But early in the morning, as he came back into the city, he hungered.
Jesus walks the short road from Bethany back to Jerusalem, the morning after the city rejected Him. Commentators read His hunger both as plain fact about His body and as a window into what He was looking for from Israel.
He spent each night of that last week outside Jerusalem. Rest was not the only reason.
Every miracle the Son of God performed on earth was an act of goodness and mercy. The one exception was the cursing of the fig tree. This happened during His last week of sorrow. That week He carried on His ministry in Jerusalem, but each evening He went out of the city to stay in Bethany. He preferred the simple reality of Lazarus and his sisters to the dead religious formalism that filled Jerusalem.
The direction of the walk matters. His errand in the city had changed.
Bethany was His retreat at this time. He was rejected, and so a stranger here. He finds His place in the family of faith that loved Him while the world was full of enmity. And He does come back again, from the village to the city, from Bethany to Jerusalem. But it is not, as it had been until now, to renew and continue His service of love and power. It is to expose and convict Israel, and to leave them under condemnation.
Nothing here is symbolic first. A man walked a short road on an empty stomach.
The Lord had been rejected at Jerusalem the day before, and had looked for lodging in Bethany. The next morning He set out to pay another visit to the doomed city. The journey was short, yet He grew hungry on the way — a touching sign that He had taken no food, no morning meal. A fig would have refreshed Him, but there was none. Think of this, and who and what He was!
One writer stops at the older wording of this verse, "He hungered."
Early in the morning the blessed One is up to return to the city. What a story the two words tell us — "He hungered." The King was hungry. He who was rich had indeed become poor.
His bodily need opens onto something larger. He looked for food from what He Himself had made and planted.
The Lord returned to Bethany. The next morning, going out from Bethany, He was hungry, for the Lord was indeed subject to all our weaknesses — He took them. Yet all of this was ordered. So the Lord looks for food in what He has created and planted. He did not create it to give Himself no delight, nor plant it to find no food or fruit. In His own delight and love He looked for fruit in the place and vineyard of His own planting, so that He might take pleasure in it.
The tree He passed on that road tells the same story from Israel's side.
Again He returns to the city in the morning, and He is hungry — just as He hungers for some response to His love from Israel. A fig tree was in the way, but He found nothing but leaves on it. The fruit appears before the leaves on the fig, but in this case there was no fruit at all — an abnormal condition. What a picture of Israel's state! They had borne no fruit for God, despite all their many leaves of professed godliness.
The tree by the road was finished, but writers who read it as a picture of Israel still look ahead.
He hungered. There were no figs on the barren fig tree, no response from Israel for the heart of Christ. He hungered. His hunger shall be satisfied. The actual fig tree the Lord cursed may bear no fruit forever. Yet the fig tree of Israel shall bear fruit, even if God has to prune it for two thousand years.
- Hungry — He walked a short road with no morning meal. The hunger was real: He shared our weaknesses.
- King — the King Himself had nothing to eat. He who was rich had become poor.
- Seeking — the Creator looked for food from what He Himself had planted; He did not plant it to find nothing.
- Empty — the tree carried leaves but no fruit. It pictured a people full of professed godliness and barren toward God.
- Satisfied — that tree bore nothing again. Yet Christ's hunger for His people will be met at last.
And seeing one fig-tree in the way, he came to it and found on it nothing but leaves only. And he says to it, Let there be never more fruit of thee for ever. And the fig-tree was immediately dried up.
Near Jerusalem, days before the cross, Jesus comes to a fig tree in full leaf and finds no fruit on it. His word withers it on the spot — so why a tree, and why this tree?
Cursing a tree for having no fruit sounds unfair — until you know how a fig tree grows.
The fruit comes before the leaves. So the fig tree the Lord cursed had leaves on it, and it should have had fruit too, even though the usual fig season had not arrived. This pictured Israel, whom Hosea 9:10 compares to a fig tree bringing forth its first-ripe figs. But in the days of the Lord, Israel had plenty of leaves. The nation claimed to be God's favoured people, yet produced no real fruit for Him.
The tree was not just unripe. It was making a promise it could not keep.
The tree was chosen for what it stood for.
The fig tree was the symbol of the Jews as a nation. The vine pictured them as a religious system. Now the Lord had come seeking fruit, and at that very moment He was really passing sentence on the nation. Each part of it comes up in turn — Herodians, Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers, scribes, priests. They seem to be questioning Him, but they are really receiving their judgment from His mouth.
The withered tree and the disputes that follow are one act. In both, the Lord passes sentence.
Why did He come looking for fruit at all?
