Mat 21;18-22. Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” 21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, 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 also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Very few of us have eaten a fig fruit here, as this tree doesn’t grow much in the place we live in. I’ve had fig fruit when I traveled to hill stations like Munnar or Ooty, but for whatever reason, I didn’t like it. In Bible times and the Bible land, the fig fruit was very famous, a common, good, sweet fruit. Palestine was a land of fig trees. A fig tree can get 20 feet high, and then get 20 feet wide—a great shade tree. A fig tree would be a bushy tree full of leaves, some even looking like a big banyan tree. People would often go to a fig tree to sit back, relax, and reflect. In John 1:48, we see Nathanael spending time under a fig tree. It was like a coffee shop or a Lassi shop of Bible times; people would sit for hours and enjoy the shade and fruit.
In the passage we have before us, we have the strange miracle of our Lord cursing the fig tree. Few have asked me what this means. I gave a short answer, but today I will give a detailed answer with lessons. It is a very scary lesson. Before preaching, I have preached this message to my heart and examined my heart. I come with a burden this morning. So I invite you: come, learn lessons from the cursed fig tree.
Remember we are looking at the last week of Jesus’ life in Matthew 21. Jesus arrived in the city of Jerusalem in a triumphal entry procession with crowds shouting and praising Him as the promised Messiah. The procession ended in the temple. This happened on Monday, and then on Tuesday, last time we saw how He cleansed the temple. He said, “This is a den of thieves; it should be a house of prayer.”
After that, we have this incident of the fig tree recorded. If you read Mark 11, this cursing of the tree actually happened on Tuesday morning before cleansing the temple. Then, the next day, Wednesday morning, when they came, the disciples saw it withered and told the Lord. Matthew condenses both of those into just one narrative, from verse 18 to 22. Matthew isn’t so concerned with the chronology, but focuses on the message of the fig tree. Mark was writing in chronological order. So, Monday morning, the Lord comes in the triumphal entry, which ends in Jerusalem. Mark says at the end of Monday, He observed all the activities of the temple and bazaars inside the temple, and went to Bethany. Tuesday morning, before cleansing the temple, this incident happens.
Let us understand the incident in 3 simple headings: Cursing of the Fig Tree, Symbolic Lesson, Faith Lesson.
1. Cursing of the Fig Tree
Verse 18: “Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.”
As I said, this is Tuesday morning before cleansing the temple. It says when He returned to Jerusalem, He was hungry. The Son of God was hungry. Oh, what a mystery: the self-sufficient, infinite God, gets hungry. So human; so human. He was hungry. Why was He hungry? Last night He went to Martha, Mary, and Lazarus’ house. We know for sure Martha wouldn’t have allowed Him to go hungry in the morning. She would have cooked with a lot of plan and worry. And breakfast, in Israel, is a big thing, not bread and butter, but a kind of buffet breakfast, many items. Why then is He hungry? We can only guess. Probably, since what He saw in the temple last night—the worship of God corrupted, all bazaars—filled His whole being with burning zeal and indignation, “the zeal of God’s house did even eat Him up.” He couldn’t sleep last night in Martha’s house, and as his usual custom, very early morning maybe He went alone to pray and missed breakfast. His burden for the temple didn’t allow Him to feel any hunger. After long hours of wrestling prayer, He comes to Jerusalem, an uphill journey, walking for long, and now He is hungry. He also has with Him dull and confused disciples, still not understood His mission, what is happening to Israel, and they still need a lot of teaching.
Verse 19: “And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, ‘Let no fruit grow on you ever again.’ Immediately the fig tree withered away.”
He sees a fig tree. It was by the road, not in anyone’s private garden, just a roadside tree. He was attracted to it because it did have leaves. The fig tree usually has leaves and fruit in June, but this is April. Mark 11 states that it was not the season of figs. It was an unusual tree. Maybe this tree was at a very fertile point in the soil, the soil had unique nutrients, it was near a brook, and water was in abundance, provided to the roots. So its leaves came, so it should have had fruit.
And here’s the important point: for a fig tree, the fruit comes before the leaves. Fig trees produced a sort of early “fig” in the springtime—a small one that came before the leaves began to grow. They weren’t as big and juicy as the later figs would be; but they were still very tasty. They are called “figlets.” And so, Jesus came to the fig tree—covered with the promise of fruit—expecting to be able to pick some of these smaller “figlets” and satisfy His hunger. The poor and simple Christ, He would willingly have taken up with green or raw figs for His breakfast. We go out, seek the best hotels for breakfast.
