Missed Opportunities? Matthew 13:53-58; 21:18-22

We've all heard the words of the poet who wrote, "The saddest words of tongue or pen are simply these, It might have been." How often do we miss opportunities to speak a word for Christ …miss opportunities for service …miss opportunities to worship Him?

I want us to spend our time today looking at two sets of verses which speak in a powerful and practical way to each person here today. The intent is that we see the events of our average day in a different light; that we determine to “open our spiritual eyes” and allow faith to reign.

(Matthew 13:53-58 NIV)  When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. {54} Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. {55} "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? {56} Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" {57} And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor." {58} And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

(Mark 6:5 NIV)  He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.

Although Jesus continued to teach many additional truths and to reinforce and illustrate those already taught, the eight parables of Matthew 13 mark the end of the disciples’ basic instruction. As noted earlier, Jesus’ use of parables was primarily in response to His rejection by the Jews.

The same stories that clarified truth for His true followers obscured truth for those who refused to trust in Him. “All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable,” (Matt. 13:34) because, as He had earlier explained to the disciples, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted … Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” vv. 11, 13.

As far as preparation of the disciples was concerned, the two most important parables of Matthew 13 were those of the sower and of the wheat and tares. The story of the sower made clear that some people would believe the gospel but many would not; and it prepared them to anticipate the four basic responses men would make to the gospel. The vivid story of the wheat and tares made clear that the saved and the unsaved would coexist side by side. The twelve—and all succeeding witnesses of Christ—would carry on their ministry in a time of both belief and unbelief and of both good and evil.

Beginning with 13:53 and continuing through the first part of chapter 16, Matthew records eight incidents in the life of the Lord that correspond to and demonstrate the truths presented in the two parables just mentioned.

Jesus had been ministering in and around Capernaum for about a year, using it as His home base (see 4:13; 8:5). But the majority of the people who saw and heard Him in that region eventually fell away, manifesting their rejection either by blasé indifference or direct opposition. Because of that rejection, His last teaching there was done entirely in parables, in order that, “while seeing they [would] not see, and while hearing they [would] not hear, nor … understand” (13:13). After Jesus finished the parables on the kingdom, He departed from there.

Because the Lord had spent more time there than anywhere else thus far in His ministry, Capernaum was especially guilty for rejecting Him. Earlier, Jesus had scorchingly rebuked them, saying, “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You shall descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day” 11:23.

Jesus had, in effect, pronounced a curse on Capernaum, and when He departed from there, that city’s doom was imminent. Jesus never went there again except as He passed through to minister elsewhere. He had come into the city and demonstrated power that could only have been from God. Yet the people would not have Him as Lord. Many marveled and some criticized, but few believed.

Now Capernaum’s opportunity was passed, and she entered a decline into oblivion from which she never recovered. Today the city is in virtually the same state of ruin—without houses or people—that it was a few centuries after Jesus was there. Apparently the town and the synagogue enjoyed a period of worldly prosperity for a while, but archaeological excavations show increasing pagan influence on the Jews there.

The last synagogue built in Capernaum, erected over the floor of the one where Jesus taught, was decorated with various animals and mythological figures. Having rejected the true God, the people were at the mercy of false ones.

Jesus’ home town was Nazareth, where Joseph and Mary went to live after returning from Egypt with their infant Son (2:23). It was to Nazareth that Jesus returned after His baptism and temptations (4:12-13); and we learn from Luke that the response to Him then was the same as it was on this occasion.

Luke reports that, after the wilderness temptations, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit;… And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read” Luke 4:14a, 16.

Jesus had been away only a short while and was still a familiar figure in the synagogue, where it was “His custom” to be every Sabbath. The crowd assembled on this particular Sabbath was essentially the same as it had been for many years; but Jesus was not the same. During the intervening time He had begun His ministry and suddenly become famous, because from the onset of His work the “news about Him spread through all the surrounding district,… and [He] was praised by all” vv. 14b, 15b.

After Jesus stood and read the familiar messianic text of Isaiah 61:1-2, He handed the scroll to the synagogue attendant and sat down to comment on the reading. (The reader always stood to read the Scripture and then sat down as he gave an interpretation, lest he give the impression that his comments were equal in authority to God’s Word.) As He began to interpret, Jesus said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing;” and He probably made other comments as well.

