The Downfall Of The Fruitless City
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HOW TO WALK UP TO A SIX-FINGERED DOCTRINE
When the revenge-seeking Spaniard from Princess Bride uttered his most famous lines: “I will go up to the six-fingered man and say, Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” there was more than an hour and twenty minutes of storyline underpinning that scene. From his motive for revenge atop the cliffs of insanity to his rants and flailing about with his father’s sword in the thieves' forest, much happens in Inigo’s life that makes his signature scene all the more important. Without that critical context, killing Rugen may appear like nothing more than a frivolous crime of passion.
The same is true when we consider the topic of eschatology. Before we can understand those prickly end-times concepts coming out of Matthew 24 (like the great tribulation, the rapture, and the end of the age) we must first go back and understand the context that is underpinning those statements. We must understand that Matthew is telling the story of the long-awaited Jewish King, who as Malachi foretold would come to set up His never-ending empire here on earth. Those who accept His rule would live forever in His Kingdom. Those who oppose Him, beginning with Jerusalem, would be put under His feet and crushed. If we do not understand that story, we will miss every eschatological point the book is making.
So with that, let us continue along in Matthew, as we seek to understand the end times.
FINAL WEEK: THE SAGA COMES TO JERUSALEM
Nearly a thousand years before the events in Matthew, the city awoke to the sounds of laughter, worship, and joy. The nations (as God intended) had been coming, streaming into Jerusalem, to see if what they had heard was true. They were coming to see the radiance and power of Israel’s God. They wanted to see the temple where He visibly reigned from, the city that was His footstool, and the wise vice-regent He appointed to sit upon her throne, King Solomon.
Now, a thousand years later, the line of Davidic kings had been completely snuffed out. The temple, which had already been destroyed once before, had become a whitewashed tomb of dead pharisaical religion. The prophet who was called to announce the inauguration of God’s Kingdom had been beheaded by the puppet king, Herod. And, as Malachi warned, the love of God was at an all-time low among the increasingly pagan Jews.
By the time we arrive at Matthew’s Gospel, the rot had sunk so deep into the soul of Judah, that the wound was incurable. Josephus, the Jewish historian, describes this era and its people, highlighting the inevitability of God’s judgment soon to come. He tells us:
“And here I cannot refrain from expressing what my feelings suggest. I am of the opinion, that had the Romans deferred the punishment of these wretches, either the earth would have opened and swallowed up the city, or it would have been swept away by a deluge, or have shared the thunderbolts of the land of Sodom. For it produced a race far more ungodly than those who were thus visited. For through the desperate madness of these men the whole nation was involved in their ruin.”
By the time of the New Testament, the city of Jerusalem was so odious to God, that she couldn’t even detect her own moral stench. With lying lips, and hearts far from God (Matthew 15:8-9), she not only persisted in her murderous rage (Matthew 14:1-12; 23:29-33), but she was increasingly opposed to God’s own Son. As a result, Jesus tells His disciples that the keys of God’s Kingdom would be removed from her (Matthew 16:13-20) and that some of them would be alive to see her downfall (Matthew 16:28).
When Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, during His triumphal entry in AD 30, it was surely for the salvation of His people. But, as Malachi predicted, He also came for the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem.
In the weeks ahead, we will narrow our focus to the final week of Jesus’ life and look at the events happening in Matthew chapters 21-24. In these chapters, we will see how Jerusalem will be punished for her crimes against God and we will gain a clearer understanding of eschatology than we have ever had before. Today, we will focus on Matthew 21 and the cursed city of Jerusalem.
DAY 1: A PROCESSION OF JOY AND JUDGMENT
Matthew 21 opens with Jesus, the true Davidic King, preparing to ride into the royal city on the back of a donkey. At that time, kings would only ride upon horses if they were going out to war. But, if they approached a city in peace, they would ride on a far less threatening mode of transportation, which was the mule or a donkey.
This is especially true during the Israelite changing of the guard ceremonies that became a tradition at the time of David. Per David’s command, Solomon (his son) would be anointed for the office with oil by the High Priest of Israel. He would then ride into the capital city on the back of a donkey, and as he rode a procession of important people would follow him singing and chanting “Long live the King”. By the time he and the procession arrived at the city of Jerusalem, where Solomon would sit upon his father’s throne, the entire city was in a joyful uproar (1 Kings 1:38-40).