But when He got there it says He found nothing on it but leaves only. It looked like a living fruitful tree from far, but when He came near for fruit, It just never had any. Fruits come first, and then leaves. If it had all leaves, and no fruit, it will never have fruit. It was a diseased tree. It was a fruitless tree. Verse 19 concludes: “and said to it, ‘Let no fruit grow on you ever again.’ Immediately the fig tree withered away.”
Mark 11:21 says He cursed it, and it died. As one of the chiefest and first blessings of God, and which was the first, is, “Be fruitful”; so one of the saddest curses is, “Be no more fruitful.” Mark 11:20 and 21 indicates the next morning, when they came by, it had died from the roots up. Not only all the leaves fell off, all the branches, and the trunk, even the roots are all withered and dead. It looked like a terrible barren tree. Imagine 2 trees full of green one day, next day terrible barren.
Now this is the cursing of the fig tree miracle.
2. Symbolic Lesson
What is the lesson? There is a symbolic lesson implied in this act of the Lord. Why I say it is a symbolic lesson? See, this is a strange miracle superficially. Our Lord, for His own hunger, unknowingly wrongly went to a tree which didn’t have fruit, became vexed and uttered a curse against a tree as though it had been a responsible agent. Why angry on a tree? What can it do?
Every miracle Jesus did had either one of 2 purposes. One is to validate and authenticate His identity as Messiah, or to teach them a deep lesson. For example, to show He can forgive sins, He raised a lame man and asked him to carry his bed. To teach He is the bread of life, He multiplied bread. To teach He is the resurrection and life, He rose Lazarus from the dead. Here is a miracle performed privately among His disciples. This miracle is not to validate His identity. He has already done that and the disciples believe He is the Messiah. So the importance of this miracle has to be a didactic miracle (designed to teach a spiritual lesson).
Moreover, there is a uniqueness to this miracle. No other miracle recorded in all the gospels was a totally destructive miracle. All His miracles were healing and deliverance. Here alone all of the gospels records that it is totally unmixed in its destructive nature. That should immediately raise a question. Why? This is where 2 things will help us – the entire teaching of the Bible on the subject and the context of this miracle. 2 things can give us the answer. What is the symbolic meaning of this miracle?
So let us understand the overall teaching of the Bible about the fig tree and Israel.
Fig Tree: If you read the Old Testament (Deut. 8:8; Hab. 3:17; Hag. 2:19), fig trees were symbolic of prosperity and the favor of God. In Deuteronomy 8:8, when God laid out the beauty of the land, He said, “It’s a land of wheat; it’s a land of vines; it’s a land of fig trees.” Even the spies in Numbers 13 went into the land, came out and reported that there were fig trees there. The fig tree is a symbol of the prosperity and the richness of that land agriculturally. So, the presence of fig trees are the mark of the prosperity of the land, and God’s favor.
Moreover, the fig tree picture was also used as God’s sovereign choosing and relationship with Israel. The Bible uses the fruit of the fig tree as a symbol of Israel. God says, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its season” (Hosea 9:8).
Israel had a peculiar covenant relationship with God. Amos 3:2: “You only I have known of all nations.” God had made a peculiar covenant with them, given them laws, and oracles, and His revelation. God had given a unique position by grace to Israel in a covenant relationship with God. The center of all visible symbols of this covenant relationship was found in the temple. There in the temple the Shekinah presence of God rested, in that temple was the altar for sacrifice, the priesthood functioned there, and most importantly, in the holy of holies, there was the most important sign of the covenant – the ark of the covenant. And it was there all Jews in covenant with God should come. If there was any place on earth that would reflect the privileges and covenantal relationship of Israel with God, where should you find it? In the temple.
If there was any place that should reflect the fruits of true faith in God and salvation, true heart religion, it should be at the temple. Surely it would be there. As part of covenant faithfulness, the nation should worship God and love God with all heart, soul, and mind as demanded in the covenant. You should find true communion with God, and pure worship should be maintained there. But when the Lord came to that temple, He looked round about, what did He see? He saw full of religious activities. Yes, there were outward priests, sacrifices, outwardly everything was happening. It has a pretense of fruit, but no fruit.
See the context: what caused the hunger early morning fast? He spent a restless night and early morning prayer because of what He had seen in the temple the night before. Instead of seeing true fruits of faith in God and expressions of true worship, what the Lord saw in the temple was leaves of religious activity abounding in every hand. The temple area was full of people doing religious activities, temple priests, all religious activities, but as a nation there was no spiritual life, no true faith in God, was there any heart love and communion with God? No. They had the outward form of godliness but denied its power. Just like the Lord rebuked them earlier quoting Isaiah: “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, in vain do they worship.”