At first the people did not understand that Jesus was referring to Himself, because their initial response was quite favorable: “All were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’” (Luke 4:17-22).

Knowing that the people’s praise was based merely on faithless recognition of His popularity and power, Jesus began to expose their real motives. He knew they wanted Him to duplicate in Nazareth the miracles He had performed in Capernaum. And He knew that if He complied with their demand they still would not accept Him as the Messiah, because “no prophet is welcome in his home town.”

In further rebuke of their hypocrisy and faithlessness, He reminded them that in the days of Elijah God had shut up the rain in Israel for three-and-a-half years and caused a great famine. During that time the Lord showed mercy on none of the many suffering widows in Israel but showed great mercy on a Gentile widow of Zarephath. He also reminded them that during the time of Elisha, God cleansed no lepers in Israel but did cleanse the leprosy of the Gentile Naaman of Syria (vv. 23-27). They could not have missed Jesus’ powerful, rebuking point that a believing Gentile is dearer to God than an unbelieving Jew.

When Jesus made clear that He understood their wicked motives and would not bend to their hard-hearted provincial desire to have their own display of miracles, “all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things;” and they rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff” (vv. 28-29).

In their attempt to kill Jesus, their evil character and unbelief became apparent. They wanted entertainment by Jesus and benefit for themselves from the miracle worker, not conviction of sin and a message of salvation by Jesus the Messiah.

From Jesus’ second, and similar, encounter with His former neighbors in Nazareth we can learn four important truths about unbelief: it blurs the obvious, builds up the irrelevant, blinds to the truth, and blocks the supernatural.

Unbelief Blurs the Obvious

And coming to His home town He began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they became astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers?” (13:54)

The people at the synagogue in Jesus’ home town of Nazareth immediately recognized Him as the person they had known as a boy and young man. They also remembered that less than a year earlier He had worked miracles in other parts of Galilee, had impressed them with His great wisdom, and had so angered them by exposing their hypocrisy and unbelief that they tried to throw Him over the cliff to His death. It soon became evident on this trip to Nazareth that their basic attitude about Him had not changed. They were still astonished at His wisdom and His miraculous powers, and they still refused to recognize the obvious, asking again, Where then did this man get all these things?

How could the people for the second time reject Jesus as the Messiah, when it was so obvious that these things, at which they marveled, could only have come by God’s power? In less than a year He had demonstrated profound wisdom and authority beyond anything the people had ever witnessed, or even heard of. He taught profoundly on virtually every subject related to life and death, time and eternity, truth and falsehood, righteousness and sin, God and man, heaven and hell.

He taught about regeneration, worship, evangelism, sin, salvation, morality, divorce, murder, service, servanthood, pride, hate, love, anger, jealousy, hypocrisy, prayer, fasting, true and false doctrine, true and false teachers, the Sabbath, the law, discipleship, grace, blasphemy, signs and wonders, repentance, humility, dying to self, obedience to God, and countless other subjects. He taught the truth about everything that pertained to spiritual life and godliness (cf. 2 Pet. 1:3).

Jesus had not studied in any of the famous rabbinical schools and had no more formal training in the Scriptures than the average Jewish man. Consequently, when He taught in the Temple during the feast of booths, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem marveled at Him, “saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been educated?’” (John 7:15). Despite the absence of traditional credentials, His spiritual and moral wisdom was so true and profound that it could not be refuted even by His severest critics.

In addition to teaching with great wisdom, Jesus had displayed supernatural power that all but banished sickness and disease from Palestine and had performed miracles of nature that astonished the most hardened skeptics. At the very least, it should have been clear that Jesus was a prophet of God unequaled by any of the Old Testament era. How could the people not believe Jesus was from God, when only divine power and wisdom could explain the greatness of what He said and did?

When Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, he immediately acknowledged that Jesus had “come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). Even the antagonistic Jewish leaders recognized His power was real, although they illogically and blasphemously attributed it to Satan. One of the greatest apologetics for Jesus’ divinity is the clear testimony even of His enemies that He had miraculous powers that no other man had ever bad.