Since John tells us that Jesus was anointed with oil just before His triumphal entry (John 12:1-8) and since Luke tells us that He rode into the city with a crowd of people singing “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord;” (Luke 19:37-38), and since Matthew tells us that the city was stirred up upon His arrival (Matthew 21:10) there can be no doubt Jesus was coming as King to set up His Kingdom. Whether the people understood the ramifications of His coming or not, matters very little. Jesus saw Himself as the true Solomon, the true son of David, who was coming to establish His Kingdom.
If there was any doubt about this interpretation, Matthew Himself clears it up for us, by quoting from Zechariah 9:9, which says:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
From this quotation alone we can see how Jesus is the long-awaited messianic King. He is the one who came to Jerusalem that day, in order to provide salvation for His people and to bring them into His Kingdom of peace. But, what we must not miss, is how the context of Zechariah 9 also says much about this King coming in judgment.
For instance, in that same passage the prophet speaks of a rebellious nation that will be dispossessed from her land, her wealth cast into the sea, and her city will be consumed with fire (Zechariah 9:4). The Lord then promises to bring an army to encamp around His house (the Jerusalem temple), presumably in judgment (Zechariah 9:8). And, after the remnant of His people are saved (Zechariah 9:9) this humble King will remove the weapons and might of defeated Jerusalem and will create a global Kingdom of peace that will eventually blanket the entire world (Zechariah 9:10).
When we consider how Matthew identifies Zechariah 9:9 as being fulfilled in Christ, should we be surprised when the rest of the chapter is fulfilled as well? Jerusalem was dispossessed by the Romans; her wealth was cast into the sea on ships heading back to Rome, and her city was burned into a smoldering ash heap. Her temple was surrounded by armies in judgment for her rebellion. A remnant of people (The Christians) were spared before these events happened in AD 70. God did remove Jerusalem from her favored place of religious power. And, Jesus did begin a brand new Kingdom, with Him as its King, that will continue along until the whole earth is under His dominion.
Everything in Zechariah 9, not just the triumphal entry, was accomplished in Christ. That includes joy for the people of God and judgment against Jerusalem.
THAT EVENING: THE GOD WHO VISITS HIS TEMPLE
After Jesus’ Kingly ride into the city, He doesn’t go to the palace as the anointed King. His throne would await Him in heaven after His ascension. Instead, Jesus goes to the Jerusalem temple to pronounce judgment upon its leaders and upon that barren empty building.
In true Malachi-like fashion, Jesus came to the temple with tremendous fury and covenantal zeal, overturning its tables, chasing out the wicked vendors, and pronouncing judgment upon the house that bore no fruit for God (Matthew 21:12-13). This was how Jesus ended his first full day in the city on the last week of His life. The judgment tones would certainly grow more striking when He returned on the second day.
DAY 2: A MORNING OF MOUNTAIN MOVING
If you have been a Christian for any length of time at all you have probably heard the phrase, or been encouraged to have, “a faith that can move mountains.” This comes from Matthew 21:21, but unfortunately, this is not what that passage is talking about. Not even remotely.
Matthew is not haphazardly breaking away from his narrative of Christ riding into the city of Jerusalem for judgment, and then going to the Jerusalem temple for judgment so that He can give you a pep talk on how to have a better life, better health, or better car. That would be absurd.
When we say things like: “If I just have enough faith I can move that mountain in my life” or “if you believe it then you can see it” we expose how little we understand about the narrative and how shallow we are when it comes to understanding the text. This text is not about you! It is about the judgment Jesus is bringing to Jerusalem.
Remember the context. Jesus comes to a fruitless city that only offered Him leaves (Matthew 21:8). That point should shock us. The next day, He curses a leaves-only tree that did not bear any fruit (Matthew 21:18-19) The metaphor could not be more striking.
Jerusalem was supposed to be God’s city where He dwelled in a magnificent temple that was decorated like the garden of Eden. Jerusalem was supposed to be a paradise city where people could come and meet the one true God and be nourished by its temple. Like the tree of life in the middle of the garden, Jerusalem had this glorious temple in the middle of the city where pilgrims were supposed to come and experience life, healing, and blessing. But, by the time Jesus came to the city it had become stale, withered, and fruitless.
Jerusalem was no longer the garden city but a religious wasteland. No longer a place where pilgrims could be nourished and healed, but a place set apart for cursing (Mt. 21:14-16). This is the context Matthew is giving us for the cursing of the fig tree and the context we must remember when we think about “faith that can move mountains”.
