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Mark 11:12-26 / Matthew 21:18-22

18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” 21So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, 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 also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

A miracle is defined as an event that transcends and interrupts natural processes and serves as sign and explanation of the divinity of Christ or as a stamp and imprimatur confirming the Prophetic / Apostolic witness whose ministry is to point to Christ. By this definition miracles have ceased with the close of the New Testament canon.

Of course what is going on in this pericope is not merely a matter of Jesus being irrationally put off with a non-producing fig tree. This much teaches us that the Scripture are not always to be taken literally. There is a good deal going on here that goes beyond Jesus being angry that his hunger was not satisfied by figs.

In order to understand what is transpiring here one needs to remember a larger context.

Luke’s Gospel, in an account that was approximately a year prior to this miracle we find Jesus giving a parable,

Luke 13:6 He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it [b]use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 [c]And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

At this point we have to identify who it is that the proverbial fig tree represents. Scripture itself gives us the answer.

In Hosea 9:10, Nahum, 3:12, and Zechariah 3:10 we find fig trees and / or figs serving as a symbol for National Israel. This combined with the Luke passage as well as the immediate context (which we will turn to next) convinces us that as Jesus curses this fig tree what is in point of fact happening is that Jesus is cursing National Israel, from whom, up until this point, there was a reasonable expectation, give God’s care and patience, to find fruit – repentance and deeds consistent with God’s law and so in keeping with repentance.

It seems an immediate fruit that was expected was the honoring of God’s name which the Jews were dishonoring as seen in the immediate context with the Temple cleansing episode. A nation producing fruit in keeping with repentance would never have turned the worship of God into a “fleece the dumb sheep” opportunity.

Mark 11:15 So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16 And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. 17 Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

National Israel, who was supposed to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, instead is turning the name of the thrice Holy God into a commodity, and so God is made to be a a being that people sniff at and mock. Israel is a fig tree who is all leaves and no fruit. Israel is all pretense and no reality. Israel is not what it was set aside to be and so now, like the fig tree, Israel has an anathema pronounced over it that is (and this is significant) eternal. The Lord Christ says to National Israel, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Jesus issues a maledictory oath and if we are to take it seriously, this means that National Israel, in 2020 (and beyond), can in no way produce fruit. National Israel, like the fig tree is a withered reprobate dead tree – and that forever.

Before we tease this out let us go on a brief bunny trail to explain a seeming inconsistency. Matthew’s account tells us that Jesus was hungry and strongly implies that Jesus decided to satisfy His hunger by snacking on a fig tree. However Mark’s account of the cursing tells us plainly that it was not the season for figs. So, if Jesus knew it was not the season for figs then why did he expect to find figs and why, upon not finding figs in a season when there were supposed to be figs, did he curse the fig tree? Upon investigation of the habits of fig trees in Palestine we find that fig trees will bud prior to leafing and that the this budding represents small figs that can be consumed before the fig tree leafs and then later produce full grown figs. The small figs guarantee the later appearance of future normal figs. Apparently, the tree that Jesus cursed was transitioning between budding and leaving and on that tree were no tiny figs that were promissory of later normal figs. In other language we might say that the fig tree with its sterile leaves was all hat and no cattle.

So, summarizing, Jesus, on the day following His triumphant entry (Palm Sunday) turns aside to satisfy His hunger by consuming some early figs. Finding only leaves, Jesus pronounces malediction upon the fig tree that it might never produce fruit again. By examining the context, both remote (Hosea 9:10, Nahum, 3:12, Zechariah 3:10 Luke 13) and immediate (Matthew 21 – Cleansing of the Temple), we understand that the Fig tree represents National Israel and the lack of fruit represents that, despite the intense agricultural care for said tree, it is good for only show but not for sustenance. Mark 7:6 gives us a Scriptural summary,

6 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.

Implications

A.) This maledictory oath against Israel fits well with the Partial Preterist understanding that when Jesus returns in AD 70 He finalizes divorce proceedings against National Israel which was essentially promised in the passage under consideration. If Israel will never produce fruit again then it is salt that is only good to be trodden upon. Matthew 21 represents divorce papers filed while AD 70 represents divorce papers served. God is done with National Israel as His people. National Israel are no longer the people of God.