What should have been the center of love to God and holy zeal and enthusiasm, where He should have seen the fruits of their faith in Jehovah, there was empty ritual with lips, hearts far from Him. In vain do they worship in the outer court, and the holy place. In the Court of the Gentiles, where Gentiles should know this is the place of the living God, courts of the great Jehovah, the whole place is commercialized with all business activities, and they don’t see any difference between a market and this place. There was so much activity. When He came near the tree, did He find the fruit of peculiar covenant love, did He find pure worship, true witness? He found none of them.
He found only leaves, no fruit. Even the welcome He received, full of leaves, didn’t bear any fruit. Within a week they will change to crucify Him. In that context, next morning coming into Jerusalem, He being hungry, seeing one tree with full of leaves in a peculiar providence, unlike other trees, even as the nation of Israel in spite of all unique privileges and blessings, bore no fruit. So as a symbolic act, He cursed it, and the tree withered.
That fig tree is symbolic of Israel. The leaves are symbolic of Israel’s outward religious activity without any true heart religion and faith, and the fruitlessness is equally symbolic of Israel. They had abundant religious profession. Scribes, Pharisees, priests, and elders of the people were all sticklers for the letter of the law, and boasted of being worshipers of the one God, and strict observers of all His laws. Their constant cry was, “The temple of the Lord; The temple of the Lord; The temple of the Lord, are these.” Our Lord had looked into the temple and had found the house of prayer to be a den of thieves. They have a form of godliness, right? Without power. They called Abraham their father, but did not have the faith or do the works of Abraham. No fruits of salvation. The Lord who said, “By their fruits you shall know them,” knew they had no true faith or salvation. It was all show. There is no fruits of faith or salvation. He saw Israel is a nation with a pretense of religion that is unsaved, unredeemed, lost, cut off from God.
Worst of all, in their unsaved blindness, the Messiah is in their midst. They were coming together for Passover looking back at their deliverance from Egypt which pointed to the coming of the Messiah. In the midst of celebrating that, and not recognizing the true Messiah in their midst, they were about to commit their highest act of criminality and apostasy. They were about to slay the Messiah as the ultimate expression of rejection of the God of the covenant. Our Lord symbolically declares that the judgement God was about to bring on national Israel. The Lord was setting forth the dreadful, deadly, irrevocable judgement of God.
Our Lord was symbolically showing the curse that was to come upon Israel in a prophetic manner, and so He curses the fig tree. In the Old Testament, before Nebuchadnezzar was about to come and destroy Jerusalem, prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah not only warned, but showed with symbolically with some acts. But the remnant saved by deeply thinking and understanding the prophecy. Christ did all His miracles and preaching in their midst, His words, works, messages, and even tears were not heard. It is time for a sign, a sign of condemnation given. He gives it through the cursing of the fig tree.
Disciples, being Jews acquainted with the Old Testament imagery of the vine and fig tree of God’s people, later making the connection to the Old Testament, will understand this miracle’s symbolic lesson. The Lord had already spoken to them about a fig tree parable in Luke 13.
A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down'” (Luke 13:6-9).
Now, that time is over. He gave them time. He “found nothing on it but leaves” (v. 19). It had all the promise of fruitfulness—all the appearance of bearing something He desired. But on closer examination, it had only the outward appearance of ‘fruitfulness’ and bore none of the fruit. Jesus came to His temple, expecting to find genuine fruits of faith from His people. Instead, He was greeted with unbelief, opposition, and the abuse of His Father’s house. Oh, there was “religion,” of course. In fact, there was “religion” all over the place. There were lots of offerings being made, and lots of Scriptures being recited, and lots of animals being purchased for sacrifice. It was very, very religious. But all of the religion was nothing more than the mere outward “promise” of fruitfulness and nothing more. There was no real spiritual “fruit.” It was all “fig leaves,” but no “figs.”
So, cursing the fig tree is a symbol of our Lord’s condemnation on the nation of Israel. Theirs was the most privileged generation of all Jewish people. It was to them that the long-awaited King had come. And yet, they would not believe on Him. And so, their opportunity to bear fruit for Him was lost to them.
Further in this chapter, in another parable He will point out that this is because they didn’t bear the fruit. In verse 43, Jesus tells them, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” After this curse, it was only a short time after that—70 AD—when the Romans came and sacked the city and totally leveled the temple, not one stone left on another. He cursed that no fruit should grow upon them as God’s people from henceforward forever. Never any good came from them after they rejected Christ; they became worse and worse. Blindness and hardness grew upon them, till they were unchurched, unpeopled, and undone, and their place and nation rooted up; their beauty was defaced, their privileges and ornaments, their temple, and priesthood, and sacrifices, and festivals, and all the glories of their church and state, fell like leaves in autumn. How soon did their fig tree wither away, after they said, “His blood be on us, and our children!” They withered away from the root till the Romans came, and with the axes of their legions cleared away the fruitless trunk.