As Jesus reminded the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem, “The works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me” (John 5:36).

Later in Jerusalem He told another group of Jews who wanted to stone Him, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-38).

At the end of his gospel John declares, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose even the world itself would not contain the books which were written” 21:25.

Like the scribes and Pharisees, the people of Jesus’ home town synagogue refused to make the logical and obvious connection between His power and His divinity because they were willfully unbelieving. The seed of the gospel fell on the hard-packed soil of sin-loving hearts into which God’s truth could not make the slightest penetration.

As Jesus explained to Nicodemus, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” John 3:18-20.

Those who heard and saw Jesus did not reject Him for lack of evidence but in spite of overwhelming evidence. They did not reject Him because they lacked the truth but because they rejected the truth. They refused forgiveness because they wanted to keep their sins. They denied the light because they preferred darkness. The reason for rejecting the Lord has always been that men prefer their own way to His.

The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem marveled at the obvious wisdom and power of Peter and John, knowing “that they were uneducated and untrained men” (Acts 4:13). But just as they had done with Peter’s and John’s Master, they did not judge the message on its scriptural merits but on its relation to their human traditions—which derived from and appealed to their works-oriented self-righteousness.

When a person willfully rejects the Lord, even the most compelling evidence will not convince Him of divine truth. Cultists and liberal theologians who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the divine Son of God can find countless ways to discount or explain away the most obvious truths of Scripture. They then congratulate themselves for their intellectualism in explaining Scripture without accepting its truths, for seeming to honor Christ without believing in Him or in what He taught, and for calling themselves by His name while denying His divine nature and power. To such false disciples Jesus continues to say, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” Matt. 7:21; Luke 6:46.

The person who has heard many clear presentations of the gospel but continually asks for more evidence of its truth simply reveals the obstinacy of his unbelief. As Jesus explained in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31). The person who does not accept the light from God he already has will not believe no matter how much more light he is given.

 UNBELIEF BUILDS UP THE IRRELEVANT

“Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary; and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” (13:55-56)

Instead of accepting the obvious and overwhelming evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, the people of Nazareth focused their attention on the irrelevant. It was indeed surprising to see someone they had watched grow up and with whom they had gone to synagogue all His life suddenly come on the scene as a great leader—with no formal training and no recognition by the accepted religious hierarchy The facts that Jesus was the carpenter’s son and the Son of Mary, that He had brothers named James and Joseph and Simon and Judas who everyone in
Nazareth knew, and that He had sisters who still lived there were irrelevant to the issues of His being the Messiah or not. Although the Jews had many incomplete and false notions about the Messiah, they knew He was to come to earth as a man and that He would have to be born into some family and live in some community. But instead of feeling highly honored that God chose to place His Son in Nazareth to grow up into manhood—as Mary felt highly honored to be His mother (Luke 1:48)—the people were skeptical, jealous, and resentful.

From this text and numerous others (see, e.g., Matt. 12:46-47; Luke 2:7; John 7:10; Acts 1:14), it is clear that Mary did not live in perpetual virginity, as Roman Catholic heresy claims. After Jesus’ birth, Joseph began normal marital relations with his wife, and she bore at least four sons and two daughters by him. Mary was a woman of extraordinary godliness, but she was no more divine than any other woman ever born, and certainly was not the mother of God, as Catholic dogma maintains. She even referred to the Lord as “God my Savior,” (Luke 1:47) affirming her own sinfulness and need of salvation.

Joseph had been a tektoôn (carpenter), which was the general term for a craftsman who worked with hard material, including wood. He may also have worked with bricks and stones. In any case, he had surely built many houses, windows, doors, yokes, and other things for his neighbors in Nazareth; and many products of his workmanship were probably still being used in the village. Joseph was an ordinary laborer like most other men of the village, and Jesus learned carpentry under him and no doubt took over the business after Joseph died.

The fact that the citizens of Nazareth did not regard Jesus and His family as being out of the ordinary completely undercuts myths that attribute bizarre miracles to Him when He was a child. One story maintains that whenever He found a bird with a broken wing, He would stroke it gently and send it flying on its way healed and healthy. This text completely mitigates against such fabrications.

