Why Christ Killed the Fig Tree

or The amazing faith of Christ

Mat 21:18 And returning early to the city, He hungered.
Mat 21:19 And seeing a fig tree in the way, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only. And He said to it, let no fruit grow on you forever. And immediately the fig tree withered away.
Mat 21:20 And when the disciples saw, they marveled, saying, How quickly the fig tree has withered away!
Mat 21:21 Jesus answered and said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith and do not doubt, you shall not only do this miracle of the fig tree, but also; if you shall say to this mountain, Be moved and be thrown into the sea; it shall be done.
Mat 21:22 And all things, whatever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.

Mar 11:19 And when evening came, He went out of the city.
Mar 11:20 And passing on early, they saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots.
Mar 11:21 And Peter, remembering, said to Him, Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which You cursed has withered away.
Mar 11:22 And answering Jesus said to them, Have faith of God.
Mar 11:23 For truly I say to you that whoever shall say to this mountain, Be moved and be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he said shall occur, he shall have whatever he said.
Mar 11:24 Therefore I say to you, All things, whatever you ask, praying, believe that you shall receive them, and it will be to you.

Christ cursed (killed) a fig tree that gave a false hope for food. (In like manner, Christ came to destroy Satan who seeks to destroy the hope of people with his lies.) He also used the incident to teach how words spoken in faith can do miracles when God’s will is being followed. The fig tree was often used to represent Israel. Christ desired Israel to have faith, but instead found a false outward show of faith (for Him) when, in fact, Israel followed a dead formal religion of tradition that bore no fruit of Godliness. Judgement resulted in God’s covenant with Israel being altered to include the Gentiles. The words of “have faith in God” also encourage that when earthly hopes and desires are shattered, we can still have faith that God will supply our needs when we ask and speak in faith believing. Jesus knew that shortly His earthly ministry would be ended and the disciples would think that all was lost. He was encouraging them not to give up on God, who would overcome Satan in whatever they spoke in faith. The spoken word shows all that we believe and honor God to have power for change. It commits us and God to a course of action. It shows that we are in agreement and unity of purpose with God for His will to be done. All disciples needed this hope to sustain them in the coming days. Remember that Jesus verbally spoke nearly all the miracles that He prayed. Remember, how He called Lazarus from the grave as one of the greatest examples.

Why Christ killed the fig tree part II Reading between the lines with understanding to find the amazing faith and love for God the Father

That which is above was given to me awhile back, but I have not felt peace that it was all of the story. Yesterday morning, the day after Valentine’s day, God woke me at 4AM and told me to look up what had happened just before this story. Sure enough, it added a whole new dimension to what Jesus was thinking and greatly humbled me. I will give you in my text the thoughts that could have been racing through the mind of Jesus during each of the encounters.

First a short background about the character of the Trinity of God. The Father is the source of holiness (perfectness) in all things, for example: morality, power, love and knowledge. Christ and the Holy Spirit always obey the will of the Father. Today, when we pray, the Holy Spirit passes on to Christ and God the Father those things in the Father’s will, then Christ also prays to the Father and the Father allows the use of His resources as needed. The Father knows all future and shares with the Trinity what they can handle and need at the time. Christ and the Holy Spirit, in turn, share with us what we need at the time. We would not want to know many things before we could understand and benefit from them. The absence of some specific knowledge of the future is an act of kindness and compassion from a loving God. Advance knowledge of some bad things in our future would prohibit us from living a positive fulfilling life. Consider that a loving Abraham did not tell Isaac that he was to be a sacrifice because Abraham did not want to cause him great anxiety in advance of his death. Gen.22:8

I believe that it was on the Mt. of Transfiguration that Jesus first learned of how He was to die in Jerusalem. The Father had sent Moses and Elijah to comfort Him and explain why and how He must die.

Luk 9:29 And as He prayed, the appearance of His countenance was altered, and His clothing was dazzling white.
Luk 9:30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah,
Luk 9:31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His exodus, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

What a horrible truth to deal with! Was all this necessary? Jesus began to weigh his life and ministry as He went through the stages of accepting death. Had His work been successful enough to offset what He was about to go through? All this weighed heavily upon him as he approached Jerusalem. These thoughts were on Christ’s mind and set the background for all else that was to come. He was struggling with a sense of mourning about His coming painful & humiliating death. He was also reviewing His life and ministry to see if it was successful.

Now, a change is noted in the attitude of a very human Jesus. Christ became short tempered when the disciples could not heal a lunatic.

Mat 17:17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him here to Me.

Jesus also shares the news of his coming death with the disciples. Jesus must have wondered if the disciples cared about him, for there was no great response of sadness, only discussions of what they might receive in heaven.

Mat 20:17 And going up to Jerusalem, Jesus took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said to them,
Mat 20:18 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death.
Mat 20:19 And they shall deliver Him to the nations to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He shall rise again.
Mat 20:20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s children came to Him with her sons, worshiping and desiring a certain thing from Him.
Mat 20:21 And He said to her, What do you desire? She said to Him, Grant that these my two sons may sit in Your kingdom, the one on Your right hand and the other on the left.
Mat 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They said to Him, We are able.
Mat 20:23 And He said to them, You shall indeed drink of My cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but to those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.
Mat 20:24 And when the ten heard it, they were indignant concerning the two brothers.