So this cursing of the fig tree is a symbolic lesson, firstly, of God’s curse and judgement on the nation of Israel for failing to bear fruit, but just had an outward religion.
Before I go to the next lesson: What a warning and lesson for us as a church and individually!
Spiritual privileges without spiritual life, while maintaining religious forms, can only precipitate the most severe judgement of God. The nation was full of the foliage of activities, but no fruit of salvation, no communion with God, no maintenance of the purity of God’s worship. No heart religion. Only outward religious show without true faith brings the Lord’s curse. This is a warning to us as a church and even individually.
Are we like that today? If Jesus comes in our midst, He sees we are gathered as a church. “Yes Lord, we have Sabbath services, we have Bible preaching, evening, during Covid times, online service, weekly women’s, young people’s, and men’s meeting, prayer meeting.” Full of activities. Remember the temple was full of all kinds of activities, but no fruit. Is there the fruit of true faith, of true communion with the Lord, heart love, devotion, a spirit of prayer, a secret life of piety, and vital union to Christ, and witness for God in our midst? Or is it just the outward show of leaves? When the privileges of gospel light no longer produce gospel fruit, but only maintain the leafy foliage of empty religion, Christ curses that church. Oh, may we terribly fear this curse of Christ. There is no greater curse. May God have mercy on this church.
You read Revelation 2-3, what does the Lord Jesus Christ says there? “I know, I examine your works. I have inspected your fig tree. I have come near to look for fruit.” One church He said, “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” You do all the activities, with a lot of leaves, but you have left your first love, no devotion, no true faith, no fruits of communion with Myself. All outward self-activities. “See from where you have fallen, repent and do the first things, or else, I will curse the fig tree/remove the lampstand.” We can satisfy everyone with leaves, but not Christ.
If He curses, we may have a building, people, Bible preaching, but we may not have God’s presence at all. No Holy Spirit working in our midst. It is all external activity. Soon we will become a den of thieves, not a house of prayer. Even Gentiles will mock at us instead of knowing the living God is in our midst. This has happened to many churches, even reformed churches. There have been churches which have stood prominent in numbers and in influence, growing. But faith, true love, and holiness have not been maintained, and the Holy Spirit has left them to the vain show of a fruitless profession; and there stand those churches, with the trunk of organization and widely-extended branches, but they are dead, and every year they become more and more decayed. May it never be so with this church. This is a warning as a church.
Everyone of us has a personal application. It is not enough to have the leaves of a respectable Christian life: read the Bible, pray, come to church regularly, attend prayer meeting, tithe. These are byproducts. The central thing Christ looks for is: “Are you bringing forth fruit that has no explanation but because you have vital union with Jesus Christ?” That fruit of a heart that pants, thirsts after God, loves God, pursues His promises in strong faith, the fruit of a sensitive and clean conscience, a heart sensitive to sin, grieved over sin, first rising of sin before it can be known by anyone else. He grieves before God. It is known to him. You are ashamed and cry for forgiveness, poor in spirit, and mourning. The fruit of love to your brothers. The fruit of concern of God’s honor. The fruit of burden for the gospel, and praying for lost souls. The fruit of reducing love of the world and detachment from this world. The fruit of a heart yearning for the coming world, and heaven, and to live with communion with God and Christ forever. Where is the fruit? Fruit! This is the rule: every tree that doesn’t bring forth good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.
We talk so much of truth, reformation, we believe 1689, but how is our life? Does our lives deny what their lips profess? Where is the fruit in our life? Like that tree, is our life leaves early without fruit? Do we make a profession early without the slightest fruit to justify it! Are we like this tree from far, full of leaves, but when we go close, no fruit? We may before men far seem very godly, but when we come closer to our homes or hearts, is there real fruit?
We talk, preach, and pray about holiness at church. Do we have holiness at home? Holiness in heart. Do we pray at homes? Do we really have heart religion? Or we also like them, honor God with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him. Honestly examine your heart. See where you are in your relationship with God. If you assess, many of you will find you are have gone far from God for a long time, doing your own activities.
We confess repentance and faith, but do we really repent and believe? We come to worship, do we really worship? Do we pray and praise God from the heart, before we come here? Otherwise, all are leaves. O dear friends, never think you may skip the fruit and come at once to the leaf! We must have figs before leaves, acts before declarations, faith before baptism, and union to Christ before union with the church, lest outward leaves without fruit becomes a curse without cure.
