The Tale Of Two Fig Trees
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PARABLES AND DUAL PURPOSE COMINGS
When it comes to the comings of Christ, the parables shed much light on why the Son of God came. Contrary to the prevailing evangelical notion, Jesus came for more than to simply save sinners. He came to a specific people, at a specific time, in a specific context, for a specific and dual-functioning purpose. That purpose was to bring judgment upon His enemies and salvation to His people, which can be demonstrated throughout the parables of Christ.
For instance, when Christ comes, He will identify two groups of people in His incarnation. One that will be prepared for judgment. And the other who will be prepared for His blessings. These two themes show up in the vast majority of parables and give us insight into Jesus’ conception of His incarnation.
For instance, in one parable you have the righteous man building his house upon the rock, while the wicked builds in hubris upon the sand (Luke 6:46-49). In that story, the righteous man survives the near-term calamity and experiences ongoing blessings while the wicked man undergoes sudden destruction when the storm appeared.
Truth from parables like these can be applied in spiritual and universal ways since all who build their life on Jesus Christ will be ultimately and eternally spared, whereas building on anything else will warrant eternal calamities forever. But, spiritualized interpretations often miss the poignant reality this would have conveyed to the original audience. Jesus is warning that a first-century storm is coming and only those who were with Him would survive it, which gained terrifying clarity in the events of AD 70.
This kind of dualism between the imminent doom of the wicked and the near blessing of the righteous is too overt to ignore. For instance, the sheep will be brought into blessing, whereas the goats will be set apart for destruction (Matthew 25:31-36). The wheat is to be stored in Christ’s heavenly barns while the tares will be thrown into the flames (Matthew 13:24-30). The branches that bear fruit will be pruned for greater fruitfulness, and all those who are fruitless will be burned for their worthlessness (John 15:1-11). The king will bring new guests into the joy of His wedding while sending his armies to destroy the ones who were found unworthy (Matthew 22:1-14). On and on we may go.
CLARIFYING PARABOLIC TIME
Some of these parables helpfully add a clarifying element of time, which let us know more will be going on in the first century than a hyper-spiritual application can account for. In the spiritual application, the parables were written for me, my benefit, and concern the things going on in my world. Jesus’ parables, however, clearly address events that apply to His contemporaries and things that will be happening in their world even while we still find comfort and application in them as well.
For instance, Christ the master will go on a long journey. When He returns, He will bless the slave who is found doing what He commanded (Luke 12:35-44). But, to the one who is lazy, wicked, and evil, He will bring violence, death, and destruction (Luke 12:45-48). This happened in AD 70.
The temptation today is to read a multiple thousand-year gap into texts like these, supposing that its contents apply to us or some future generation. Beyond breaking the most basic rules of Biblical hermeneutics, this is not how the story world of a parable works. In the parable, a human master goes on a human journey that seemed especially long to his human servants. When he returned, those same servants were still alive. Some were rewarded for their faithfulness while their master was away. The others were punished and even killed for their wickedness.
Had the master in the story left on a two-thousand-year journey, both he and his slaves would have to be near immortal to survive until he returned, which cannot be Jesus’ point. But, if Jesus was preparing His disciples for the forty-year gap that existed between His ascension and judgment coming on Jerusalem in AD 70, the parable would make great sense. Jesus’ return would bring blessing to the ones who were committed to following Him. But, death and destruction for those who remained in their rebellion, such as the Jews.
One triad of parables makes this blessing / judgment coming of Christ undeniably clear. In Matthew 21-22, Jesus tells three successive parables, one right after the other, where one group will gain tremendous blessings and the other awful judgments. In the first, Jesus interprets the parable of the two sons, telling the Pharisees that the prostitutes and tax collectors will get into heaven ahead of them (Matthew 21:28-32). In the second, He interprets the parable of the landowner, warning the Jews that God’s kingdom will be taken away from them at His coming, and given to a people who will produce His fruit (Matthew 21:33-46). And in the third, Jesus reveals that the Jews were found unworthy to participate in His coming Kingdom so they are thrown out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 22:1-14).
In each of these parables, the coming of the Son of Man is accomplishing a dualistic purpose. For the elect, Jesus’ coming will usher them into all the salvific blessings and eschatological joys available in God’s newly inaugurated Kingdom, the Church. For those who reject Him, there will be suffering, weeping, gnashing teeth, and imminent destruction. To the Jews, this happened during their lives, when their city was set on fire, their temple was devoted to destruction, and the Old Covenant kingdom of shadows and types came to a sudden cataclysmic end.
The parables Jesus taught prepared the discerning disciple for this apocalyptic outcome.
THE PROPHETS AND DUAL PURPOSE COMINGS
This same theme of salvation and judgment at the Messiah's coming shows up in the prophetic writings as well. For instance, in Joel 2, God promises to blow a trumpet of war, empowering a Northern army to bring swift and awful judgment against the Jews of the first century (Joel 2:1-11). But, His coming will also provide a way of salvation for the elect who will repent (Joel 2:12-17). In case we doubt the first-century timing of this prophecy, Joel cites Pentecost, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as the sign that will identify when his prophecy will occur. Here again, we see that Messiah’s first-century coming will be good news for some and terrifying for others.
Perhaps nowhere says it more clearly than Malachi, who tells us that the coming of Christ will be an event that few will endure (Malachi 3:2). His coming will be like a great fire that will purify some and destroy others (Malachi 3:3). Some will be accepted in His coming and others will be severely judged (Malachi 3:4-5). The nations will call those who belong to the Messiah blessed, while the Jews who rejected Him will be under a curse (Malachi 3:8-12).
Malachi 4:1-3 tells us:
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts.
