evident until the next morning when Jesus and
the disciples passed by it again and saw it “withered from the
roots up” (Mark 11:20).
The fig
tree represented spiritually dead Israel, its leaves represented
Israel’s outward religiousness, and its lack of fruit represented
Israel’s spiritual barrenness. As Paul later described his fellow
Jews, they had “a zeal for God, but not in accordance with
knowledge” (Rom. 10:2), a form of godliness but no godly power (cf.
2 Tim. 3:5).
Fruit is
always an indication of salvation, of a transformed life in which
operates the power of God. People’s right relation to God is
evidenced by the fruit they bear. “A good tree cannot produce bad
fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit,” Jesus said (Matt.
7:18). In the parable of the soils, the good soil is proven by the
fact that it yields a crop-sometimes a hundredfold, sometimes sixty,
and sometimes thirty, but always a crop (Matt. 13:8). The good soil,
Jesus went on to explain, is the person in whom the seed of God’s
Word takes root and grows. It “is the man who hears the word and
understands it; who indeed bears fruit” (v. 23). Using another
figure involving fruit, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the
branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit”
(John 15:5). Fruit is always the manifestation of true salvation.
Jesus’
point regarding the fig tree was that Israel as a nation had an
impressive pretense of religion, represented by the leaves. But the
fact that the nation bore no spiritual fruit was positive proof she
was unredeemed and cut off from the life and power of God. Just as
fruitfulness is always evidence of salvation and godliness,
barrenness is always evidence of lostness and ungodliness.
Empty
religion almost invariably has many outward trappings in the form of
clerical garments and vestments, ornate vessels, involved rituals,
and other such physical accoutrements. It is also typically
characterized by repetitious prayers, cited by rote and offered at
prescribed times, or else by spontaneous prayers that are wordy,
ostentatious, and self-glorifying. Such were the meaningless
repetitions of the pagans (Matt. 6:7) and the self-righteous prayer
of the Pharisee who Jesus said was actually praying to himself (Luke
18:11).
This
incident was not the first time Jesus had used an illustration of a
barren fig tree. On an earlier occasion He said that for three years
the owner of a certain fig tree had failed to find fruit on it and
therefore instructed his vineyard-keeper to cut it down. But the
keeper pleaded with the owner, “Let it alone, sir, for this year
too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears
fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down” (Luke 13:6–9).
Presumably the request was granted. Here, too, the fig tree depicts
Israel’s barrenness, and the owner’s willingness to wait for the
tree to bear fruit represents God’s patience before bringing
judgment. Our Lord makes no specific comparison of that three years
to the three years of His ministry, but it was three years after
Jesus first presented Himself to Israel as her Messiah that the
people declared their final rejection of Him by putting Him to death.
Some forty
years later the curse on the nation of Israel, illustrated by Jesus’
curse on the fig tree, was fulfilled. At that time, God allowed the
Romans to sack Jerusalem and raze the Temple, destroying both the
nation and its religion, because Israel had not borne any fruit, as
it has not to this day.
In
cleansing the Temple, the King’s message was that Israel’s
worship was unacceptable, and in cursing the fig tree it was that
Israel as a nation was condemned for its sinfulness and spiritual
fruitlessness. Those messages of doom the people would not tolerate.
They had not accepted John the Baptist’s call to repentance in
preparation for the coming of the kingdom or his declaration that the
Messiah was coming with “His winnowing fork … in His hand [to]
thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and [to] gather His wheat into
the barn [and to] burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt.
3:1–12). Nor had they accepted Jesus’ same call to repentance or
His command to come to God in humble contrition and a genuine hunger
and thirst for righteousness (4:17; 5:3–12). They were now even
more ill-disposed to accept His word of judgment.
When the
Lord delivered Israel out of Egypt He declared,
Now it
shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being
careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the
Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you
will obey the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and
blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring
of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your
beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock.
Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall
you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
(Deut. 28:1–6)
But the
Lord also declared,
It shall
come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do
all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today,
that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed
shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be
the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the
increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you
be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. (vv.
