26 The Way of the Fig Tree (21:18-22)
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 God’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 teach the importance of persistent prayer. Persistent prayer is the prayer that moves mountains, because it is truly believing prayer.
Whatever our finite minds may lead us to think, there is no inconsistency between God’s sovereignty and man’s faith, because God’s Word clearly teaches both. It is not the believer’s responsibility to fathom God’s inscrutable ways but to obediently follow His clear teaching. Persistent prayer that is believing God’s Word cannot be inconsistent with the operation of God’s own sovereign will, because in His sovereign wisdom and grace He commands such prayer and obligates Himself to honor it.
The believer who wants what God wants can ask from God and receive it. The Christian young person who truly wants what God wants for his life will have it. The woman who truly wants what God wants for her family will have it. The pastor who truly wants what God wants for his ministry will have it.
God’s will for His children does not, of course, always involve things that are pleasant to the flesh or the things one might naturally prefer. His will for His children includes their willingness to sacrifice, suffer, and die for Him if necessary. For the believer who seeks God’s will, it is never a matter of succeeding or failing, of prosperity or poverty, of living or dying, but simply of being faithful (see 1 Cor. 4:2). Therefore Paul declares, “If we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:8).
When the church is impotent, as so much of it is today, it is because so many Christians are impotent. And Christians are impotent because they are not persistent in praying for what God wants, believing He will provide it. God desires His children to ask and keep asking, to seek and keep seeking, to knock and keep knocking, and it is through that persistence that He promises to bless. He guarantees that they will always receive, always find, and always have the door opened to them (Matt. 7:7).
God does not build His church or build up His people by better ideas, better programs, or better methods, although such things can have a place in His work. God promises to truly reveal His power only through faithful believers who, in persistent prayer, seek only His will.