Matthew 21:18-22 – True faith is fruitful

According to Matthew 21:17, Jesus left Jerusalem and went to Bethany to spend the night after cleansing the temple. Verse 18 tells us that when morning had dawned, Jesus was returning to Jerusalem. While on the way, He saw a fig tree and expected it to provide the fruit to satisfy His hunger. But when He approached it He couldn’t find any fruit except leaves. Jesus then seemed to have acted uncharacteristically. He actually cursed that fig tree saying, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” Matthew tells us that at once the fig tree withered. Had Jesus lost control of His emotion? Didn’t He say that man shall not live by bread alone? What’s His reason for doing this seeming petulant act? Cursing of the fig tree was not out of character with His nature. In fact it was very Jesus. He would often use nature and the very ordinary things of life to vividly illustrate an important lesson.  

Here the cursing of a fig tree was an object lesson for His disciples. The whole episode was an illustration of the impending judgment that was coming upon the fruitless religion of Israel. Their magnificent Temple, the pompous Temple tradition, the seemingly rich heritage, the peerless priestly order and the law, were like leaves of that cursed fig tree. They promised much but delivered nothing. Much of Israel’s religion were an outward show with no inward reality. It’s like a charade but had no capacity to fulfil the will of God. They promised godliness but weren’t able to move a person closer to that goal.

On seeing what happened to the fig tree after Jesus had cursed it, His disciples wanted to know how the tree could wither all at once. Instead of providing an explanation, the Lord issued a challenge. He said, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will 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 will happen.” What was Jesus saying? There was no specific incidence where Jesus actually moved a mountain to rearrange the terrain of earth. Could “…the casting of the mountain into the sea” be a coded message about the Temple that would soon be annihilated?

Far more than removing a physical mountain, Jesus tells us that we could be telling the mountain of sickness and the problem of our confused mind to be removed. As Jesus issued the challenge to the disciples to have faith in God, this same challenge is also issued to us today. He is not talking about wishful thinking. He is asking us to put our complete confidence in God and His power. He is asking us to be thoroughly expectant and committed to the task of bearing fruit that He wants to bring, in and through our life. Alongside our prayer, we need to trust and believe, and confidently receive what we have asked of Him.