When He came to earth, Jesus emptied Himself of certain divine prerogatives, “taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). And although He was sinless and morally perfect during
every minute of His life, His perfection was clearly not of the sort that called attention to itself or set Him apart as strange or peculiar. To those who knew Him as a child and young man, Jesus was simply a carpenter and a carpenter’s son. It was partly over the commonness of Jesus and His family that the people of Nazareth stumbled. They found it impossible to accept Him even as a great human teacher, much less as the divine Messiah.

It is tragic that small issues can be used as great excuses for not believing. The people of Nazareth were like people throughout the history of the church who can find every foolish reason to justify their rejection of the gospel. They don’t like the attitude of the one who witnesses to them; they think most church people are hypocrites; they think the preacher is too loud or too soft, too stuffy or too overbearing; and the services are too formal or too informal. They are offended at the slightest things Christians do and construe the insignificant as
being all important. They put up one smoke screen after another to excuse their unwillingness to believe the clear and demanding claims and promises of Christ.

As a means of escape or self-justification, unbelief diverts attention away from the truth. The genuine seeker may have many questions about the gospel before he is ready to commit himself to Christ. But his sincerity is proven by his willingness to accept the truth once it is explained. Each new ray of light leads him closer to belief. For the confirmed unbeliever, on the other hand, each new truth prompts him to raise another objection, and his argument against that truth pushes him still further from salvation.

It is characteristic of unbelief to disguise itself, and in order to hide their self-satisfaction and refusal to accept the clear evidence about Jesus, the people of Nazareth dismissed Him on the basis of having known Him since He was a child and of knowing His family as ordinary citizens of the community. They allowed pride, jealousy, resentment, embarrassment, and a host of other wicked and petty feelings to fill their hearts and become barriers to salvation.

 UNBELIEF BLINDS TO THE TRUTH

And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his home town, and in his own household.” (13:57)

Took offense is from skandalizoô, which has the basic idea of causing to stumble or trip up and is the term from which our English scandalize is derived. Jesus’ friends and former neighbors were offended by His claims. They were offended by His ordinary background, by the commonness of His family, the limits of His formal training, His lack of official religious status, and many other irrelevant or secondary issues.

We have no full account of what Jesus taught on either occasion in that Nazareth synagogue; but both times He offended the people by what He said. He unmasked their hypocrisy by exposing their wicked desire to see Him perform miracles for miracles’ sake (Luke 4:23); and He probably talked to them about their sinfulness and need to repent. In any case, they became antagonistic and took offense at Him, because their unbelief blinded them to the truth He taught. “While seeing they [did] not see, and while hearing they [did] not hear, nor [did] they understand” (Matt. 13:13). As Paul declared to the Corinthian believers, Christ is “to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness” 1 Cor. 1:23.

Until a person is willing to have the hard ground of his heart plowed up by God’s truth and to confess and forsake his sin, he will be offended by the gospel. Until a person faces his sin in penitence, the truth of the gospel is hidden from him, and the blessing of the gospel is lost to him.

Again (see Luke 4:24) Jesus reminded the people of Nazareth of the well-known proverb that a prophet is not without honor except in his home town, and in his own household. It is often difficult for those who have watched a child grow up as a neighborhood kid to later accept him as a community leader, government official, pastor, or such—to say nothing of accepting him as the divine Son of God! Even when the man is personally liked, it is not easy for him to gain the respect that an outsider of the same capabilities would enjoy. Jesus’ brothers eventually came to believe in Him as their Savior (Acts 1:14), but for several years after He began His ministry they did not (John 7:5).

 Unbelief Blocks the Supernatural

And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief. (13:58)

Some of Jesus’ miracles were done in direct response to personal faith; but many others, perhaps most of them, were done regardless of any specific expression of an individual’s faith. All of the miracles were done to strengthen the faith of those who believed in Him; but although God can perform miracles where there is no belief, He chose not to perform them where there was hard and willful unbelief.

