TUESDAY: THE LESSON OF THE FIG TREE, TEMPLE CONTROVERSIES (March 31, AD 33)
Matt 21:20-25, 46; Mark 11:20-13:37; Luke 20:1-21:36
On the following day, Jesus and the disciples double-back passed the fig tree Jesus cursed and notice its withered leaves in Matthew 21:20-21. Then in verses 22-23 Jesus talks about "this mountain" and "prayer." Jesus has been alluding to a judgment coming upon the temple. But that left a huge question: if there was no temple, where would God’s people meet with God?
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered." And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
Why did the fig tree wither overnight? Did a nightly frost destroy it? No. It was the powerful Word of God. Jesus spoke judgment on the fig tree and it withered in a day.
If the fig tree points to Israel’s golden age, epitomized by God meeting with his people for worship in the temple, what should they do if the temple is no more? Jesus' response in verse 22 is "Have faith in God." That is how God’s people are always called to respond when things look hopeless and they feel helpless. We must lean into God.
Puritans spoke of faith having three components. Charles Spurgeon describes this well in All of Grace.
There he says true faith means, first, possessing a knowledge of the gospel that Jesus came to die as a sacrifice for sinners and was raised to declare that all who repent and believe will be saved.
Second, true faith means believing that the truth of the gospel applies to you.
Third, true faith means leaning into Christ. He uses the word recumbency to describe the way Christians must lean into trusting God with their lives. A La-Z-Boy chair is a great illustration of this. A "recliner" is a recumbent chair. You lean into it with a bag of potato chips on a Sunday afternoon to watch a football game trusting that chair is going to hold you. You don't expect it to drop you. In the same way, biblical faith means trusting God will always keep his promises, that obedience always leads to eternal joy, and sin will lead to misery.
What is "this mountain?"
Jesus also talks about the authority to order mountains to jump in the sea. Some take this to speak of the power of prayer. Does this mean we should be able to fly to Nepal and tell Mt. Everest to jump into the sea and expect it to obey? Maybe we should start with an anthill and work our way up? Maybe not.
We definitely believe in the power of prayer. Paul says in Ephesians 4 that God can do far more abundantly than we can think or imagine. In context though, it seems Jesus is speaking of the Temple Mountain he just condemned.
Commentator Stanley Porter writes of this mountain, "as a symbol of the Temple Mountain, and its removal into the sea as a symbolic image signifying the utter destruction of the temple." Jesus says implicitly here what he will say explicitly of the temple in Mark 13:2, "There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down."
So if the temple is gone, how will people draw near to God? Did you know that Jesus says in John that he will tear down the temple and build it back up in three days? The temple, its priesthood, and sacrifices were only road signs pointing to Jesus who is the ultimate focus and locus of worship. And God's house is actually local churches of believers who have faith and pray to God collectively.
Notice that verses 24-25 are plural, not singular.
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
With the temple gone, Jesus points to how to meet with God--through faith and in community with other believers who have the Spirit of God. This will be fleshed out later in the New Testament. But notice that all of the “yous” in this text are plural. This speaks of a praying community that is forgiving of one another. We show the mercy to others that God has shown to us in Christ. That is how God's people are known.
J. C. Ryle says, "Tell me what a man’s prayers are, and I will soon tell you the state of his soul." What do your prayers say about your soul? James 4:3 offers a guardrail for our confidence in prayer writing, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your own passions."
The Christian life ought to be shaped by faith in Christ and sacrificial love for others that shows the love of Christ for us. He is the locus of our worship. His sacrificial love is to reshape our entire lives including, but not limited to, our prayers.
Reflection
- What does the fig tree represent?
- What does the mountain represent?
- What kind of things do you pray for?
- What does James tell us is a wrong way to pray?
- How are you showing that you value praying with other Christians in your everyday life? Are you praying with a community group? Are you praying with church prayer meetings? Do you seek out others to pray with and for both before and after services when the church gathers?
Art: Draw a picture of a mountain jumping into the ocean.