May we not say that the Lord's hunger was not only physical? It was also a spiritual hunger. It sought some return from Israel for all the centuries of goodness God had given the nation — something that would be fruit to satisfy the heart of God. In the tree, the Lord found plenty of leaves but no fruit. In the nation, He found a great show of piety before men, but nothing in the secret life that would be fruit for God.
What He says to the tree, He is saying to the nation.
The sentence on the fig tree was a symbolic curse upon the people — Israel was the fig tree. The Lord found nothing but leaves, and the word is that from now on no fruit shall grow on it for ever. The nation had failed to bear fruit for God, though they had every means and opportunity for glorifying and serving Him. Now God takes away all their advantages and gives up the old stock — a dead tree.
Set this act beside the rest of His miracles.
Our Lord's cursing of the barren fig tree shows how Israel failed to respond to all God's goodness. This was the only miracle our Lord performed that did good to no one. It tells us that grace and blessing are what God delights in. Yet judgment must still find its place, for God is righteous and must uphold His name.
The sentence falls on the tree as it then stood — on the nation in its own strength. It is not God abandoning His purpose for that people.
There were no figs on the barren fig tree, no response from Israel for the heart of Christ. He hungered. His hunger shall be satisfied. The actual fig tree the Lord cursed may bear no fruit for ever. Yet the fig tree of Israel shall bear fruit, even if God has to prune it for two thousand years.
The tree itself is finished. Darby points past it. Israel was never going to bear fruit under the old covenant. The fruit comes when God brings them back through grace, under the new covenant and the Messiah — then Israel "will blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit."
The Lord cursed the tree for a fault anyone can share: a show without the substance behind it.
He cursed it and it quickly withered up. This was no doubt a warning to the nation that had been so highly favoured and yet was about to crucify the very Son of God... It is easy for us to go along with Christian people. We can use the right language, sing the hymns and quote texts, and still not be sincere. We are told to beware of hypocrisy.
- Hunger — Christ came to the tree hungry. He came to His people looking for some return for centuries of God's goodness.
- Leaves — On a fig tree, fruit comes before leaves; foliage advertises a crop. Israel had the profession of being God's people without the fruit.
- Sentence — Finding none, He gave the tree up to its own barrenness. It is His only miracle that blesses no one, because righteousness must also act.
- Withering — With every advantage in its hands, the nation in its own strength ends as a dead tree.
- Fruit at last — The curse ends that tree, not God's purpose. Writers look on to a day when Israel blossoms under grace and Christ's hunger finds its answer. Until then, the warning stands — beware of leaves without fruit.
And when the disciples saw [it], they wondered, saying, How immediately is the fig-tree dried up!
On His way into Jerusalem the Lord looked for fruit on a fig tree, found only leaves, and spoke against it. The disciples are amazed at how fast it died — and His answer points them past the tree to a mountain.
The Lord came to this tree expecting fruit. He found leaves only.
If it had been fig season, the fruit might have already been picked. But it was not the season, so fruit should have been there — unless the tree was barren. So the tree was a picture of the Jew: fruitless toward God, however much life it seemed to show before men. It had leaves, but no fruit.
So what did the Lord's word do to the tree?
The Lord therefore condemned the tree to its own barrenness for ever. He did not make it barren; it was that already. But His sentence brought death — "the fig tree withered at once." It was Israel after the flesh.
The Lord's miracles showed God's goodness. This one looks like the exception.
It is important to notice that here the Lord's miracles are not only a sign and proof of power. They also show the goodness that was acting in divine power... There is only one apparent exception, and it proves the truth we are noting after all. This exception is the cursing of the fig tree. But the tree was a figure of the people Israel — and one may say of human nature — under God's cultivation, which did not produce fruit. There were only leaves, that is, hypocrisy.
What the disciples noticed was how fast it happened. That very speed made the event unmistakable.
Returning next morning He uttered His sentence against the fig tree that bore nothing but leaves. All outward show but no fruit; and on that tree no fruit was to grow for ever. It was utterly condemned. Immediately it withered away! The event was so obviously miraculous that it forced the attention and the comment of the disciples.
Their wonder also had a history behind it. The same voice had spoken before, and creation had answered.
But should this have surprised the apostle? Was there not power in the words of Jesus for even greater marvels still? For the voice that cursed the fruitless fig tree was the same voice that long ago said, "Let there be light," and there was light (Genesis 1:3).
The withering was also a preview of what would happen to a nation.
The disciples marvel at how quickly the fig tree withered away. In the same way, it is amazing how quickly Israel came to nothing after the crucifixion of Christ. She was scattered from her land and lost all national status. Her hope all but dried up.
The Lord does not leave them staring at the tree. He points to something far larger.
