Looking at Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem is sobering. We know he is in control of the events that will occur. We realize that he has come to give himself up as a “Paschal Sacrifice”. The journey will have some unexpected twists and this is one of them. It’s Monday, the day after the triumphant entry of Sunday. On this day, Jesus returns to Jerusalem from his overnight stay in Bethany, and in the Gospel of Matthew, everyone becomes aware of who he was by the end of the day.
“In the morning, when he returned
to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig
tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but
leaves. Then he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!"
And the fig tree withered at once.
When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, "How did the fig tree
wither at once?"
Jesus answered them, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not
doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you
say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will be done.
Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive."
When he entered the temple,
the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching,
and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you
this authority?"
Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell
me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.
Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human
origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, 'From heaven,'
he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'
But if we say, 'Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all
regard John as a prophet."
So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them,
"Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
Matthew 21:18-27
Piecing together the different
Gospels is not an easy task. Matthew
reminds us that it was the next morning that Jesus returned to Jerusalem. When he came into the city, a parable – so to
speak – unfolded for the disciples, and us to see.
There was a fig tree by the
wayside…figs grow abundantly in the Mediterranean climate of Israel. It was a fig tree that Adam and Eve sought leaves
to sew together a covering after they had fallen into Sin because they realized
they were naked. God tells the
Israelites when they are going to the Promised Land of Israel that it is “a
land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees…”
The fig
tree seemed to represent God’s care, prosperity, and blessing…and as Jesus
approached Jerusalem he found emptiness instead of fruit. Jesus speaks words of judgment: “And he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come
from you again! And the fig tree withered at once”.
The
disciples, perhaps shocked at what Jesus did, ask “How did this happen so
suddenly?” Jesus’ response is to remind them that faith makes all things
possible. Yet, the fig tree is not only a lesson on prayer, it’s also a lesson about
judgment.
As the
fig tree died, so also Israel is dying.
In Jesus’ entry, the conflict with the religious rulers will heat
up. Jesus reminds the disciples that the
Temple will be destroyed. The New Covenant is about to be established in Jesus’
death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
God is
exercising through His son over the nation of Israel and its leaders. Jesus enters the Temple and there is a
confrontation with the elders and Chief Priests of the Temple.
They
want to know by what authority he claims to speak. Their authority was granted to them by virtue
of their position, often bought and paid for through bribes, or family
patronage, and approved by the Roman leaders – all of it to keep the money
flowing into the Temple and to pay for the lavish lifestyles of all in power.
Jesus
answers that the authority he has comes from God, just as John the Baptist
did…they know he’s dangerous. The fig tree is dead because it bears no
fruit. So also is the nation dying under
the weight of its politics of religion and leaders only interested in lining
their pockets. Near this same time,
Jesus cried out to Israel to see what they were doing.
“And when he drew near and saw the
city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day
the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the
days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you
and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the
ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone
upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke
19:41-44).
Within
40 years the nation will lie in ruins – crushed by the Roman army that leveled
the Temple, but also crushed under the weight of its greed and void of any
meaningful relationship with God. They
rejected the Messiah and it took a generation for it all to collapse.
One of
the most frequent pleas of the Psalms fits in this well. The Psalmists often make a simple plea to
their readers, and listeners, imploring most simply: “Harden not your hearts”. Let’s make sure in Lent that we pray for soft
hearts that are willing to hear God in His word.
Peace
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