Some were destroyed at the coming of Christ. Some were brought into His blessings. Both of these things happened in that first turbulent century of Church history. The elect were brought into salvation by the finished work of Christ and adopted into an eschatological family called the Church, who has continued to advance in every generation in obedience to Christ. Jesus’ coming secured eternal and eschatological blessings for His bride!
But for all those who rejected the messiah, their portion was judgment and doom. Those first-century Jews were ejected from their homes and their land, they had their capital city reduced to ash by the Roman armies, they were carried off in chains on ships to be mocked up and down the streets of Rome, and they were scattered about - under the curse of God - into all the nations. Even more, God Himself canceled their religion, He brought an end to their sacrificial system, He annulled the Aaronic line of priests, and He repealed their unique position among the nations with all the accompanying blessings. As Malachi promised, the Jews were the chaff prepared for the fire and everything they owned became the ash on the soles of Christ’s feet. They were the ones left without root or branch, which brings us back to the Gospel of Matthew.
THE JERUSALEM FIG TREE OF MATTHEW 21
Most of the fireworks in Matthew’s Gospel occur In chapter 21. If we were standing in the crowds on that day, we would have seen Jesus triumphantly riding into a withered city that only offered Him leaves. No fruit. By afternoon, we would have witnessed Him overthrowing tables outside the rotten temple and chasing out the rebels with a hand-braided whip. No fruit. The next day, He is pronouncing some of the sharpest parables He had uttered denouncing them for bearing no fruit. In the midst of all this fruitlessness, He curses a local fig tree for bearing Him no fruit, which would have been a curious thing to see. This is what the text tells us:
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.” - Matthew 21:18-22
At that moment, we could assume Jesus was hangry about not getting His breakfast fig bar, or we could simply remember what we saw the day before. Jesus pronounced judgments on a city and a temple that offered Him no fruit. They were dead in their trespasses and sins. They were withered and fruitless branches on God’s vine that were destined for removal and fire (John 15:6). Along with that, we would be right to remember how Jerusalem had been compared to a fig tree in various Old Testament passages (Jeremiah 8:1-13; 24:1-11; 29:16-18; Hosea 9:10) as well as Malachi’s prophecy that this same people would be left fruitless, with neither root nor branch (Malachi 4:3).
Knowing these things, as Jesus approached the fruitless city of Jerusalem that morning, and as He cursed a common symbol for Jerusalem, which was a fig tree, we would have understood the point. Jerusalem was the fruitless tree that was about to be removed by God. Jesus’ coming would not be good news for them. They were sitting aloft the mountain, thinking that they were secure, but they would be cast into the sea. Jesus was acting out a parable that signaled His coming would necessitate their imminent demise.
If you would like more information on Jesus cursing this fig tree, you can check out two additional articles I have written (here and here) which dive into this event much deeper. For now, let us look at a second fig tree that Jesus uses in Matthew 24.
THE OLIVET FIG TREE OF MATTHEW 24
Just a few chapters later, Jesus uses another fig tree to tell a tale of blessing. Unlike the fig tree, representing Jerusalem, which is destined for curse and devastation, Jesus uses a parabolic fig tree in Matthew 24 to describe the blessings He will bring to His people. This is what Jesus says:
“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. - Matthew 24:32-35
We must remember who Jesus is speaking to. These are the men Jesus warned not to follow after false Christs and counterfeit messiahs (Matthew 24:3). These are men who will see and experience wars during an era of unparalleled peace (Matthew 24:6) and increased famines and earthquakes as signs that Jerusalem’s fate was nearing (Matthew 24:7-8). These are the men who would be delivered over to the Jews, who would terrorize them, persecute them, and kill them for following Jesus (Matthew 24:9). These are the men who would lead churches during an era where many would abandon their faith because the fires of persecution were burning far too hot (Matthew 24:10). These are then men who would see Judah descend into lawlessness, disorder, factions, chaos, and tyranny (Matthew 24:12). These are the men who would fill the world full of the Gospel message before the end of the Jewish age would come (Matthew 24:14).
Some of them would see the abomination of desolation, which Luke describes as Jerusalem being surrounded by armies (Matthew 24:15; Luke 21:20). Some would be fleeing to the Judean mountains for safety because Jesus had already warned them when to flee (Matthew 24:16). Perhaps some remained in the city, and saw the multiple signs that Josephus records, the walls tumbling down, the poverty in the streets, the depravity in the hearts, the cannibalism of mothers, the tribalism of the fleeting Jewish leaders, and the idolatrous sacrifice of the Romans while the bodies were piled up high (Matthew 24:21-28).
These are the men who would understand Jesus’ sign in the heavens. They saw Him raised from the dead, ascended from earth on the clouds of heaven, to sit down at the right hand of God the Father to rule over His blood-bought Kingdom (Daniel 7; Matthew 24:29-30). These are the men who wrote of Christ who will put all His enemies under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25; Ephesians 1:22; Hebrews 2:8), beginning with Jerusalem and Judah (James 5:1-8).
To these men, Jesus promised a different outcome than what would be happening to the Jews. They had become a cursed fig tree. The Church would be blessed and they would be a blessing. The Jews had borne no fruit for their God. The Church would become like a fig tree in summer, ready at any moment to burst forth with the most luxuriant blooms to feed the nations. The Jews of that first century, all who rejected Christ, would be thrown into the fires. The Church, in that very generation, would see all these things happen and would lay the Kingdom foundation for all subsequent generations.
Today, we are a part of that fruitful church. The Lord is still pruning us, shaping us, and sharing our fruit with the nations. Over the last 2000 years, the Church has continued to grow and will continue to grow until all the world is feasting on the blessings of Christ. Jesus uses a tale of two fig trees to show us the point.
His coming would bring one kingdom to an end. And in Christ, God would bring His blessings to the earth, through Christ’s militant advancing church. Until next time, God bless you!