The Lord's reply turned their thoughts from the fig tree to "this mountain."... Jerusalem and its temple sat on top of "this mountain," which pictured, we believe, the whole Jewish system. If they had faith, they might expect what God was about to do. He would remove the mountain and sink it in the sea of the nations. The letter to the Hebrews shows how the Jewish system was set aside, and "this mountain" was finally cast into the sea when Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70.
The disciples were a small group with no standing.
On the surface, all the power and authority of the established order lay with those who opposed the Lord and His teaching. How then were a few poor fishermen to stand against the wisdom and power of men in high places? The Lord's answer is, "Have faith in God."... But though the mountain would be removed, God would remain — the unfailing resource for faith.
The promise attached to the moment is deliberately wide, and writers warn against trimming it — while insisting on what faith actually is.
To faith nothing shall be denied; but it is not a limitation to insist that faith must be faith.
Then whose choice does faith follow?
It is certainly not that faith decides what it wants to do. Faith depends on the will of God... For faith makes no independent decisions: it trusts simply in the word and will of God — and His will in this matter could be found in His word.
- Leaves — The tree showed leaves and no fruit. It pictured a people who looked alive before men but bore nothing for God.
- Sentence — The Lord did not make the tree barren; it already was. His word sealed that barrenness with death.
- Exception — The Lord's other miracles showed God's goodness. This one was a curse, and that is why it needs explaining.
- Speed — The tree died at once. Israel was scattered just as fast after the cross.
- Mountain — The Lord turned their wonder into faith. The power that withered a tree would sink a whole system in the sea, and such faith rests on God's word and will.
And Jesus answering said to them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and do not doubt, not only shall ye do what [is done] to the fig-tree, but even if ye should say to this mountain, Be thou taken away and be thou cast into the sea, it shall come to pass.
The disciples had just seen a fig tree wither at a word, and their amazement is what the Lord answers here. His reply moves from a dried-up tree to a mountain thrown into the sea. Two questions follow: what is "this mountain," and how far does a promise like this reach?
Commentators read the withered tree as a picture of the nation that had every advantage and produced nothing.
The sentence on the fig tree was a symbolic curse upon the people — Israel was the fig tree. The Lord found nothing but leaves, and the word is that from now on no fruit shall grow on it forever. The nation had failed to bear fruit for God. They had every means and opportunity for glorifying and serving Him. Now all their advantages are gone, and the old stock is given up — a dead tree.
The Lord says "this mountain," not "a mountain." Several writers read it as a symbol of the nation's standing, not a heap of rock.
The disciples wondered. But the Lord says to them further, "If you say to this mountain (a symbol of Israel's exalted place among the nations), Be cast into the sea," and so on. This has been done. There is no fruit borne for God. More than that, Israel as a nation has been cast into the sea — lost in the mass of peoples, trodden down and oppressed under the feet of the Gentiles.
Commentators differ on how far to tie the image to Israel. Another writer weighs any such obstacle against God Himself, and against the servant who leans on Him.
The mountain, we understand, stands for all the obstacles that lay in the way of finishing the work... But all these are nothing to God, whatever the activity, power, or influence of the adversaries. They are just as nothing to the man of faith who rests on the power of the Spirit alone and walks in the path of God's will... This gives rich encouragement in the Lord's service. His servants can treat the most impossible difficulties as occasions only for the display of almighty and victorious power, through the working of the Holy Spirit.
Why teach this at this moment? Because one order was ending and another beginning.
He then teaches His disciples an important truth. The Jewish system was about to be replaced by a new way of dealing among them as His disciples. The characteristic energy or strength of that new way was to be faith. To faith, and not to the temple, God would commit the exercise of His power on earth.
The promise is not a blank cheque for ambition. One writer points out that the disciples could speak this way only because God had already settled the matter.
It is certainly not that faith decides what it wants to do. Faith depends on the will of God. God had decided that the fig tree, Israel, would wither, so faith could act on God's will in the matter. Faith that depends on God could see this, and so could speak prophetically about it. Faith makes no independent decisions: it trusts simply in the word and will of God. And His will in this case could be found in His word, the Old Testament.
"If you have faith and do not doubt" sets no minimum size. One writer explains what happens when even a trace of faith is real.
Faith works what is impossible to man, to nature; and this, too, wherever there is a grain of reality, however small. For whether faith be little or strong, if real, it brings in God; and God is the same God in answer to little faith as to great. The difference may be great in what we feel and enjoy. But God in His grace answers the feeblest exercise of faith in Him.