Unbelief, then, became a barrier to divine blessing, and because of the unbelief of the people of Nazareth, Jesus did not do many miracles there. Mark reports that “He could do no miracles there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them” (Mark 6:5). It was not that Jesus lacked supernatural power while He was in Nazareth but that He chose to operate only in response to faith, with the result that the people’s unbelief prevented Him from fully exercising that power.

Just as believing saves the soul and enables the power of God to work in its fullness, so unbelief blocked the release of His power and dammed up the flood of His blessing.

Jesus warned, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (Matt. 7:6). The hardened unbeliever despises the precious truths and blessings of God and will even use them against the Lord and His people if he can. Jesus refused to bend to the request of the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees who wanted to see a sign from Him (Matt. 12:38). “He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet’” (v. 39).

Jesus’ miracles were of spiritual benefit only as they led to faith in Him or strengthened those who already believed. For those who refused to believe, His miracles had no spiritual value at all, and He would not perform them in order to entertain or to satisfy ungodly curiosity.

When Jesus and His disciples came upon the man in Jerusalem who had been blind from birth, the “disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him’” (John 9:2-3). The man was born blind, Jesus explained, so that his healing could glorify God.

After the man’s sight was restored while he was washing in the pool of Siloam as Jesus had commanded, his neighbors could hardly believe he was the same person whom they had known from infancy as totally blind and helpless. He was brought before the Pharisees, who took the occasion to express various opinions about the godliness of Jesus. Because He dared to “work” on the Sabbath by performing a miracle, some of them were certain Jesus could not be from God. Others argued that a person who was not from God could never do such things.

Some of the leaders did not even believe the man had ever been blind, and they called in his parents to testify. When asked to explain what happened to their son, the parents said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know” When the man was called back the second time, the leaders said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner,” referring to Jesus. The man responded that, although he could not be certain about Jesus’ sin, he was certain that it was Jesus who had healed him. And he did not believe a sinful man could do such marvelous things as Jesus had undeniably done for him. “If this man were not from God,” he insisted, “He could do nothing.”

But as the man’s testimony became more and more favorable to Jesus, the Pharisees’ unbelief only became more and more hardened. They finally said to the man, “‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?’ And they put him out.”

After they dismissed the man, Jesus came to him and asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” When he discovered that Jesus was Himself the Son of Man, the former blind man confessed, “‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped Him.” Then Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind.”

In reply to some of the Pharisees who asked Him, “‘We are not blind too, are we?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, “We see,” your sin remains’” (See John 9:6-41).

As those Pharisees perfectly illustrate, when unbelief investigates the supernatural work of God, it comes up empty. It meets a dead end when it tries to probe divine things. It cannot recognize the works of God because it will not recognize the truth of God.

(Matthew 21:18-22 NIV)  Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. {19} Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. {20} When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked. {21} Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. {22} If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

(Mark 11:12-14 NIV)  The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. {13} Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. {14} Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard him say it.

In this text we have one of the most perplexing events in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ: the cursing of the fig tree.

Few honest readers of the Bible would deny that this is perhaps the most uncomfortably difficult passage in the New Testament.  If it be taken with complete literalism, it shows Jesus in an action which is an acute shock to our whole conception of him.  It must, therefore, be approached with a real desire to find out the truth which lies behind it and with the courage to think our way through it.

On Monday morning of Passover week Jesus rode into the city on a donkey colt to a Messiah’s welcome and was acclaimed the Son of David, as the people shouted hosannas and placed clothes and palm branches on the road before Him (Matt. 21:1-11). On Tuesday He came into the city again and cleansed the Temple of the sacrifice merchants and moneychangers (vv. 12-17). Now on Wednesday, He entered Jerusalem for the third time since coming up from Jericho.

From Mark we learn that the encounter with the fig tree involved two successive days. Jesus cursed the fig tree on the morning He entered Jerusalem to cleanse the Temple, and it was on the following day, Wednesday, that the disciples noticed that the tree was “withered from the roots up” (Mark 11:14, 20). Matthew condenses the two events into one account, which He mentions only in regard to Wednesday.

In light of Jesus’ just having been hailed by the populace as Israel’s great Messiah and King, His cleansing the Temple and cursing the fig tree were of special and monumental significance. The cleansing of the Temple was a denunciation of Israel’s worship, and the cursing of the fig tree was a denunciation of Israel as a nation. Instead of overthrowing His nation’s enemies as the people anticipated He might, the newly-acclaimed King denounced His own people.