Here, Jesus finds that his disciples were not spiritual, as He desired. They had been with Him a good while and had seen many miracles, but still had not learned to care for the Father that He served. They were still more concerned with their own prideful selfish interests instead of seeking only the will of the Father as He did. Yet, He was to die for them.

Mat 20:30 And behold, two blind men were sitting by the wayside. When they heard that Jesus passed by, they cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!
Mat 20:31 And the crowd rebuked them, saying that they should be silent. But they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!
Mat 20:32 And Jesus stood still and called them, and said, What do you desire that I should do to you?
Mat 20:33 They said to Him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
Mat 20:34 So Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.
Mar 10:46 And they came to Jericho. And as He with His disciples and a large crowd went out of Jericho, blind Bartimeus, the son of Timeus, was sitting by the side of the highway, begging.
Mar 10:47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!
Mar 10:48 And many warned him that he should be quiet, but he cried a great deal more, Son of David, have mercy on me!
Mar 10:49 And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying to him, Be of good comfort; rise up, He is calling you.
Mar 10:50 And casting away his garment, he rose up and came to Jesus.
Mar 10:51 And answering Jesus said to him, What do you desire that I should do to you? The blind man said to Him, My Lord, that I may see again.
Mar 10:52 And Jesus said to him, Go, your faith has healed you. And instantly he saw again, and he followed Jesus in the way.
Jesus’s first response to the blind men indicated a rather a tired response for how all were only seeking what His miracles could do for them. People seeking help cared not for the spiritual things of God, but only for how the miracles could help them. They had no love of God, but instead were only seeking self-benefits. It is important to note that in this instance, even though Jesus was somewhat discouraged, he still cared enough about people and his mission from the Father that he stopped. Then, when he witnessed their faith, he healed them.

Mat 21:8 And a very great crowd spread their garments in the way. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them in the way.
Mat 21:9 And the crowds who went before, and those who followed, cried out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
Riding into Jerusalem, the multitudes were honoring Him for His works, but He knew they would shortly turn on Him with cries of “Crucify Him”. They had no real love for Him as the Son of God. It was a false show of religion.

Mat 21:12 And Jesus went into the temple of God and cast out all those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of those who sold doves. His righteous anger overflowed.
Mat 21:13 And He said to them, It is written, “My house shall be called the house of prayer”; but you have made it a den of thieves.
Mat 21:14 And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
Mat 21:15 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things which He did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were angry*. *Also translated “indignant” from John 7:42.

Jesus saw how the religious leaders reacted to His righteous anger and miracles for the good of the people. They cared not for the things of God but only reacted in self pride. They were false spiritual leaders. who had not heard His messages from the Father. All His desires to reach His people had failed. He was spiritually crushed by the failure. So much so, that He would not later even answer the trial accusations by the priests in Mark 15:5 and Luke 23:9. Yet, He doggedly resolved to go through with the Father’s plan for His humiliation and crucifixion. He trusted completely in His love for the Father and the Father’s will even though He saw no reason of success from His ministry. Jesus’s testing came to a head in the Garden of Gethsemane. His victory over the temptation to disobey the will of His Father came with the words:

Mat 26:39 And He went a little further and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.
Mat 26:42 He went away again the second time and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.

Christ had come to earth primarily to draw the Jewish people back to God. This is evident in Matthew 15:24.

Mat 15:24 But He answered and said, I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Does this mean that Christ only cared for the Father and not the world of Gentiles and Jews? No, Jesus just did not know the complete will of the Father* yet! Whatever the Father feels, the entire trinity not only accepts but also feels. When the Father has compassion for all, so do Christ and the Holy Spirit. They are one body, and as such, have the same feeling together. If one part hurts, they all hurt. A similar example was given about our body and its members.

1Co 12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
1Co 12:20 But now indeed many are the members, yet only one body.
1Co 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.

Let there be no doubt that when God had compassion on mankind to send Christ to suffer, the entire person of God had compassion on us and all suffered for us.

Christ’s human nature wanted to escape what He was about to go through. However, His Father knew the pain would not be in vain. Spilt blood was required to pay the price for mankind’s individual sins. A blood sacrifice was required, even when the sacrifice was the Fathers only son. It had been so when Abraham was prepared to offer his son to the will of God. It still was true when the Father abided by His own rule, in the case of Jesus, His only Son. Obedience to the Father’s will always is required, and always is carried out by Christ and the Holy Spirit. The will of God the Father is always spoken and done by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We must also submit to The Father’s will and Christ’s blood to be found acceptable.

1Sa 15:22 And Samuel said, Does Jehovah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice! To listen is better than the fat of rams!
Rom 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.