Writers differ on the scope. Some hold that the Lord gave the promise first to the apostles, and that its principle reaches further:
Some of the promises in the Gospels applied first of all to the apostles. Yet the principle in them may reach even the humblest disciple.
Others refuse any narrowing, while insisting the condition is real:
The promise here has, of course, very varied application. It would be wrong to limit it in any way, except as the Lord Himself does. And He makes His last assurance as full as possible. To faith nothing shall be denied; but it is no limitation to insist that faith must be faith.
- Leaves. The tree had every appearance and no fruit. The sentence on it fell on a nation that had every advantage and gave God nothing.
- Mountain. "This mountain" is what looks immovable: Israel's high place among the nations, or every obstacle blocking God's work.
- Sea. History has already seen it: the nation sank into the sea of the peoples and disappeared among them.
- Faith. The old system was ending. Power on earth now belonged to faith, not to the temple. And faith does not invent its own requests; it rests on God's word and will.
- Grain. Size is not the test. If faith is real, however small, it brings God in — and to that faith nothing is denied.
And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
These words about receiving whatever you ask came right after Jesus cursed a fig tree that had leaves but no fruit. The tree withered, and the promise He then gave is so wide that it raises an obvious question: does my asking change anything?
The miracle was not an end in itself. Commentators say the Lord's reply points the disciples away from the dead tree. It points them to the power open to them, and it guards the promise from misuse.
The disciples are amazed when they see the fig tree withered. But the Lord uses the miracle to assure them of a power ready to work for them in answer to faith... The promise here is open to many different uses. It would be wrong to limit it in any way, except as the Lord Himself does. And He makes His final assurance as full as it can be. Nothing shall be denied to faith; but it is no limitation to insist that faith must be faith.
Just before this, Jesus spoke of moving a mountain. That mountain is more than a figure of speech. Writers connect it to the same nation the fig tree pictured, and see the promise fulfilled in history.
This, like the parallel passage in Mark 11, stands in relation to the incident of the barren fig tree. The fig tree stood for Israel, where the Lord came looking for fruit and found none. He declared that it would never bear fruit again... The fig tree pictured Israel as a nation meant to bear fruit. The "mountain" here pictures Israel as a nation with power to rule. In answer to the faith of the apostles, that mountain was thrown into the sea of the nations, and Israel lost its place among them.
Some have concluded that a promise given to apostles is not for ordinary believers. Commentators reject that reading. They apply the words to every believer.
Let us not limit these words, nor say, as some have said, that they are not for us. They are for the children of God, and there is no limit to them. All things, whatever they are: there is no limit here. Then come the three steps — asking in prayer, believing, and receiving.
The scale of it is what makes the verse hard to believe rather than hard to understand.
If we turn to Matthew 21:22, we shall find another of the essential conditions of effective prayer... This is a truly marvellous statement. It opens the very treasury of Heaven to faith. There is absolutely no limit. Our blessed Lord assures us that we shall receive whatever we ask in simple faith.
Everything turns on one word: "believing." So the verse is not a method for testing God.
Genuine, divinely given faith, not mystical or imagined faith, is what is meant here. Probably many have experimented on this promise, only to be disappointed... But God does not give His promises, or the power of His Spirit, for curious experiments or for private ends.
If faith is the condition, the honest question is how anyone gets it. One writer answers that God gives the faith as well as the answer.
Still the promise in all its fulness is there, for faith to act on. It is a large one, and its only limit is the reality of the faith that uses it. If God gives faith, He will just as certainly give what that faith reaches for.
That is why confidence in prayer grows out of knowing what God has already said.
Faith can only spring from confidence in God about the thing we are asking for. And that confidence only comes when we are sure that what we ask is according to God's will... This passage matters because it shows where faith stands: on knowing God's will. And God opens up that will to us in the Scriptures.
Because faith rests on God's will, some limit the verse to spiritual requests. Not all agree.
I believe this is true of every spiritual blessing we need. And it is not limited to the spiritual. "Whatever you ask in prayer" sets no limit, and I refuse to add one where Scripture does not... The Lord often uses our everyday needs to teach us. We pray about them and trust Him, and that encourages us to pray and trust Him for the deeper spiritual needs.
- Occasion. A dead fig tree and a mountain set the scene. The Lord turned Israel's fruitlessness into a lesson on what faith may ask.
- Promise. The words open heaven's treasury with no stated ceiling — "all things, whatever."
- Condition. Everything hinges on believing. It must be real faith, not a test staged to see whether God will perform.
- Source. Faith itself is God's gift; where He gives the faith, He gives the thing the faith reaches for.
- Anchor. Such faith grows from knowing God's will in Scripture. Commentators differ on whether the promise covers everyday needs too.