It was inconceivable to Jews that their Messiah would condemn them instead of deliver them, that He would attack Israel instead of Rome. That is why the accolades of the triumphal entry were so short-lived, turning in a few days to cries for Jesus’ death.

He had conclusively demonstrated what both His words and His actions had testified all along—that He had not come as a political—military Messiah to free Israel from Rome and set up an earthly kingdom. When that truth finally dawned on them, whatever else Jesus did became irrelevant to most Jews. They had no use for such a Messiah and certainly no use for such a King.

By joining their leaders in calling for Jesus’ death, the people would declare in essence what Jesus had predicted in the parable of the nobleman: “We do not want this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14).

Fig trees were common in Palestine and much prized. When Jesus called him to discipleship, Nathanael was sitting under a fig tree, probably in his own yard (John 1:48). Before the Jews had entered the Promised Land, the Lord described it to them as “a land of wheat and barley of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey” (Deut. 8:8).

It is necessary to understand the growing and fruit-bearing habits of fig trees.  The fig tree was the favourite of all trees.  The picture of the Promised Land was the picture of "a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees" (Deuteronomy 8:8).  Pomegranates and figs were part of the treasures which the spies brought back to show the rich fertility of the land (Numbers 13:23).  The picture of peace and prosperity which is common to every part of the old Testament is the picture of a time when every man will sit under his own vine and his own fig tree (1 Kings 4:25; Micah 4:4; Zechariah 3:10).  The picture of the wrath of God is the picture of a day when he would smite and destroy the fig trees (Psalm 105:33; Jeremiah 8:13; Hosea 2:12).  The fig tree is the very symbol of fertility and peace and prosperity.

The tree itself is a handsome tree; it can be three feet thick in its trunk.  It grows to a height of from fifteen to twenty feet; and the spread of its thick branches can be twenty-five to thirty feet.  It was, therefore, much valued for its shade. 

Normally a fig tree produced fruit before it sprouted leaves. Therefore when Jesus found nothing on it except leaves, He was disappointed, because a tree with leaves should already have had fruit. Fig trees bore fruit twice a year, the first time in early summer. In the much lower elevation and much hotter climate of Jericho, some plants and trees were productive almost year round. But in April, a fig tree at the altitude of Jerusalem would not usually have either fruit or leaves, because, as Mark observes, “it was not the season for figs” (Mark 11:13).

Nevertheless, if the tree produced leaves early it should have produced fruit early. Whether because of too much or too little water, the wrong kind of soil, disease, or other reason, it was not functioning as it was supposed to.

Jesus used many subjects from nature—birds, water, animals, weather, trees, flowers, and others—to illustrate His teaching. On this occasion He used a barren fig tree to illustrate a spiritually barren nation. The illustration was a visual parable designed to portray the spiritually degenerated nation of Israel.

Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree was not nearly so powerfully dramatic as the cleansing of the Temple, but it was equally significant.

     Why did Jesus act with such force in destroying the tree? For the same reason He acted with such force in all of the above. Jesus always acted either to teach man or to save and help man. In destroying the fig tree, He was teaching man a much needed lesson.

     The lesson: the Messiah has absolute power over all the physical universe. The unfruitful among men (symbolized in the fig tree) do not have such power. Contrariwise, He alone has such enormous power. He alone has the power to judge and to determine fruitfulness and unfruitfulness, life and death, salvation and condemnation. He alone laid down His life; no man took it from Him (John 10:11, 15-18, esp. John 10:18).

     Remember this was Jesus’ last week. It was Tuesday, just three days before He was to be killed by unfruitful men. Jesus had to do all He could to prepare His disciples for His onrushing death and for all they were to bear through the ensuing years. He had only two days left, so He had to undergird them all He could. He was hungry and He saw a fig tree full of leaves. He walked up to pluck some fruit, but He found no fruit. He saw an object lesson in the event—a lesson that could be uniquely used in teaching and preparing the disciples.