Joh 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Joh 14:24 He who does not love Me does not keep My Words, and the Word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

The perfect love of Jesus for the Father and complete trust in the Father’s will won out over the fear of what lay ahead. This same love and trust is what we should aspire to. Jesus had, once again, as the perfect teacher, given example and had done all that He asks us to also do.

Now, understanding the depth of Christ’s love and obedience to the will of His heavenly Father, take a moment to reflect on another thought. Look at perhaps the most well known verses in the bible, found in John.

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Putting this in the perspective of the Trinity of God, realize that it is God the Father that loves the world so dearly that He is willing to submit His son, Jesus, to suffering and death that those in the world may choose and receive life with Him. The Father could not do it Himself since He is Spirit and has willed that He should never be in the presence of any evil. Clearly, The Father could empathize with Abraham’s decision to give up his son in total obedience to the will of The Father. Both, Abraham and Christ received great glory and reward for their dedication to the Father. Christ received the greater glory because He chose to suffer Himself as the sacrifice and because He also was victorious over Satan. He had glory before becoming a man, but had to temporarily be reduced in glory while He was human and among sinful mankind. Then after conquering Satan and death Christ was elevated in glory above all that He might also return glory to The Father as well as sharing glory with those who are His. They are also sons and daughters to God the Father.

Heb 2:6 But one testified in a certain place, saying, “What is man, that You are mindful of him; or the son of man, that You visit him?
Heb 2:7 You have made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands.
Heb 2:8 You subjected all things under his feet.” For in subjecting all things to Him, He did not leave anything not subjected to Him. But now we do not see all things having been subjected to him.
Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God should taste death for all.
Joh 17:5 And now Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Joh 17:22 And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one,
Joh 17:1 Jesus spoke these words and lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that Your Son also may glorify You,
Php 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Php 2:9 Therefore God has highly exalted Him, and has given Him a name which is above every name,
Php 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly ones, and of earthly ones, and of ones under the earth;
Php 2:11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Now, to the real meaning of the fig tree. Later, when He was hungry and saw the fig tree barren, it represented another let-down from human circumstances. It represented another false show of empty promise. Hunger was not the overriding reason for His anger. He could have overcome that easily. This was the man who had gone without food or water 40 days. He had turned water into wine and had fed multitudes with God’s miracles. He was angered at His lack of ability to make a difference in the lives of His people. The shallow desires of mankind had left no room for a real relationship and love for God, at least not for now.

Therefore, in response to Peter’s amazement that Jesus’s words had killed the fig tree, Jesus responded with a lesson on the power of spoken faith and what was really on His mind for some time. Mar 11:22 And answering Jesus said to them, Have faith of God.

Even, in the face of crushed dreams and terrible circumstances, we (as Christ) must still have faith in and trust the will of God our Father. He spoke of how a faith (like His faith) could move mountains. Jesus had always trusted in The Father even though He had not always known what the final will of The Father was to encompass. In this instance, The Father had a larger plan to offer salvation not only to the Jews, but also to all mankind. Christ’s sacrifices were not to be in vain. Christ’s total love for the Father also mirrored the Father’s total love for His son and all mankind.

These events open our understanding to Christ’s greatest teaching through His example of how to love God the Father so completely that we would do anything to obey Him. Even if His will is against our understanding and we are totally devastated thinking that we can accomplish nothing. We still must trust and have faith in God with all our being.

 What a Valentine’s day or a Father’s day message!

Now, with understanding of how deeply Jesus depended on The Father, we can better understand His shock and great pain when The Father had to leave Him alone on the cross. Jesus had assumed the burden of all sin which The Father had willed that as a completely Holy God He would never be in the presence of sin. Even Moses had to be protected from the full glory of God when they met:
Exo 33:22 And it will be, while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.

Thus, the cry from the cross,“Why have you forsaken me??” Both The Father and the Holy Spirit had to abandon Jesus when He took on our sins. Now, we also understand why The Father spoke “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.” Now we see why even the name of Jesus is to be honored above all names. His devotion to The Father is complete and perfect even to the point of a willingness to suffer and die for a cause He felt He had failed in. How can we continue to now rationalize and put self desires above the will and feelings of The Father? Jesus calls us to continue in His words and example. Glory to God! Now, I appreciate more fully the song we sang the day after valentines, “He is faithful.”

*Reference:
1Jn 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
1Jn 4:9 In this the love of God was revealed in us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
1Jn 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation concerning our sins.
1Jn 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

The Father had the plan for the salvation opportunity for the whole world. The Father sent Jesus to accomplish His will and Jesus completely obeyed though He did not know the full plan from the beginning. In His human nature Jesus cared for the Jew first while the Father desired the whole world to know, honor and have relationship with the entire Godhead. Because, Jesus was the one who suffered, died and fought for the Father, He is the one to receive all the glory. That is why the Father honors Christ so.

Joh 8:54 Jesus answered, If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say that He is your God.
Joh 10:29 My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.
Joh 12:49 For I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say, and what I should speak.

2-15-2009
Revisions & additions: 11-16-2009, 5-29-2010, 6-15-2010, 10-2-2010, 2-14-2011,
4-5-2011, 1-9-2017, 6-11-2019