Some of us, we profess to be big fig tree members of the church for many years. Are you members just for name’s sake? Where is the fruit? Are these fruits in you?
Learn from this passage: Jesus will inspect the fruit. He surveys it with keen discernment. He is not mocked. It is not possible to deceive Him. He searches our character through and through, to see whether there is any real faith, any true love, any living hope, any joy which is the fruit of the Spirit. He searches for any patience, any self-denial, any fervor in prayer, any walking with God; and if He does not see these things, He is not satisfied with church attendance, prayer meetings, communions, sermons, Bible readings, for all these may be no more than leafage. He is not satisfied with us, and His inspection will lead to severe measures.
This tree, by putting forth leaves, which are the signs and tokens of ripe figs, virtually advertised itself as bearing fruit. We profess that we will not follow the times, but will follow the one immutable truth. As Christians, we confess that we are redeemed from among men, elected, regenerated, justified, adopted and have been delivered from this perverse generation, but is there fruit of that in our life that is appropriate? He has a right to expect great things from those who avow themselves His trustful followers. More than all of you, I am standing in judgment before this. When I preach so much, Christ will expect that much fruit from me. Ah, me, how this fact should move the preacher with trembling! Should it not affect full many of you in the same manner?
Christ longs to see fruit in us for all He has done for that. The greatest injustice we can do to all His redemptive work is just have leaves and no fruit. If He does not see fruit, He does not receive His due for all He has done. What did He die for but to make His people holy? What did He give Himself for but that He might sanctify unto Himself a people zealous of good works? What is the reward of the bloody sweat and the five wounds, and the death agony—but that by all these we should be bought with a price? We rob Him of His reward if we do not glorify Him by fruit, and therefore the Spirit of God is grieved at our conduct if we do not show forth His praises by our godly and zealous lives!
Oh, that our prayer might this morning rise to heaven: “Jesus, Lord come and cast Your searching eyes upon me, and judge whether I am living unto You or not! Give me to see myself as You see me, that I may have my errors corrected, and my graces grow. Lord, make me to be, indeed, what I profess to be; and if I am not so already, convict me of my false state, and begin a true work in my soul.”
Nothing but leaves means nothing but lies. If I profess faith and have no faith, is not that a lie? If I profess repentance and have not repented, is not that a lie? If I come to the communion table and partake of the bread and wine, and yet have no real communion with Christ and the church, is not that a lie? We break His 9th command, “Thou shall not bear false witness,” and sin even in the church.
The Lord condemned the fruitless tree, so will He condemn us. Fruit is the indispensable and undeniable evidence of salvation. The terrible nature of the curse: It was nothing more than a confirmation of its state. If you choose to be fruitless, you will be fruitless forever. How terrible! Have you ever seen a fig barren tree with its strange, weird branches? I see its skeleton arms! It is twice dead, dead from the very roots. It is a terrible sight. The man is no longer himself—his glory and his beauty are hopelessly gone, its moisture dried up. If you want to be graceless, only outward show, to be graceless shall be your doom! “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.” Terrible doom!
It is He who will judge you on the last day. To those who didn’t have fruit, what will He say? “Depart from me.” Throughout life they always were departing, and after death their character is stamped with perpetuity. “You cursed ones, barren tree, cursed. I never knew you.”
Bishop Ryle writes: “Let us take care that we each individually learn the lesson that this fig tree conveys. Let us always remember, that baptism, and church-membership, and reception of the Lord’s Supper, and a diligent use of the outward forms of Christianity, are not sufficient to save our souls. They are leaves, nothing but leaves, and without fruit will add to our condemnation. Like the fig leaves of which Adam and Eve made themselves garments, they will not hide the nakedness of our souls from the eye of an all-seeing God, or give us boldness when we stand before Him at the last day. No! we must bear fruit, or be lost forever. There must be fruit in our hearts and fruit in our lives, the fruit of repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and true holiness in our conversation. Without such fruits as these a profession of Christianity will only sink us lower into hell.”
It is interesting, if you read Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and fell. They became aware that they were naked before Him; and “they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings” (3:7). Fig leaves were not an acceptable covering for sin before a righteous and holy God. You might say that “fig leaves” were symbolic of the first act of “man-made religion”—mere outward covering, but with a heart of sin underneath.
Fix this miracle in your mind’s eye permanently. Can you see the mind’s eye see? A tree full of leaves. An inspector comes and no fruit and curses it. It becomes a barren tree. This is the picture of everyone whose life is full of religious activities, but no real fruit. The only thing that will vindicate you is the fruit.