     In destroying the tree Jesus was showing the disciples (in an unmistakable way) that He had absolute power over all the physical world, even the power to keep from being killed. He was not dying out of weakness, not dying because He was not the Messiah, not dying because of the plots and intrigues of men. Men may be judging Him to be unfruitful and unworthy of life, but He was not dying because of them. He was dying because the death of God’s Son was the way of salvation (John 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:19-20; 1 Peter 2:24). He was not being judged by unfruitful men or events; rather, unfruitful men and events were being judged by Him upon the cross (1 Peter 2:24; cp. Ephes. 2:13-22).

     Very simply put, Jesus was picturing that He was truly God’s Son with omnipotent power, picturing it in a way that we can never forget. He had the power to save Himself and to destroy the unfruitful men who would take His life. But He of course could not—not then. Right then He was sent into the world to die for men and to save men, including the very ones who were judging and condemning Him to be unfruitful and unworthy of life. However, the day is coming when He will judge the unfruitful just as He judged the fig tree. But that day is out in the future, for the present He was to save men.

Jesus Christ was and is the all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present God of the universe. He never spoke or acted on impulse, but rather He always had a determined purpose in His action. Every time Jesus did something, it was to either to teach man or to help man. His actions here were not an exception. He is teaching His disciples, the nation of Israel, and us some very important truths.

I. Jesus Christ has absolute power over all the physical universe.

A. He demonstrates this power in three ways.           

1. His expectation: fruit

a. The tree looked healthy and full of leaves.

b. He was hungry and expected to find fruit on the tree.

c. The tree professed to offer fruit.

2. His disappointment: no fruit

a. The tree was not dead...

b. It had everything it needed to produce fruit...

c. Its purpose was to bear fruit...

3. His judgment upon the tree: no fruit, ever!

a. From that moment, the fig tree began to wither away.

b. His disciples took note and were amazed.

c. This is good, because it was done for their benefit.

B. Remember this was Jesus' last week.

1. It was just days before He was to be crucified on Calvary.

2. He had to do all He could to prepare His disciples for His death and for all they were to bear through the ensuing years.

3. He had only a few days left, so He had to strengthen them all He could.

4. This was an opportunity to teach a powerful lesson to His disciples, and to us.

C. A lesson of His great power.

1. In just a few days, the disciples would see Him taken, beaten, and crucified at the hands of ungodly men.

2. But this demonstration was that they might understand the greatness of His power.

3. He had the power to keep from being killed.

4. He was not about to die out of weakness, nor was He going to die because of the plots and intrigues of men.

5. He was dying because the death of God's Son was the way of salvation.

II. The Symbolism of the Fig Tree.

A. First it was symbolic of Israel.

1. Israel had great opportunity, but failed miserably to bear fruit.

2. There was an appearance of righteousness but that was only outward.

(Mat 23:27-28) "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. {28} Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

3. He saw the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy concerning Israel.

(Isa 29:13) "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:"

4. God judged Israel for their failure.

B. It was also symbolic of our unfruitfulness.

1. The tree had a purpose, it was to bear fruit!

2. We have a purpose…to bear fruit!

(John 15:8) "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."

3. One day, the Lord will examine our lives, just as He examined that fig tree.

4. He will be expecting to find fruit!

5. He will be disappointed if none is found.

(Rom 14:10b) "…For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."

(Rom 14:12) "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God."

(1 Cor 3:13) "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is."

III. What are the lessons that we can learn?

A. The greater the privileges, the greater the responsibility.

1. That was true for the nation Israel, and it is also true for us.

2. "To whom much is given, much is required." Cf Luke 12:48

3. How many Bibles do we have in our home?

4. How many opportunities does God give for us to pray, to witness and to share the good news?

5. We will be held accountable for all of these privileges.

B. The greater the responsibility, the greater the judgment.

1. It would certainly be better not to have known the Lord's will than to know it and not to do it.

2. Here, of course, the fig tree was entirely cursed from the roots up.

3. The Jews had bee n given awesome privileges, with many assurances and promises from the Lord God.

4. But because of their neglect of the inner life, they were severely judged by God.

5. Of course, as believers, we shall escape the wrath of God, but the Judgment Seat of Christ will be a very serious matter.

