Matthew 21:18-45 – Fig Trees, Isaiah, and More Evil

I often wonder how good the disciples’ memory was, but for that matter, I wonder if our memory is any better. Other than questioning why Jesus would want to eat figs in the first place, it seems that the following verses did not elicit a memory of Jesus’s previous teaching. Matthew writes,

18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

Matthew 21:18-19

If the disciples didn’t recall, maybe we can if we look back a few chapters to some of Jesus’s closing words near the end of his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said,

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Matthew 7:15-20

With these verses from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus states the consequences held in store for those trees that do not bear good fruit. But Jesus was not presenting horticultural advice, he was talking about false prophets who, according to Jeremiah, are those who claim to speak on God’s behalf, but instead are deceitful and tell lies in the name of God (Jer. 14:14). Jesus illustrated the consequences awaiting false prophets when he saw the fig tree without any fruit and cursed it to die.

Jesus, the previous day, encountered the Pharisees, contemporary false prophets, who became indignant when Jesus healed the blind and the lame and allowed children to sing his praises. The Pharisees rejected the teachings of Jesus because they wanted the freedom to manipulate the religious system for their own benefit, but Jesus saw them for who they were: false prophets and a major source of evil from which his followers needed protection. While the fig tree was cursed to wither and die, the Pharisees, those false prophets who claimed to be doing the work of the Father, had a different condemnation coming; a condemnation Jesus elucidated in the next verses in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said,

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21-23

I do not know what was in the Pharisees’ hearts — perhaps they really did think they were doing the right thing — but given the way Jesus spoke to them, it seems they were con men deliberately misusing their position for gain and privilege. They were not doing the works of the Father, and as such, the consequence awaiting those workers of evil was much worse than a withering fig tree; their reward was eternal separation from the Father.

However, it seems that the disciples did not remember anything about these words from the Sermon on the Mount, because when we return to Matthew 20, we see how the keystone cops responded. Matthew writes,

20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”

Matthew 21:20

The disciples were thinking about horticulture but Jesus was talking about evil. If, however, we want to give the disciples the benefit of the doubt, maybe they only saw Jesus walk over to a tree and then saw it wither; maybe they didn’t actually hear Jesus’s words. But if they did hear what he said, maybe they thought Jesus was just really hungry and upset the fig tree was naked. Maybe they recognized this as a miracle, but to them, this miracle probably didn’t make much sense. But Jesus, instead of talking about what caused the tree to wither, spoke about the meaning of the event. Matthew writes,

21 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. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Matthew 21:21-22

Most of us are probably familiar with how this verse has frequently been taken out of context. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone cause a mountain to actually fly up from its foundations and drop into the ocean, but I’ve been told that’s only because I don’t have enough faith. But if we did, we could rearrange the topography of the world! But even if it wasn’t actual mountains, we’ve been told that if we just have enough faith in Jesus then we can do anything: we can shoot 3-point shots with 100% accuracy; we can get perfect scores on our college admissions tests; we can write a best-seller and make enough money to buy a small island; the Browns can win the Super Bowl! Just think of the possibilities! If we have enough faith, Jesus will give us anything we want! We can even use exclamation points properly, I mean, WOW! Somehow, however, I don’t really think that is what Jesus was talking about.

Just as the cursed fig tree wasn’t about horticulture, these words are not about geology or about making our dreams come true. Jesus was talking about how the Father delivers us from evil. As suggested last week, evil is not just some horrible beast with horns living in the dark and desolate places of the earth, though such things could be evil. But evil, true and heinous evil, is that which is contrary to the Father’s will and the Father’s ways. Quite possibly the most diabolical of all evils is that evil of a false prophet: someone speaking falsely on God’s behalf.

False prophets litter the pages of the Bible and the paths of history, but they are not absent from our present day. False prophets have been with us ever since Eve learned to ask the question posed by the serpent, “Did God actually say…?” False prophets preach a false gospel about a false God, and from such we need deliverance. There is a part of me that wants to name some modern famous false prophets, but the rational, realistic, and spiritual part of me says that is not a good idea. You know…motes in my eyes and specks in theirs. But there is an obvious truth we need to understand: the primary evil from which we need protection is the evil coming from those who speak falsely on God’s behalf. When Jesus said “whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith” he was telling us, at a minimum and given the context, that if we ask for deliverance from evil we will be delivered. Prayer and immersion into God’s already-revealed truth found in the Bible is the best way for Jesus’s disciples to identify the evil of false prophets, and prayer is also the only way in which we can petition the Father to protect us from these false prophets, something he promises to do by casting them away and rendering them lifeless.

Furthermore, if we pay close attention to the context of these words, we might actually see that Jesus was not just talking about any sort of evil. Jesus had just left the temple where the Pharisees’ anger was on display: they were upset that Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers, they were upset that healed the blind and the lame, and they were upset that the children had praised him for it. The Pharisees were the false prophets during Jesus’s time: they were the evil from which the disciples needed deliverance, they were the fig tree Jesus cursed, and they also represented the mountain Jesus said would be cast into the sea. When Jesus spoke about the mountain being cast into the sea, he didn’t speak about “any mountain” or “that mountain” or “a mountain,” Jesus said, “this mountain.” Jesus very specifically referenced the mountain upon which they were standing: the mountain of Jerusalem and the Temple. When Jesus cursed the fig tree, he was saying that the entire religious establishment in Israel at the time was cursed. No, the mountain upon which Jerusalem stood was not thrown into the Mediterranean, but it was eventually destroyed: in A.D. 70 Jerusalem was sacked and the temple leveled; it was cast away because it no longer produced fruit, just as Jesus said it would happen.