Now, the million-dollar question is: how do I make sure my life is not just full of leaves, but has fruit? I believe that is the faith lesson the Lord teaches in the next passage, verses 20-22.
The reason people can be religious and still not bear fruit is because of unbelief. Mere religiosity without genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ may look good before men; but it greatly displeases the Lord. It produces nothing but spiritual barrenness. A strong, genuine, abiding faith in Jesus is what leads to spiritual fruitfulness (vv. 20-22).
“And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither away so soon?'” (v. 20).
This is the next morning they pass by along the same path, and they see the fig tree, and it is the observation of the 12 disciples. Their marvel is at the timing of how soon it withered. They marvelled at the suddenness of the thing: “How soon is the fig tree withered away!” There was no visible cause of the fig tree’s withering, but it was a secret that not only the leaves of it withered, but the body of the tree; it withered away in an instant and became like a dry stick. Gospel curses are the most dreadful, that they work insensibly and silently.
The fig tree which was full of leaves and full of life, but now it is withered away the next day. Not just the outer leaves withered, but it now became a sign of death in its entirety. A large green fig tree in less than 24 hours became a barren tree. Generally such a condition is reached only after a lengthy period of time. A simple illustration: if we cut a small plant, coriander or mint leaves plants, even if we uproot it from all source of nourishment, it doesn’t become dried and dead quickly. It takes some time, but a big tree in a day not only have all green leaves turn to brown and black, fall off, and branches all dead, and even roots die. Disciples see and wonder at this miracle, and in Mark Peter cannot even keep quiet, in an exclamation: “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”
The Lord uses this wonder to teach them a lesson of strong abiding faith which makes us fruitful in God’s kingdom. Verse 21: “So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Assuredly, 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 also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.’”
He begins by saying “Assuredly, I say to you…” which is always an indication that something very significant was about to be said, and that it should be received with all confidence as the absolute truth. A peculiar solemn and vital word from the Savior. He must have done that in a manner that swept the minds and hearts of the disciples with stunning power and vividness. If you look at the Mark version, it starts with a command, “Have faith in God.” If you don’t want to be a fruitless and barren tree and be cursed, be in a constant exercise of faith.
At the very outset, the Lord is making it clear. Whatever they may learn from this fig tree, the object lesson is the mighty power of faith in the living God and the moral duty of continually exercising such faith in God. Faith is a spiritual grace which takes man in all his weakness, all his dependence, and brings him into living contact with the almightiness of God.
He shows them the unlimited power of undoubting faith. Verse 21: “if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain.” “You are amazed at my power to curse the tree and make it barren in just a day. If you have faith, not only do the same, but Say to this mountain,” not a mountain, but “this.” Standing upon the Mount of Olives that was 4,000 feet high, and look at the Dead Sea 10 miles away. 2 commands: “Be removed and be cast into the sea.” “Be removed” from all the deepest subterranean roots, the whole mass of this mountain 4,000 feet and wide 4-5 km. “Be removed and be buried in the Dead Sea some 10 miles away.”
In saying “shall not doubt in his heart,” it is the same thing as in James 1, “when we ask for wisdom, we should ask without doubting.” The same term is used for Abraham in Romans, “he staggered/doubted not at the promise of God.” Doubt not, “dispute not with yourselves, dispute not with the promise of God; if you stagger not at the promise.” It is the picture of a heart that says, “Yes, when I speak to the mountain to be rooted up, I believe it shall be done. But I am not quiet so sure. But I know God is omnipotent and He is able.” But suppose God doesn’t do it. It is the picture of a disputing spirit, an inner debate between faith and unbelief. Our Lord shows the unlimited power of undoubting faith: if you say it without doubt, in full confidence in faith, it shall come to pass.
Is Jesus giving a blank check to restructure His created order? I traveled last week to beaches. I would love if there was a beach in front of my house and the Kashmir mountains behind my house. When I open my window, all snow, beautiful scenes. “Kashmir mountains get up and come behind my house.” If I don’t doubt, it shall be done. Well, we know that is not the meaning of this. What is it we’re to have faith in? Obviously, we’re to have faith in God! What is it we’re not to doubt? We’re not to doubt His will and promises expressed clearly in His word.
I know how people misuse these verses, claiming to be men of great faith and moving mountains, commanding everything under the sun to obey them. But allow these words of Christ on faith to sink in your mind and heart. Look at the unlimited power of undoubting faith. There is an overpowering figure of speech, hyperbole on the unlimited power of undoubting faith. I know this is not the full teaching of faith of the word of God, but nevertheless, it is a solemn and powerful illustration of the power of faith.