6. For some, it will be a time of shame, a time of weeping. The reason? Because of missed opportunities.

C. The greater the judgment, the greater the regret.

1. Today our memories may fail.

2. Things that we have done or not done have long since left us.

3. But the time is coming when every one of us, whether Christian or not, shall have a memory that is completely accurate and clear.

4. The events of the past will immediately be present to the mind.

5. We will remember the opportunities that God gave us, and we will see the way that we have wasted them.

Two Verses:

(Rev 20:15) "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

(Rev 21:4) "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

I believe the tears will be there because we realize how we have failed our Savior. When we see those who we could have led to Christ, be cast away into eternal darkness. When we realize just how much time we wasted on things that will mean absolutely nothing in eternity. The opportunities of life will some day be gone forever. Where does this leave us tonight?

Like Jerusalem, we are given so many opportunities to be fruitful, to show our faith and faithfulness to the Lord, and to live a life that blesses others to the Fathers glory.But opportunities are not forever.God calls us to reflect his character and grace. When we don't, and this refusal and neglect become habitual, God will give us opportunities to repent and change our actions.

But there comes a time when we must change or judgement comes. If we are truly connected to Jesus, if we are truly his disciples, we will bear fruit that reflects his character.The Spirit will help make sure of this.Our love for the Savior will call us to this.Our friends in Christ will encourage this.But ultimately, we must decide that Jesus is Lord and is worthy of our life's commitment to him!

Some have raised objections against the cursing of the fig tree by suggesting that it was unthinkable that Jesus would be that self-centered and irritable. They also point out that even if early believers composed the story it was inappropriate for Matthew to portray Jesus in such a fashion.

What Jesus found was leaves only. For that type of tree, the leaves normally set on after the early fruit-buds had appeared. Later the full and mature fruit would appear. The fact that there were leaves on the fig tree indicated that the fruit-buds should have been on the tree also. These fruit-buds were edible, but the issue was not Jesus’ hunger.

Immediately the fig tree withered and began to die. Matthew records in verse 20 that the disciples were amazed that the fig tree began to wither at once. Scholars often note that this amazement belongs to the historical event of the cursing of the fig tree rather than to the symbolic meaning of the event. It is true that "nothing happened" to the Jewish leaders at that moment. However, by the time Matthew’s gospel was written the temple was apparently in ruins and the Sadducees and priests were gone from the scene of Judaism. The disciples’ words of amazement at how quickly the curse killed the fig tree were also words that applied to the demise of the Jewish leaders by the time this gospel was written.

If we have faith and do not doubt we need never be in the position of the fig tree and the Jewish leaders of giving expectations without producing the reality. A faithful believer will at least have the early "fruit-buds" in the spiritual life.

     What is the source of Christ’s great power? Or, we may ask, what is the source of great power for the disciple of Christ? It is three things.

     1.   Faith.

     2.   Not doubting at all. This means never having a thought as to whether a thing can be done or not. It means not hesitating, not wondering, not questioning, not considering, not being concerned at all. Realistically, only God Himself could ever know whether or not something would happen—know so perfectly that no wondering thought would ever cross His mind. What Christ is after is that we grow in belief and trust. He wants us to believe that all things are possible through Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13).

     3.   God’s authority: given to those who speak the Word. Note the phrase “Shall say”. The power of Christ came from the authority of God. All He had to do was say, that is, speak the Word and it was done. That is the very point He is making to us. If we believe, not doubting, then we stand in the authority of God. We may say, that is, speak the Word and it shall be done.

He was saying, “I want you to know that you have unimaginable power available to you through your faith in Me. If you sincerely believe, without doubting, it shall happen, and you will see great powers of God at work.” At the Last Supper Jesus told the Twelve, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14). The requirement for receiving is to ask in Jesus’ name, that is, according to His purpose and will.

True faith is trusting in the revelation of God. When a believer seeks something that is consistent with God’s Word and trusts in God’s power to provide it, Jesus assures him that his request will be honored, because it honors Him and His Father. When God’s commands are obeyed He will honor that obedience, and when any request is asked in faith according to His will He will provide what is sought. To do what God says is to do what God wants and to receive what God promises.