15–19)
Through
Isaiah, the Lord reminded Israel that He had nurtured and cared for
her like a man who plants a vineyard in the best of soil and gives it
the best of care and protection. But the vineyard produced nothing
but worthless fruit, and the man declared that he would remove its
protective hedges and walls, let it be laid waste and become choked
out by briars and thorns. He would not even allow it to receive rain.
“The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,” the
prophet explains. “And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus
He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but
behold, a cry of distress” (Isa. 5:1–7). Then follows a long
series of woes, or curses, describing the calamities God’s people
would suffer because of their unfaithfulness and spiritual barrenness
(vv. 8–30).
The people
of Israel today are still under God’s curse, preserved but
unblessed. They are preserved because God will yet redeem them in the
final days because of His promise, but they are unblessed because
they continue to reject their Messiah. “He came to His own, and
those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). They would
not have Him as Savior to deliver them from sin or as Lord to rule
them in righteousness.
In modern
times, some of the world’s Jews have regathered themselves to the
land of Palestine and established the state of Israel. But they have
not yet been regathered redemptively, because that will be the doing
of the Messiah when He comes to them again to set up His kingdom.
They are back in the Promised Land, but they have yet to inherit
God’s promised blessings. They live in continual turmoil,
instability, and danger. They are far from the peaceable kingdom the
Messiah will bring but are instead an armed camp, constantly under
the threat of attack and invasion. Life there has been reduced
virtually to the basics of survival and defense.
Israel will
not be destroyed, because God protects her. But neither is she being
blessed, because she will not have Him as her God. No one comes to
God the Father who does not come through God the Son (John 14:6), and
because Israel will not claim the Son, she has no claim on the
Father.
The
Principle
And
seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree
wither at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I
say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only
do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this
mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen.
And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.”
(21:20–22)
When the
disciples
passed the cursed fig tree the next morning and saw that it was
“withered from the roots up” (Mark 11:20), they marveled,
saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”
A diseased tree might take many weeks or months to die, and even one
that had been salted, either by accident or from maliciousness, would
take several days to die. For the
fig tree
to wither
overnight was to do so virtually at
once.
At that
point the Lord moved from the visual parable of the fig tree to
another truth He wanted to teach the disciples. The principle taught
in the parable was that religious profession without spiritual
reality is an abomination to God and is cursed. The principle Jesus
was now about to teach related to the disciples’ marveling about
how quickly the fig tree withered. They knew why
it withered, because they heard Jesus curse it; they just could not
understand how it could wither so fast. The Lord took the opportunity
to teach them about the power of faith joined to the purpose and will
of God, which can do far more than instantly wither a fig tree.
In response
to their bewilderment, Jesus
answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith,
and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig
tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast
into the sea,’ it shall happen.”
Jesus
obviously was speaking figuratively. He never used His own power, nor
did the apostles ever use the miraculous powers He gave them, to
perform spectacular but useless supernatural feats. It was precisely
that sort of grandiose demonstration that He refused to give to the
unbelieving scribes and Pharisees who wanted to see a sign from Him
(Matt. 12:38). Jesus had already performed countless miracles of
healing, many of which they probably had witnessed. And He performed
many more such miracles that they could easily have witnessed. But
the sign they wanted was on a grand scale, one in which fire would
come down from heaven or the sun would stand still as it had for
Joshua. The literal casting of a mountain
… into the sea
would have been just the sort of sign the scribes and Pharisees
wanted to see but were never shown.
The phrase
“rooter up of mountains” was a metaphor commonly used in Jewish
literature of a great teacher or spiritual leader. In the Babylonian
Talmud, for example, the great rabbis are called “rooters up of
mountains.” Such people could solve great problems and seemingly do
the impossible.
That is the
idea Jesus had in mind. He was saying, “I want you to know that you
have unimaginable power available to you through your faith in Me. If
you sincerely believe, without doubting, it
shall happen,
and you will see great powers of God at work.” At the Last Supper
Jesus told the Twelve, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me
anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13–14). The
requirement for receiving is to ask in Jesus’ name, that is,
according to His purpose and will.
