On Sunday, Jesus went into Jerusalem and cleansed the temple—tossing the tables of those who sold sacrifices and changed money, making the temple a market rather than a house of prayer for all nations. He spent the night in Bethany and now, Monday, travels back to Jerusalem.

Matthew 21:18-22

Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?”

And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly 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 even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

The cursed fig tree (v. 18-19)

Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

Jesus, like any human being, becomes hungry. After finding a barren fig tree, unlike any human being could, Jesus curses it and it withers at once. Commentators generally agree that Jesus’s act has great theological significance. Mathew’s placement of the event at this juncture in the story is no accident. The previous day, Jesus drove out those in the temple who were not producing the fruit of the kingdom of heaven (v. 12-17). Following this event, Jesus will enter into a dialogue with and about the Pharisees—concluding that since they do not produce the fruit of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to a people who will produce its fruit (v. 43). Jesus’s curse illustrates the fruitlessness and consequence of the Jewish religion and temple worship in the First Century AD.

Jesus’s audience, His apostles, would have understood the meaning. God called Israel for His own pleasure according to His will. Jeremiah compared Israel to figs planted for the purpose of producing fruit. The bad figs would go into exile and be destroyed. The good figs would be replanted to bear more fruit (Jeremiah 24:1-10). By including this part of the story, Matthew alludes to the work God was doing through the exile in Babylon. In a sense, God is doing the same work through the oppression of Rome. The barren Jews will be revealed and cursed. The kingdom of God will be given to people who bear the fruit of that kingdom.

From this we know that being a “Christian” or “Jew” is not enough to inherit the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who actually bear the fruit of the kingdom. If we believe ourselves to be in or worship God yet do not bear the fruit of the kingdom, then we know we are cursed figs no matter how religious or mature we perceive ourselves to be. What are the fruits of the kingdom? Jeremiah answered:

Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24:5-7).

Jeremiah was not prescribing a works-based righteousness. To bear kingdom fruit is to be regarded as good by God, built up by God, and given a heart to know God. If we are not hungry to know God more or return to God and His covenant community, we are not good figs to be planted and produce more fruit. Jeremiah also distinguished the bad figs:

But like the bad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness—indeed, thus says the Lord—so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them. I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers (Jeremiah 24:8-10).

Bad figs can be recognized by the rotten fruit they bear. They will be terrorizers and mockers. God leaves them scattered in the world as a proverb, a statement about the spiritually damned. They will eventually die in their sins without having atonement applied to them. May we not think too highly of ourselves, be pharisaical, or believe we are in the faith if we have no hunger to know God more or gather with the saints. If we are not in the faith, may we repent and ask God to place that hunger within us.

The cast mountain (v. 20-22)

Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?”
And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly 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 even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Trees do not wither all at once. Jesus did something supernatural, and the disciples ask how it was done. Jesus answers by telling them they will wither fig trees and move mountains if they have faith without doubt. Before considering what it means that the apostles would be able to curse fig trees and move mountains, we must know what it means for someone to have faith without doubt. Since Jesus is still referencing what Jeremiah prophesied concerning Israel, we know that the good figs are the Jews who had faith—which was given by God as a heart to know God. Faith is the gift that causes a person to trust God and hope in His promises. The bad figs were the Jews who had no faith and were scattered. Simply put in this context, to have faith is to have a hunger to know God. If the apostles have a unmovable hunger to know God, they will be able to curse fig trees and move mountains.

The apostles will do what Jesus did, though the object of their curse is not explicit. If the fig tree represents apostate Jews, then the apostles’ ministry would be marked by the casting out of apostate Jews from the promise of Christ. Apostate Jews will go into exile and the kingdom will be given to those who bear kingdom fruit. To my knowledge, the apostles will never be able to verbally curse a literal fig tree and cause it to immediately wither. They will, however, denounce judiazers, unbelieving Jews, and Jews who still offer sacrifices even though final atonement will be made in Jesus when we get to Chapter 27. The apostles will fulfill what Jesus predicts about their ministry here.

Not only will the apostles curse proverbial fig trees, doing to Israel what Jesus did to the fig tree, they will instruct mountains to be cast into the sea. I hear this verse plucked from its context and misused often. I believe in prayer. I believe in the power of prayer. I believe that there are great miracles. I do not, however, believe this particular Bible verse gets at those things. To my knowledge, the apostles will never instruct a mountain to move. The mountain Jesus refers to is a particular mountain, “This mountain.” The only physical mountain present on the way to Jerusalem from Bethany is the Mount of Olives. Either Jesus is talking about the Mount of Olives, which will not be moved by the end of the apostles’ ministry, or the mountain is parabolic like the fig tree was. This verse is probably not a reference to Zechariah 14:4, in which God is envisaged standing on the Mount of Olives, splitting it to deliver Israel from her oppressors. Jesus is not the one moving the mountain He refers to. The apostles will move it by faith. So, this mountain is not the Mount of Olives. What particular proverbial mountain, then, might Jesus be referring to?

Like Jeremiah referred to Israel as a fig tree, he referred to Babylon as a mountain being cast into the sea (Jeremiah 51:12-27). Both of these images allude back to the same prophecy. Rome oppressed Israel like Babylon did before. Because of the apostles’ testimony, Rome would, like Babylon, be rolled down the crags and its fire extinguished—which will eventually happen after a period of chastening for Israel just like in the days of Jeremiah. The apostles will be the ones preaching the word of God during this time.

Jesus is talking particularly to His apostles. Is there a way in which this message applies to every Christian? I don’t know that God would have provided it if it did not apply. We are given faith, a hunger to know God. By our testimony, the gospel, false professors of Christ are chastised and the raging nations are metaphorically thrown into the sea. Jesus is glorified and His true children, good figs, are revealed as the gospel advances in these turbulent times.

When we ask anything in the prayer of faith, yearning to know God more, God will reveal it. He will not give us everything we want. He will make us wise according to His revelation like indicated by the prophet, Jeremiah.