According to Matthew 21, the kind of faith that can move mountains does not belong to us, but Christ alone. We must remember that Jesus was traveling to the fruitless city when He encountered the fruitless tree. By cursing the tree, Jesus is pronouncing doom upon the city as well.
Look at how Jesus answers His befuddled disciples.
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. (emphasis mine)
From the context, we know that Jesus is not sneaking in a couple of verses for Bill Johnson, Kenneth Copeland, and the Benny Hinn’s of this world to abuse. Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem, the city that sits on top of a mountain. So when He says “This mountain” it would be clear to His disciples what He was talking about.
He was not referring to any old problem in your life that metaphorically looms over you like Everest in Nepal. He is using the near demonstrative pronoun “this” to point to a specific mountain all of them could see just up the road from where they were standing. It was that cursed mountain with Jerusalem on top of it that Jesus intended to cast into the sea (Just as Zechariah 9:4 predicted). History tells us that this is exactly what Jesus did.
As we have said before, the Romans not only destroyed the mountain city of Jerusalem in AD 70, but they also killed about a million Jews, took nearly 100,000 of them into slavery, and plundered the city of all its treasures. After taking everything in the city, they packed up all the slaves and treasures they collected, put them on ships bound back to Rome, and cast off into the sea in victory.
Jesus and Zechariah prophesied that THIS mountain would be cast into the sea. In AD 70 it was so.
DAY 2: AN NOONTIME SHOWDOWN
After parabolically cursing the city of Jerusalem and promising that the mountain city would be cast into the sea, Jesus enters the city again and goes back to the temple mount for a confrontation with its cursed religious leaders. Instead of repenting for their sins, in their moral stupidity and blindness they accost Him and challenge His authority to do the kinds of things He is doing (Matthew 21:23). Jesus simply responds with a question, exposing their ignorance of John the Baptist, and the Malachi-like judgment his ministry paved the way for (Matthew 21:23-27).
DAY TWO: AFTERNOON STORYTELLING
Jesus’ second day in Jerusalem, as reported in Matthew 21, comes to a close with Jesus pronouncing a litany of judgment-oriented parables against the leaders of the city. He first compares them to a child who spoke as if they would obey the Father but ended up rebelling. To this group, Jesus reminded them that the prophecy of Malachi and the ministry of John would not be for their salvation, but their judgment. Look at what He says to them in verses 31 and 32:
“Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.
The second and final parable of Matthew 21 ratchets up the intensity of judgment and makes it especially clear that Jesus is talking about the downfall of Jerusalem and its leadership. To do this, Jesus uses a popular Old Testament parable from the book of Isaiah that everyone in His audience would have been familiar with. In that parable, God compares the city of Jerusalem to a choice vineyard that He planted for Himself. The irony, however, is that the vineyard ended up producing worthless fruit and needed to be removed by its owner (Isaiah 5:1-7). By retelling this specific parable, Jesus is again reminding the city that they have not produced the kind of fruit that God intended and likewise needed to be removed.
But, Jesus does not stop there. He crafts the story in such a way that places the lion's share of the blame on the Jewish leadership. He describes them as vine-growers who were supposed to tend the vineyard, keeping it from falling into disrepute. But instead of protecting the owner’s assets, they killed his slaves, killed his servants, and even killed his only son when the owner sent him to deal with the situation.
By telling the story this way, Jesus reminds them that they are the cursed leaders who killed the prophets, they are the ones who killed God’s messengers, and that they would be the ones who killed God’s one and only Son. As a punishment for such an outrageous crime, God, like the vineyard owner, would reign judgment down on these wicked fellows, and give His assets to a different people (i.e. the church).
This is how Jesus describes it in verses 43-45.
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them.
CONCLUSION
Matthew 21 is all about the fruitless city that will soon be brought under judgment. In Jesus’ final week, He enters the fruitless city and they offer Him only leaves. He also goes to the fruitless temple, that lies rotting in rebellion. On the second day, He curses a fruitless tree as a demonstration of what will soon happen to Jerusalem. Then, as Jesus ends His day in the city, He tells the story of a fruitless vineyard that will be torn down, replanted, and given to a people who will care for it. The whole chapter is talking about the coming judgment that will soon befall this rotten wicked city.
Join us next week as we dive into Matthew 22 and see how this chapter will also continue God’s theme of judgment against Jerusalem. In just a couple of weeks, we will be ready to dive into some of the most difficult topics of eschatology and understand them more clearly than we ever dared dream, all because we have labored to build a proper foundation.
I hope you have a blessed week and until next time, may God richly bless you as you study His Word.