However, when Jesus cursed the fig tree, that mountain was still standing. But in the following verses, a drama unfolds wherein Jesus makes clear that the fig-tree-mountain of Israel was soon to wither and die. Matthew writes,

23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Matthew 21:23-27

I think it’s ironic that when the fig tree…er…the chief priests and the elders questioned Jesus’s authority they were essentially asking if Jesus was a true or false prophet. But instead of answering their question directly, Jesus wanted to make crystal clear who the false prophet really was, so he asked a question about John and his authority that placed the Pharisees in a sticky wicket. Since the people believed that John was a prophet, the fig tree could not affirm John’s authority because they would also be affirming what John had said about Jesus. Rather than allowing themselves to be caught in such a dilemma, they played ignorant.

Now, if anyone had been paying close attention to this interchange, they would have known that the Pharisees had just exposed themselves as being false prophets. As the religious leaders in Israel, when they revealed that they did not know who was or wasn’t a prophet, they were essentially saying that they did not know the will of the Father. But, in case anyone hadn’t been paying that close of attention, Jesus told a couple of parables, and boy are they doozies. Matthew writes,

28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.”

Matthew 21:28-31a

The one who does the will of the Father not only affirms the words of the Father but also acts on them. The Pharisees affirmed the words of the Father, but they did not act on them, thus they did not do the will of the Father. I sometimes wonder if the Pharisees weren’t very bright because even though they knew which son was the one doing the will of the father, they evidently didn’t understand that Jesus was talking about them; though, after Jesus’s next words, I think it became very obvious. I typically quote the ESV, but with these next verses, I will quote The Message (1993) as I like Eugene Peterson’s wording a bit better. Matthew writes,

31b Jesus said, “Yes, and I tell you that crooks and whores are going to precede you into God’s kingdom. 32 John came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and whores believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn’t care enough to change and believe him.

Matthew 21:31b-32

The ESV says “tax collectors and prostitutes” but The Message’s phrasing of “crooks and whores” makes the comparison between the fig tree and the despicable much clearer. The fig tree was unwilling to listen to God’s word, unwilling to accept it as God’s word, and unwilling to change, but when the crooks and whores heard Jesus speak, they repented from their sin and changed their ways. As a result, Jesus said that the crooks and whores would enter the Father’s kingdom before the priest and elders. Truly, the first has become last and the last has become first. But this was not the complete judgment Jesus passed on the fig tree. Jesus told a second parable. Matthew writes,

33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country.

Matthew 21:33

Speaking of memory, I am pretty sure the fig tree (religious leaders) knew Jesus had the following passage from Isaiah 5 in mind when he told this parable. Isaiah wrote,

1 Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2  He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.

Isaiah 5:1-2

But it’s possible that the fig tree didn’t know where Jesus was going with his parable because Jesus said this,

34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Matthew 21:34-41

That would have been surprising because the Isaiah passage didn’t reference tenants and sons, it talked of bad grapes. We read the following,

3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4  What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
5  And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6  I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.

Isaiah 5:3-6

Isaiah speaks of grapes that have gone bad, but Jesus speaks about tenants in the vineyard that had gone bad. This switcheroo might have befuddled the fig tree for a short while because Isaiah’s parable led to this conclusion,

7  For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry!

Isaiah 5:7

But if they were befuddled, when Jesus concluded his parable, I’m pretty sure their befuddlement was gone. Isaiah had been speaking about how the nation of Israel had become evil by no longer providing justice and righteousness, but Jesus was talking about the religious leaders of Israel, even though they did the same thing. When Jesus spoke the following words, I’m pretty sure the fig tree (religious leaders) saw that Jesus, along with Isaiah, brought the same punishment: the evil fig tree had to die. Jesus concluded his parable with these words,

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

Matthew 21:42-46

Just like the Israelites of old who stopped following God’s laws and God’s ways, the Israelites of Jesus’s day had abandoned God’s ways for their own understanding, and as a result, they were about to lose the kingdom. The Bible tells us that it wasn’t long after Jesus’s ascension before the center of the church moved from Jerusalem to Antioch (Acts 11:19-26) and the major missionary movements centered on the Gentiles and not the Israelites (Acts 13:46-47). Even before the mountain was cast into the sea around A.D. 70, the kingdom had been removed from Israelite hands and placed into Gentile hands. These events certainly don’t mean that no Israelites ever became, or will become followers of Jesus, but they do mean that God gave up on the nation of fig trees and moved on to a people who would bear the fruit of the kingdom. While it is possible that Jesus intended many layers of interpretation to be included with the petition “and deliver us from evil,” the layer of immediate importance for the disciples of Jesus’s time was the day-to-day world in which they lived. It is no different for us today. Evil wearing the mask of a false prophet pervades our world; it is the most heinous evil that almost any of us will ever encounter, and from it we need deliverance.

This is not the end of this particular encounter between Jesus and the fig tree, but it is where we must end for today. In these verses, we have seen Jesus curse a fig tree, not because he hates fruitless trees but because the evil from which we need delivery comes in the guise of false prophets bearing no fruit. We have also seen Jesus speak judgment upon the chief priests and Pharisees because they, like the fig tree, bore no fruit. These events help us understand that when praying, “deliver us from evil,” we, like the first disciples, are praying for the Father to protect us from the hand of evil and for him to also remove the body of evil from our presence. But there is another lesson we must learn from this entire episode. Not only do we need delivery from the long-reaching hand of evil false prophets, but we also need delivery from the part of us that welcomes and embraces false prophecy. For it is not only Eve who has fallen prey to the question, “Did God actually say,” we ask the same question when we think we know better than God or when we “reinterpret” his words so they fit with and support our own evil desires. The evil for which we pray for deliverance exists “out there,” but it also exists within our own hearts. This is why we must continually pray, “deliver us from evil.”

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