Matthew 21:18-22; Mark 11:12-14, 20-21
Pastor Dr. Archie Ivy
In Matthew 21:1-16 and Mark 11:1-11 we are given an account of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem the morning of the first day of Passover Week, He rode into the city ona donkey colt to a Messiah’s welcome and was acclaimed the Son of David, as the people shouted hosanna, and placed clothes and palm branches in the way before Him. (Matthew 21:1-11).
Mark 11:11, states: “And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when He had looked round about all things, and now eventide was come, He went out unto Bethany with the twelve.” On Tuesday He came to the city again and cleansed the temple of the sacrifice merchants and money changers (vv.12-16). Matthew 21:17: “And He left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and He lodged there.” It is said to be now Wednesday, that Jesus enters Jerusalem for a third time since coming up from Jericho.
From Mark we lean that the encounter with the fig tree involved two successive days. Jesus curses 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 root 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’ having been hailed by the people as Israel’s great Messiah and King, His cleansing the Temple the Temple and cursing the fig tree were special and monumental significance… The cleansing of the Temple was a denunciation of Israel’s worship, and the cursing of the fig tree was not nearly as powerfully dramatic as the cleansing of the Temple, but was equally significant… Let us notice from the lesson these very important points.
I. THE PREDICAMENT (VV.18-19a).
In the morning refers to Wednesday morning, the day after the cleansing of the Temple and two days after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem… Jesus returned to the city after spending the night in Bethany, “He became hungry, and seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only.”
Fig trees were common in Palestine and much valued. It was not uncommon for them to grow to a height of twenty feet and equally as wide, make them excellent shade trees. In John 1:48, Nathaniel was sitting under a fig tree when Jesus called him to follow Him… Before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, the land was described to them by God as “a land of wheat and barley of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey” (Deut. 8:8). In Zechariah 3:9-10, the promise is made to the people that at the 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… A favorite place for people to gather was under the shade of a fig tree… The fruit of the fig tree was good for food, it could be eaten fresh from the tree, dried, juiced, preserved…
Normally a fig tree produced fruit before it sprouted leaves. Therefore when Jesus found nothing except leaves, He was disappointed, because a tree with leaves should already have had fruit… Fig 7trees 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 Marks observes, “it was not the season for figs” (Mark 11:13).
Nevertheless, if the fig tree produced leaves early it should have also 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 suppose to… It is false advertising… Not being what you are called to be.
We find that 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…
II. THE PARABLE (V.19b).
And He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.” With these words, Jesus pronounced the doom of the tree… It was now under a divine curse and would be perpetually unproductive… In Matthew’s account it appears that the fig withered instantly… 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 “was withered from the root up.”
The fig tree represented spiritually dead Israel, its leaves represented Israel’s outward religiousness, and the lack of fruit represented Israel’s spiritual barrenness… As Paul describes for us in Romans 10:2: “they had zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” A form of godliness, but no godly power (cf.2 Timothy 3:5).
Fruit is always an indication of salvation, of a transformed life in which operates the power of God. A person’s right relation to God is evident by the fruit they bear… Jesus said in Matthew 7:18: A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” 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 is produced (Matthew 13:8). Jesus explained that the good soil is the person in whom the seed of God’s Word takes root and grows. It is the one who hears the Word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit… In John 15:5, Jesus says: “I am the vine, you are the branches; he that abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit… Fruit is always the manifestation of true salvation…
The point Jesus is making regarding the fig tree is; that Israel as a nation had an impressive pretense of religion, represented by 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 a fruitfulness is always evidence of salvation and godliness, barrenness is always evidence of being lost and ungodliness. Empty religion brings with it many outward trappings; rituals, self-righteousness, spontaneous prayers, vain repetition. Like the Pharisee’s self-righteous prayer in Luke 18:11, who Jesus says was praying to himself…
III. THE PRINCIPLE (VV.20-22).
When the disciples passed the cursed fig tree the next morning and saw that it was “withered from the root 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 tree to wither overnight was to do so virtually at once. A miracle, one of two other the swine’s…
Here in these verses Jesus moves 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 teaches here related to the disciple’ 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 withered so fast… Jesus took this opportunity to teach them and us 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, “Verily I say unto you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not do what was done to the fig tree, but also you shall say unto this mountain, be removed, and be cast into the sea; it shall be done.”
What Jesus is saying to the disciples and to us is simply this: He says, 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…In John 14:13-14, as they sat around the table at the “Last Supper,” Jesus told His disciples, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” 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 is foolish and unscriptural ideas that are popular today… Jesus is speaking about faith in the true and living God and in God alone, not faith in our dreams, aspirations, or ideas of what we think ought to be… James says to us in Chapter 4: 3; “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so you may spend it on your pleasures.” In 1 John 5:14, we are told: “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us… Mountain moving faith is unselfish, undoubting, and unqualified confidence in God… it is believing God’s truth and God’s power while seeking to do God’s will…
True mountain faith is trusting in the revelation of God… When a believer seeks something this consistent with God’s Word and trust in God’s power to provide it, Jesus assures them that their request will be honored, because it honors Him and His Father… When God 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…
Mountains-moving faith activated by sincere faith in our petition to God in the name of Jesus… In this lesson we have learned that we must be real in our relationship with God… Our profession is a reflection of who we are, a false profession puts us in a terrible and doomed predicament… The parable teaches us that, we will be judged for our lack of being what God intended us to be… The principles learned are: have faith in God… The same Jesus one day is coming back again…