Jesus was
not speaking about faith in faith or faith in oneself, both of which
foolish and unscriptural ideas are popular today. He was speaking
about faith in the true God and in God alone, not faith in one’s
dreams, aspirations, or ideas of what he thinks ought to be. “You
ask and do not receive,” James warns, “because you ask with wrong
motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3).
“This is the confidence which we have before Him,” John says,
“that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1
John 5:14). Mountain-moving faith is unselfish, undoubting, and
unqualified confidence in God. It is believing in God’s truth and
God’s power while seeking to do God’s will. The measure of such
faith is the sincere and single desire that, as Jesus said, “the
Father may be glorified in the Son.”
True faith
is trusting in the revelation of God. When a believer seeks something
that is consistent with God’s Word and trusts in Godq’s power to
provide it, Jesus assures him that his request will be honored,
because it honors Him and His Father. When God’s commands are
obeyed He will honor that obedience, and when any request is asked in
faith according to His will He will provide what is sought. To do
what God says is to do what God wants and to receive what God
promises.
When the
disciples asked Jesus why they were unable to cast out the demon from
a young boy, “He said to them, ‘Because of the littleness of your
faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed,
you shall say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it
shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you’ ” (Matt.
17:20). Jesus was not commending small faith. It was the littleness
of the disciples’ faith that prevented their success in casting out
the demon. He rebuked them for having small faith that stayed small,
but exhorted them to have faith that, though it begins small,
continues to grow. The point of the mustard seed illustration is not
in its smallness but in its growing from smallness to greatness. In
the same way, the virtue of mountain-moving faith is its growth from
smallness to greatness as God blesses and provides.
Mountain-moving
faith is activated by sincere petition to God. “All
things you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive,”
Jesus explained. The parables of the friend who asked his neighbor
for a favor at midnight and of the widow who petitioned the
unrighteous judge (Luke 11:5–8; 18:1–8) both te2
Cursing
the tree (vv. 17–22).
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 (Jer. 8:13;
Hosea 9:10, 16; Luke 13:6–9). 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.3
96
THE CURSING
OF THE FIG TREE
Matthew
21:18–22
The
Ligonier Valley Study Center, the forerunner of Ligonier Ministries,
was launched in western Pennsylvania in the early 1970s through the
generous help of Mrs. Dora Hillman, who donated the fifty-two acres
on which the study center was situated. Mrs. Hillman had a profound
love for trees. She was constantly planting trees all over the
property. On some occasions, she asked me to plant the trees and then
told me how to do it properly, because I didn’t know. She explained
that if you have a $10 tree, you dig a $100 hole, because the hole
needs to be ten times bigger than the tree.
Of course,
once the trees were planted, they had to be watered. However, some of
the trees were planted in places that we could not reach with our
hoses. In those cases, we had to depend on Providence to send rain.
On one occasion, I watched one of those beautiful young trees wither
and die. When I told Mrs. Hillman about it, she came up to the study
center in her Jeep, and she brought along the foreman of her farm to
try to redeem this tree. She told him, “I want you to water this
tree and make sure that it becomes healthy again.” But when he had
looked over the tree, he turned to her and said, “It’s dead,
boss.” He was right. There was nothing he could do to bring that
tree back to life.
In the
passage we are considering in this chapter, we witness the death of
another tree, a fig tree. However, this tree died not because of a
lack of water but because of a word from Jesus. He cursed it when He
found that it was bearing no figs. According to Mark’s account of
this incident, it was not the season for figs (11:13). Given these
facts, Jesus’ cursing of the tree can seem arbitrary and
capricious. In fact, critics of the New Testament and of Jesus
Himself point to this incident to show that Jesus did not always
behave in a godly way. Rather, they believe He acted in the manner of
a petulant child, who throws a temper tantrum when he does not get
his way and takes out his frustration on inanimate objects.
Obviously, this view fails to do justice to this text and to Jesus
Himself. But what are we to make of this strange incident?
A
Deceptive Fig Tree
Matthew
writes: Now
in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing
a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but
leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.”
