The Acted Out Parable Of The End Of The Old Unbelieving Israel (21:18-22).
Having made clear by His actions that the old unbelieving Israel in the person of its leaders will not receive Him, Jesus now makes clear what the result will be by bringing about the withering of a fig tree, and by describing a mountain which will be cast into the sea. These demonstrate the state of the people generally and the future that awaits them. This old unbelieving Israel is the same as that which rejected the prophets, and was continually described as subject to judgment so that after intense purification from it would come a holy seed (e.g. Isaiah 4:2-4; Isaiah 6:13; Zechariah 13:8-9; Malachi 4:1-2).
Matthew's treatment of the story of the fig tree illustrates his abbreviating tendencies. He leaves out everything that is not essential to the message that he wants to get over, including an indication of the length of time between the ‘cursing' of the fig tree and its withering. In the Old Testament the fruit of a fig tree illustrates the moral and spiritual condition of people in Israel. For example, in Jeremiah 24:2 good and bad figs depicted on the one hand blessing on the captives in Babylon who were rethinking their attitudes, and on the other punishment on those who remained in the land who were carrying on as they were. While the application is not quite the same it illustrates the use of the product of a fig tree to denote judgment or otherwise on ‘Israel'. Compare also Jeremiah 8:13; Micah 7:1, (and see Deuteronomy 8:8; Numbers 13:23). Furthermore Jesus probably intended them by His action to remember His own parable of the fig tree which indicated that His people were on probation (Luke 13:6-9). There a man who had planted a fig tree came looking for fruit on it and found none. At that stage it was to be given another chance to see if it would produce figs. What Jesus therefore appears to be indicating here is that for many of them it was now too late. Both the individuals in Israel and Israel as a whole had been given abundant opportunity. Now, however, their probation was over. They had failed to produce figs (compare Matthew 3:8; Matthew 3:10; Matthew 7:17-20; Matthew 12:33) and they must therefore receive the consequences (compare John 3:18-21).
Here it is the consequences of their failure that it in mind. Those who have not produced fruit will ‘be withered', and this is not simply a result of natural processes but will be brought about by the word of Jesus acting in judgment. Some have questioned whether Jesus would have acted in this way, and have treated it as though Jesus had acted out of petulance. But we must not read our reactions into Jesus. There is no petulance here. It is a case of Jesus seizing an opportunity to vividly illustrate a point to His disciples, and a visibly evidenced outworking of the principle, ‘from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away' (Matthew 13:12). His aim therefore is to indicate to His disciples that this is precisely what He will do to any who put on a false show. For the fact is that no lesson is more deeply appreciated than one that is vividly illustrated by some remarkable and intriguing observed event, and at this point in their lives Jesus clearly considered that this lesson did need to be well and truly learned. He would not therefore hesitate in speeding up the demise of a fig tree in accomplishing such a purpose, just as He once smote the fig trees of Egypt (Psalms 105:33) and will one day, as the Judge of the world, wither up the whole of unbelieving mankind because they too have put on a false showing. Every time that the disciples in the future passed that particular fig tree it would bring home to them those greater realities, and remind them of the consequences of being a sham.
We are probably also to see in the mountain cast into the sea a similar picture of judgment on Jerusalem and the Temple, for being ‘cast into the sea' is regularly a symbol of judgment (see Matthew 8:32; Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2), and ‘the mountain of the Lord's house' is a well known description (Isaiah 2:2 compare Isaiah 25:6). So the two together may be seen as illustrating the withering of Israel and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. It is probably therefore no coincidence that this incident is placed right in the middle of Jesus' confrontations with the chief priests (Matthew 21:15; Matthew 21:23; Matthew 21:45), whose leader the High Priest was the leading authority in Israel and Jerusalem.
Analysis.
a Now in the morning as he returned to the city, he felt hungry (Matthew 21:18).
b And seeing a fig tree by the way side, he came to it, and found nothing on it, but leaves only (Matthew 21:19 a).
c And he says to it, “Let there be no fruit from you from now on for ever” (Matthew 21:19 b)
d And immediately the fig tree withered away (Matthew 21:19 c).
e And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled (Matthew 21:20 a).
d Saying, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?” (Matthew 21:20 b).
c And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, If you have faith, and do not doubt, you will not only do what is done to the fig tree” (Matthew 21:21 a)
b “But even if you shall say to this mountain, ‘Be you taken up and cast into the sea,' it will be done” (Matthew 21:21 b)
a “And all things, whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22).
Note that in ‘a' Jesus is filled with hunger, and in the parallel describes how ‘hunger' can be satisfied. In ‘b' the fig tree has nothing but leaves, and in the parallel the mountain is cast into the sea. In ‘c' no fruit is to be on the fig tree in the future at His command, and in the parallel the disciples will by faith be able to do the same. In ‘d' the fig tree withered, and in the parallel the disciples asked how it occurred. Centrally in ‘e' the disciples marvelled at what had happened.