Life Project Blog

Matthew 21:18-22

As I mentioned previously, Jesus would make three moves that declare His Messianic identity upon His arrival at Jerusalem; the first two were public, His triumphal entry, and His clearing of the Temple. Now we come to the third, His private demonstration to the disciples who, it would seem, missed the point just as much as the Jewish leaders did.

Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 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. (21:18-19)

Make no mistake, Jesus wasn’t having a temper tantrum because there was no fruit on the tree; His actions were quite illustrative of the situation they were in. He, the son of David, the Messiah had entered the Holy City of Jerusalem on the previous afternoon, headed directly to the Temple, the very dwelling place of God and the symbol of God in the midst of His people, and He had found only corruption and vice. Israel, as represented by its capitol looked healthy and productive from the outside, but the inside was rotten to the core.

The fig tree looked good, and it should have had fruit, but upon closer inspection, it was barren; Jesus pronounced judgment on that tree for its lack of fruit, and it withered and died. This action is prophetic, for like His actions in the Temple on the previous day, it was an illustration of what was in Jerusalem’s future: God’s judgment.

It would seem from their reaction in verse 20 that the disciples didn’t recognize the prophetic aspect of this, at least not at first, and as we probably would have been in their place, they were amazed at how Jesus said the words, and the tree had withered right before their eyes. I must admit that would be something to see. Jesus responds to their amazement by speaking to them of faith, a commodity they would need quite a bit of in the very near future:

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, 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. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (21:21-22)

If you’ve been following along in our journey through Matthew, you will recall that this is not the first time Jesus has spoken to them in this way about their faith. In the days ahead, the disciples will need to have faith, for they will find themselves in a position where they will need to depend mightily on God; thus He reminds them that in doing so, nothing will be withheld from them. The obvious contrast is the Jewish religious leaders, who rely entirely upon their own abilities and self righteousness, even to the point of having their long-awaited Messiah nailed to a cross, thus sealing their doom.

In the next scene, the indignation of the Jewish leaders finds its voice; see you then!

Matthew 21:12-17

For the Jews, the Temple in Jerusalem was the center of everything Jewish, the very center of the Jewish people and Nation. It was the embodiment (if I can use that term for a building) of their very identities as a people; it was their pride, it was their joy, and it was their hope for a better day. Yet the real significance of the Temple ran far deeper than all of that, for its true significance was entirely apocalyptic in nature.

The Temple in Jerusalem was the symbol of God dwelling in the midst of His people, the symbol of their exalted status as God’s chosen; God’s elect. There, in the Most Holy Place, dwelt the Spirit of God Himself on the earth; in the heart of Israel’s capitol city. It was a place of gathering in community, a place of teaching and instruction, a place of worship and prayer, and it was also a place of atonement; it was by any definition a sacred place.

When Jesus entered the city on that donkey colt as the son of David, He went directly to the Temple, and He did so in a manner that asserted His authority as king and Messiah, as one who is greater than the Temple itself (12:6). His actions there demonstrated prophetically what the Temple had become, and in doing so, Jesus went to the very heart of the corruption of Israel, for they had perverted the blessing that set them apart from everyone else, and that blessing was their relationship with God. In His actions on that fateful afternoon, Jesus told an active parable about what would be the fate of the Temple, for it would be utterly destroyed. Later in chapter 24, Jesus would speak to His disciples prophetically about this destruction. But on this day, Jesus, by His actions, would deliver a stinging indictment of the entire ideology that had developed within the teachings of the Jewish religious leaders concerning the Temple.

As a result, they question His identity (21:10), and His authority (21:23); they were indignant (21:15). Later in the drama, Jesus’ predictions concerning the Temple’s destruction are levied against Him at His trial (26:61) and hurled at Him in the form of taunts at His crucifixion (27:40). Yes sir, the Messiah was on the scene, and He has brought to them a message that says serious house cleaning is needed, and in so doing, He has “let loose the dogs of (spiritual) war”!

Game on.

Matthew 21:1-11

Jesus makes the first move in the rising conflict, actually He makes three moves, two of which are in public, and one in private. All three moves have something in common; He is answering the question “Who do you say that I am?” His identity as the son of David comes to the fore first here, and in the next section, as though He were saying to Jerusalem, “Here I am, the son of David, Messiah!”

The people seem to be delighted, at least those who were present, yet there is an undertone, a very dark undertone. What we have in this entire section is the outward and physical manifestation of the ultimate spiritual conflict, for the thing we need to recognize is this: Jesus’ actions here are the first shots in a war, a showdown with eternity itself as the prize for the victor.

In this passage, Jesus gives instructions to the disciples to obtain the donkey on which He would enter the city, and as was his custom, Matthew ties that into Israel’s prophetic history (21:4-5). As I have mentioned in other places here, in the ancient near east, a king arriving in peace rode a donkey, a king arriving to conquer rode a war horse. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, comes to town on a donkey, for the battle He was fighting was not a clash of arms between battalions of mortal men, but a spiritual battle between good and evil in the hearts of men; make no mistake, Jesus knew exactly who the real Enemy was.

Along His path, He was greeted by the crowds as a king would be greeted as He arrived in the city in peace. In the eyes of the crowds, He was the new Davidic King come to claim His throne and overturn the Roman occupation with the power of God, restoring Israel to its rightful place among the Nations of the earth. In the eyes of the Jewish religious authorities, He was trouble. Yet in the eyes of Satan, this was what he had been waiting for, in both dread and anticipation. Dread because Jesus could utterly destroy him, anticipation because if he could manipulate the Jewish authorities, already in a state of rebellion against God and hardness of heart, he could destroy Jesus by an assault upon His body, killing Him before He could destroy the Devil, and thus our drama, the greatest drama of all time, begins.

In the next post, we will see Jesus make His second move, in which He takes His Davidic identity a step further− see you then!