In Jewish literature, “rooting up mountains into the seas” became a metaphor for dealing with difficulty, dealing with impossible situations, and hindrances. To move the large Mount of Olives into the sea is the greatest example of something impossible, no matter how impossible it might appear to sense. This intimidating proverbial expression is intimating that we are to believe that nothing is impossible with God, and therefore that what He has promised shall certainly be performed, though to us it seems impossible.
The Lord is saying, “I want you to know that by faith you have access to this unlimited power. And this power’s available to you through faith. If you would believe and not doubt, you can see God’s power.” It is like the Matthew version of what John said in: “You shall do what I do, and greater works than these shall you do.”
Then verse 22: what is the predominant channel of undoubting faith? “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (v. 22).
The way and means of exercising this faith is through prayer. The means is undoubting faith is prayer. Our faith is activated in a prayer petition. Faith is the soul, prayer is the body; both together make a complete man for any service. Faith, if it be right, will excite prayer; and prayer is not right, if it does not spring from faith. This is the condition of our receiving: we must ask in prayer, believing. Whatever you are believing, and are asking—all present imperatives—whatever you are asking, praying, and believing, you have received in terms of divine will and intention. You will receive.
This powerful passage on the possibilities of faith, allow the verses in a fresh manner to sink into your soul in faith. Just because our faith doesn’t rise to this, we shouldn’t brush this with silly explanations. We all have to admit we are men of little faith, weak faith. Let the Lord’s words impress our heart. He says the predominant channel of undoubting faith will be this expression of faith in persistent prayer and petition, which believes it has what it seeks until the desired blessing is within our actual possession.
Now, what is the lesson from this passage, and its connection to the cursed fig tree?
I believe the Lord by cursing the tree shows that outward religion without continuing heart faith leads to spiritual barrenness. Then by teaching the disciples on faith, He teaches that undoubting, strong, persistent, abiding faith leads to spiritual fruitfulness.
If you want to be fruitful and avoid this curse of the fig tree in your life—a tree without leaves or outward show—this passage teaches 2 lessons.
1. This passage teaches us the great duty of every believer to maintain a vigorous, strong, abiding faith in the living God. Faith is a grace that needs to be maintained to be strong. If you don’t regularly feed and keep it strong, it will become weak. If we have to live a fruitful life for God, the first priority in our life is to maintain a strong abiding faith in God. God who is almighty, God who is able to do exceeding above all we can ask or think. Think of your life. Doesn’t all your problems, worries, cares, and troubles have their root cause in what? Lack or littleness of faith in the living God. We face a difficult situation, fears fill our hearts, we are discouraged, because you fail to maintain faith here. You get all worked up by the situation, and discouraged, don’t pray and then give room to temptations. Then your relationship with the Lord is affected, and then your Christian life becomes just a mere external show. This is where failure starts and the path begins to become a barren tree. Scripture says in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
We all know God wants us to be holy, and we pray for that. We fall in sin, we feel guilty, and plead for God’s grace to overcome and kill sin. But how much do we feel guilty when we lack faith, and do we realize how we displease Him with unbelief? Only when we are convinced that it is our duty to maintain strong faith and to live without faith is sin, only then we will be driven to the throne to cry, “Lord, cleanse my unbelief, Lord increase my faith.” Romans says whatever does not come in faith is sin.
Do you want to avoid the curse of the fig tree? Do all your activities in faith. When you come to church on Sunday, sing songs, when prayer is raised by a brother, in faith raise your heart in faith, when preaching happens, listen in faith that God is speaking to you through His word. When you pray alone, read, ensure you maintain faith. It is persistent faith the Lord teaches in the widow and other parables, growing faith that seeks, asks, knocks, keeps on doing it. So this passage teaches our great duty to maintain and exercise strong faith.
2. Secondly, to avoid the fig tree curse, this passage teaches us to be regularly engaged in biblically based, persistent, and believing prayer. The channel of faith is believing prayer. Look at the glorious promise: “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” (v. 22). How can we get to the place while asking, believing what we already received? I think 1 John 5:14 explains how we can live like this: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
John says once convinced that what we ask falls within the framework of the will of God, we may ask in full confidence that we are heard and that we shall receive. Note this carefully: It is this teaching that will keep us from the horrible barrenness of hyper-Calvinism, and fatalism. A terrible curse that affects especially reformed people like us and weakens our prayer life. “Oh, well, we believe in God’s sovereignty. God’s going to do what He’s going to do anyway. So why be so persistent in prayer?” And you can get all tangled up and misunderstand the sovereignty of God, and then it can make your prayer life literally powerless and impotent. Yes, God is sovereign, but His sovereignty works through means. An important means is prayer. Jesus believed more than anyone God’s sovereignty, yet He prayed more than anyone. His idea of God’s sovereignty never hindered His prayer life. Never mix up sovereignty with our duty. Our duty is to know God’s will, and once sure, persistently, fervently, believing to pray for it. God answers prayer sovereignly. We have to persevere in prayer and faith. We will see the power and glory of God in our lives.