Immediately the fig tree withered away
(vv. 18–19). Many years ago, when I was a young Christian, I
struggled over this passage. Then I had the opportunity in seminary
to study under one of the three greatest archaeologists of the
twentieth century. The three greatest were William Foxwell Albright,
John Bright, and James Kelso. Dr. Kelso, who had worked with Albright
and with Bright, was a distinguished professor at the seminary I
attended. He was in his eighties by then and taught only one course,
“The Geography and Customs of Palestine.” It was one of the most
brutal courses I had to endure in all of my years of study. We had to
memorize the average annual rainfall in the Negev Desert and many
similar facts about every region of Palestine. To put it bluntly, it
was boring. But every now and then, as Dr. Kelso explained to us the
customs, rituals, and practices of the people of ancient Palestine,
he would open up the Scriptures to us in ways we had never
considered. One of those occasions was when he talked to us about
Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree.
Dr. Kelso’s
lecture went on and on about how the production of figs was vitally
important to the life and culture of the Jewish people, how the fig
season was a time of great rejoicing because of the production of
this fruit, and how many varieties of figs were grown in Palestine.
He noted that most varieties ripened during a particular season of
the year, but some varieties ripened at different seasons. Not
surprisingly, when these particular trees brought forth figs outside
of the normal fig season, the fruit was particularly satisfying and
enjoyable to the people. Because there were these varieties that
brought forth fruit in different seasons, the best indication of ripe
figs on a tree was not a certain season of the year but an abundance
of leaves. When the people noticed a fig tree covered with leaves,
they could be certain that figs were there.
That brings
me back to Matthew’s account. We read there that Jesus was walking
back to Jerusalem after spending the night in Bethany, and He was
hungry. He happened to see a fig tree beside the road, and He noticed
it was covered with leaves, the certain sign of the presence of figs.
So, He paused in His journey to pick some figs for His breakfast.
However, when He reached the tree, despite the abundance of leaves,
He found no figs at all. He responded by doing something that was
commonplace in the prophetic tradition of Old Testament Israel. He
used that moment to give a dramatic, prophetic object lesson, a
parable not in words but in actions. He pronounced judgment on the
tree, declaring that it would never again bear fruit. Under the power
of that divine curse, the tree withered and died.
Judgment
on Hypocrisy
So, Jesus
did not curse the fig tree out of petulance. Instead, He did it in
order to make a statement about what was going on all around Him in
the city of Jerusalem at that time. In other words, this was an
object lesson, and its point was simple. It was a picture of God’s
judgment on hypocrisy.
A hypocrite
is a play actor, one who lives his life under the pretense of being
something he is not. The biggest hypocrites Jesus had to deal with
were the religious leaders of His day, the Pharisees and Sadducees.
They were spiritual frauds. In the days ahead, Jesus would denounce
their hypocrisy in the strongest terms, as we will see. He would
actually pronounce a curse on them by means of the curse language of
the Old Testament: “Woe to you!” But before He did that to
people, He did it to the fig tree. According to all outward
appearances, the fig tree should have been covered with fruit. It had
all the external trappings of life, vitality, and fruitfulness. But
it was a pretender, a fraud. What it promised on the surface was not
the reality. So, Jesus took advantage of this available object
lesson, seized the moment, and expressed judgment on the tree for
hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy
is one of the most insidious sins that infects the church, and we are
all exposed to its seduction. Why is that? It is because once we take
the name of Christ, once we declare ourselves to be Christians,
suddenly the bar is raised. The watching world rightly expects to see
purity, humility, and righteousness in us, but we often display
little of it. Of course, there is no such thing as a sinless
Christian in this world. All the sinless Christians are gathered
together in glory. As long as we are here, we struggle with the
ongoing influences of sin in our lives. Naturally, we are embarrassed
by that. Since we cannot achieve the level of sanctification that we
desire or that is expected from us, we construct our own halos and
begin playacting, pretending that we are more righteous than, in
fact, we are.
