“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. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.’” – Matthew 21:21-22
Jesus’s so-called cursing of the fig tree is a unique story in the Gospels, without any other report like it. In this scene, Jesus does a miracle to judge rather than save and destroy rather than heal. Matthew was Jewish, writing primarily to Jewish believers, and they would have understood Jesus’ symbolic meaning.
The unfruitful fig tree that arouses Jesus’ anger is in fact the people of God described by Jeremiah: “When I wanted to gather them, says the Lord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them” (Jer. 8:13; cf. Jer. 24:1–10; Hos. 9:10; Joel 1:7; Mic. 7:1). Jesus’ action, then, signifies the judgment of God on a religious community that “is covered with the ostentatious foliage of external piety,” but in which “truly obedient deeds, the fruit of religion, are lacking.” (1)
The point is profound and prophetic. God came to His people, and rather than finding life in the Spirit, He encountered proud and hypocritical religious prudes who had a lot of leaves but no fruit and were therefore worthless. Jesus’ words are also a prophecy: “…the days would soon come when the leaves would be stripped from the fig-tree of Israel, and the land would be sacked by the Romans. It happened with terrible thoroughness and unimaginable slaughter in the years ad 66–77.” (2)
In showing His supernatural power to judge and destroy as a warning to unrepentant sinners, we are to be reminded that Jesus’ miracle-working power is not only for believers but also for unbelievers. For example, unbelievers will be raised from the dead one day and then sentenced to the conscious eternal torments of Hell forever and ever. The point is sobering – damnation is as much a miracle as salvation. The sobering point of this miracle is that, unless we turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ, His divine supernatural power will only be used to destroy us instead of delivering us.
Jesus concludes by exhorting believers to pray in faith. When we pray in faith, we are connecting with the power of the same Holy Spirit who empowered the miracles of Jesus while on the earth so that we do not merely admire His life but also experience a measure of it in our own lives.
Come back tomorrow to find out if Jesus still heals people today.
Take some time and pray for those you know who have not put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Ask the Lord for opportunities to minister to them.
(1) Richard B. Gardner, Matthew, Believers Church Bible Commentary (Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1991), 318.
(2) Michael Green, The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 222.
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