And some of you are not seeing God work in your life simply because there’s no persistence in your believing prayer; there’s no continuance in your prayer; there’s no strengthening of faith. You don’t get an answer, so you quit. Boy, when you read verse 22, “All things whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing you shall receive,” that’s a pretty dynamite promise. That means all things in the will of God. It just makes it all the better, right? Because what do you want? You only want what God wills. Right? I want whatever God wants for me. I want the best that God wants for me. And here the Lord says, “If you really believe God wants that in your life and God can do that, you see a promise in His word, now then let’s see the exercise of your faith in persistence prayer.” And some of us have not received the blessing of God in our lives simply because we have not persisted in prayer.
Don’t try to harmonize God’s sovereignty and prayer. Never mix that with our duty. Our duty and call is to respond in faith and simple trust to the confident statement of verse 22, that if I ask in prayer, believing that God will do what He will do and is able to do what He says He will do, that I’ll see His power.
Are we not tired of a powerless prayer life? Weary of a church without power? I’m weary of a life without power. I’m weary of not seeing the hand of God in an almighty way. I want God to be at work, and I know that the plan here is given very clearly: if we ask in prayer, not doubting. And, you know, we start prayer—oh, great faith—and don’t get an answer in the next 24 hours, and we quit. That is not persistent prayer. You keep pursuing, keep persisting, keep knocking, keep crying out.
Christ, when He prayed in the garden, cried out to the point where He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood because of the soul anguish that was poured out in His prayer. We throw superficial, shallow, little prayers at God that are so trite, lack so much intensity and so much passion that they dishonor God by even being offered. How will God grow His kingdom? We think that God builds His Church through men who just make an outward show, with little faith and a superficial prayer life. And we have to realize that where God really wants to reveal His power is where a church in faith through persistent prayers cries out to God.
God has used this passage to examine and correct my own heart. And I’m committed in my own heart to a greater commitment to the life of prayer. When I find a problem, instead of discussing with people and getting their ideas, I should take it to God in prayer and let God do the things that He wants to do through His own power. And maybe we’d be a greater help to each other if we spent more time in prayer than more time in giving advice.
Verse 22 is a dynamic verse: “All things whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing you shall receive.” You ought to put a circle around it in your Bible and see if it is being applied in your life. I mean, when’s the last time you saw some mountain moved into the sea because you didn’t doubt God but you persisted in prayer?
Biblically based persistent prayer. If this is the call, and it is the call for everything that causes persistent prayer, if there begins to be erosion in the personal closet, it will not be long until that erosion will manifest when we pray on Friday. When others lead in prayer, there will not be one heart and soul as we are drawing near to God and praying along with that brother, laying hold of His promises, pleading Him to give what He has promised to give. I urge you, do not think because you are one among 20 praying, you do not affect the climate of the overall persistent believing biblical prayer. You do.
So we have seen the curse on the fig tree, the curse on the outward religion without fruit. If your life is a life of leaves without fruit, if you are living a lie, if you are masquerading as one who is religious, you may look good before men; but it greatly displeases the Lord. But there’s no fruit in your life, you’re cursed. You are cursed and doomed just like the nation Israel was. “Even now the ax is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” God’s going to judge all these cursed trees and say on one day, “I never knew you.”
May God warn each one of us from this cursed fig tree. Maybe some of us cover our heart of unbelief by religious activities. Go to church regularly, help the poor, live decently, yet, we try to do it all without a dependent faith relationship on the Lord. The whole thing is nothing more than a bunch of “fig leaves”—a mere outward promise of fruitfulness, but with none of the fruit our Lord truly wants to see from us.
I trust you examine your own heart in that regard. If you are like this, Lord Jesus teaches 2 lessons to escape from barrenness and bear fruit. Number one: Have true, genuine, living, personal, dependent, constant faith in Jesus Christ, and show that by a persistent prayer life personally and corporately. Simple, but without this, no way to bear fruit.
Isn’t this what the Lord wonderfully taught in John 15? There, He told His disciples:
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; … Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” (John 15:1-6).
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 