This text,
however, does not have to do with falling short of the perfection
that is God’s standard of righteousness for us. He does not
threaten judgment upon us for failing to be as righteous as
Christians as we ought to be, for bearing less fruit than we should
be bearing. God’s judgment is reserved for those who bear no fruit
at all. These are those whose Christian testimony is all pretense.
Again, I remind you of Jesus’ frightening words in the Sermon on
the Mount, when He said that many would come to Him at the last day
and say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out
demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” Jesus
said He would tell them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!” (Matt. 7:22–23). It was these individuals
Jesus was condemning, people who gave the impression that they were
followers of Christ and who actually believed themselves to be
Christians, but who did not know the Lord at all.
A
pernicious heresy that was pervasive in evangelical Christianity for
a time in recent decades is the doctrine of the carnal Christian.
This teaching holds that it is possible to receive Jesus as Savior
and yet manifest no fruits of a changed life. Such a person is said
to be born again by the Holy Spirit but still carnal in the flesh.
Now, we are all carnal in the sense that a tendency toward sin
remains in us throughout our lifetimes. But it is foolishness to
speak of someone being a born-again Christian in whom no change is
wrought and no fruit is manifested. This is a dangerous doctrine,
because it gives people a false sense of spiritual safety.
There was a
college student who made a profession of faith in Christ. He was
living with his girlfriend and involved in the distribution of drugs.
His pastor confronted him, saying, “The life that you’re living
is not consistent with your profession of faith in Christ.” The
student smiled and said, “It’s okay, pastor, I’m a carnal
Christian.” I believe he was completely deluded about the state of
his soul. If a person thinks that he is in a state of grace and in
the kingdom of God even though there is no fruit in his life, he is
simply deceiving himself.
If I know
anything about Jesus, I am sure that when He came to that fig tree
and looked it over from top to bottom, if He had found one little
fig, there would have been no curse from His lips. He did not curse
that tree because it did not have enough
figs. He cursed it because it had no
figs, but it pretended to have something it did not possess at all.
Praying
with Faith
Matthew
continues, And
when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig
tree wither away so soon?”
(v. 20). They were astounded. Remember, they had seen Jesus’ power
over nature in the stilling of the waves of the sea (8:23–27), yet
they were amazed that He could cause a tree to wither.
When the
disciples expressed their amazement, Jesus
answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have
faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig
tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast
into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in
prayer, believing, you will receive”
(vv. 21–22). He was talking about the power of faith that is
focused on the nature of God, faith that is so in tune with the mind
of Christ that it is a catalyst for unbelievable exploits.
I know of
one biblical scholar who argues that the background of this statement
was the work Herod the Great had done to build his fortress next to
the temple complex. He had moved so much land from one hill to a
shallow place that he literally had moved a mountain. That may be so,
but I think it is rather beside the point. I know of no saint in the
history of the church who ever said to a mountain, “Be removed and
be cast into the sea,” and it actually happened. I think it is
clear that Jesus was speaking metaphorically here. He was saying that
people who pray for great things see great things accomplished.
Christ
wants His people to be so confident in God’s power that they pray
for marvelous things to happen, and He promises that when they pray
in this way, marvelous things will
happen. History proves the truth of this statement. Christians have
accomplished amazing things throughout the ages: great missionary
thrusts, the abolition of slavery, works of mercy such as hospitals
and orphanages. Usually there was a person who prayed his or her
heart out, asking that, despite all apparent obstacles, the goal
would be achieved. Jesus was telling His disciples that He wants His
people to pray like that. He wants His people to pray for things and
attempt things that other people regard as hopeless causes.
When Jesus
said, “Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will
receive,” He was clearly making a hyperbolic statement. There are
people who say that if we believe something can happen, it will
happen by the strength of our belief. Prayer is the most powerful
force at our disposal, but it is not magic. What Jesus taught about
prayer here must be understood in light of everything He taught about
prayer. He was not saying that if we ask anything believing in His
name, it will happen. But He was encouraging His people to run from
indolence, to be bold, to be daring, to attempt those things that few
people ever dream of attempting.
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1
Lange, J. P., & Schaff, P. (2008). A
commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Matthew (pp.
381–382). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
3
Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The
Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 77).
Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
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