The Lesson of the Fig Tree - Matthew 21
Matthew paints a picture for us in Matt 21 that points to the inevitable confrontation Jesus had with the chief priests and elders. If he had been hesitant, or felt the time to have been previously unpropitious, that time was over; he now speaks and acts unequivocally.
He cleansed the temple, which would have been highly offensive to the Jewish leaders, but not as offensive as making the temple a profit-making centre, rather than a house of prayer for all nations, was to Jesus.
He refused to answer their demand of authentication of his authority, and in so doing trapped them in their own disingenuity.
He spoke parables, one of two sons and the other of wicked tenants. Both were squarely aimed at the religious rulers – the representatives of Israel. This theme continues into Matt 22:1-14.
This was never going to end well, added to which we have the seven condemnations/woes spoken to and about the Pharisees in Matt 24.
In the middle of this sequence of events is the unusual and unexpected cursing of the fig tree. Scholars contextualise this event, seeing it as a prophetic pronouncement about Israel – the unfruitful fig tree – because of its setting in Matthew 21.
But it isn’t just about this. It is also one of the most remarkable statements ever uttered about the vastness of the possibilities of faith. And Jesus wasn’t being coy, when he said, “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.” What a staggering statement. How does it comport with the rest of Matthew? Are there boundaries or caveats within the text?
“With faith” is one, because faith isn’t merely a spiritual principle, activated at will. Firstly, faith’s focus is Jesus and secondly, it is in what God has spoken – not what we might prefer or wish for.
Another caveat in the text is the word “disciples”. This promise about mountain-moving faith wasn’t heard in the hearing of the causal follower, the uncommitted; it was heard by people that were disciples of the lowly one, the servant-minded, the soon-to-be-crucified one who showed his disciples how living for and loving others was to pick up your cross. The disciples were taught and modeled denial of self, not the enhancement nor the fulfillment of self. To find yourself, in Jesus’ words, was to lose yourself, whereas losing oneself was how we would find ourselves.
Matthew focused on discipleship like no other gospel writer. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest text devoted to discipleship in the New Testament. This is the interpretive context.
This verse, so full of the virtually unimaginable, is not a word for those that weren’t practising discipleship, that weren’t denying themselves picking up their cross in pursuit of Christlikeness. A disciple interprets these words of Jesus through the lens of “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” He/she sees redemptive purpose as the grounds for this kind of faith.
For those who are disciples of the suffering servant, those with Christocentric faith these verses in Matt 21 are simply staggering; all things are possible to him who believes.