B.) If this is accurate then those who keep insisting that National Israel remains the people of God are practicing what we might call a “Replacement theology.” God in Christ has declared that National Israel is to be eternally fruitless, confirmed that declaration by pulling down its Temple and scattering the survivors to the wind in AD 70, and then referred to phony Israel as a “Synagogue of Satan,” and yet Evangelicals dare contend in the face of all of this that National Israel remains “the people of God?”

Codicil – All because God is done with National Israel as a redemptive agent doesn’t mean that individual sons and daughters of Israel will not know the joy of salvation that is provided in Christ alone. However, said sons of Israel will have to be grafted into Christ as belonging to other covenanted nations.

C.) If this interpretation is correct then this by necessity dismisses Anglo-Israelism as an interpretive option. It is difficult to see how we can fit both the eternal character of the maledictory oath of Jesus against National Israel while at the same time insisting that God still has promises to fulfill to scattered Caucasian Israel.

D.) When the maledictory oath of Jesus is read in tandem with the later self-maledictory oath of Israel in Matthew 27,

24When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but that instead a riot was breaking out, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “You bear the responsibility.”25All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

one can only conclude that National Israel owns the curse as pronounced by Jesus just a few days earlier. The blood of Jesus does remain upon National Israel and its seed. The fig tree remains cursed.

Remember, this is a people who boldly screamed, “We have no other King but Caesar.”

II.) Application

A.) Since it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God and since judgment always begins with the household of God we, as the Church, as well as those who belong to covenanted nations should be mindful to make our lives characteristically one of ongoing repentance.

B.) This passage reminds us that there are often people who are part of the covenanted people who do not have the essence of the covenant. Not all who profess Christ, posses Christ.

C.) As we are a people who are described as “zealous for good works,” our ongoing repentance still must be characterized as having fruit that is in keeping with that repentance.

D.) We can rejoice that indeed God is producing in us, by the Holy Spirit, fruit in keeping with repentance. We need not to panic over this issue. We must remember how patient God is. What we have looked at here took centuries to arrive at. God was patient with Israel over and over again and He will be patient with us. We must not forget that God is long-suffering towards His people and will not always chide them. We must remember that if we have a heart to repent then God will receive us. When God is done with a people the desire to repent is removed and their hearts are hardened so that the very reality of their unwillingness to repent is a sign that God has cast them off. |

Still, lamp-stands can be removed for a generation or longer in light of fruitlessness.

E.) The Church in the West – as well as many covenanted nations in the West – have been given so many blessings by God in Christ. We need to recall that to whom much is given, much is required. Let us fervently pray that we would once again be a repentant and so fruitful people.

Qualification – Romans 11

Following Vos, we must allow that it is possible that Jesus, when He offered a maledictory oath against Israel that the “you” that was being applied (may YOU never produce fruit again) is referring only to the “you” of that generation of Israel. This understanding would see this generation of National Israel as a branch that was dead which could yet be made alive again in future generations by being grafted back into the olive tree. However, I would say that the self-maledictory oath taken by Israel does somewhat mitigate against this interpretation.

“The days of the policy of ‘the white man’s burden’ are over. Vast masses of people simply are not going to tolerate it and for the life of me I can’t see why they should. We have left little in our trail except misery and poverty for the people whom we have exploited.”

Harry Hopkins — 1941

For those who don’t know, Harry Hopkins was to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), what Col. Edwin House was to President Woodrow Wilson — to wit; a chief adviser and some would say a co-President with FDR. Hopkins was so central to the Roosevelt presidency that he actually lived in the White House with his wife from May 1940 to December 1943. Further, the historical evidence points to the fact that Hopkins, at the very least, was a fellow traveler if not a outright Soviet Union partisan and agent.

This quote is fascinating because it is suggestive that one of the central purposes of WW II, was to strip the White Christian of his authority among the Nations. The wisdom of this policy offered by Hopkins can be measured by the results 70 years later. 70 years later demonstrates that the formerly exploited are in far worse condition now then they were during the age of colonialism.

The whole idea that the Christian white man exploited the third world is a narrative that has been created and sustained by the enemy of the Christian white man. That is not to say that there was never injustice done to inhabitants of the colonized world. It is to say when the risk vs. benefit of colonialism is considered the benefit to third worlders was far greater than the risks they took in having the white man taking up their burdens.

The idea that the Christian white man has left little in his trail save misery and poverty was nonsense when Hopkins said this and it is now pure dumbassery when read almost 80 years later. Yet, we still hear people today make this same type of complaint about the evil of the white man.

I’ll start off by saying Western people in general, and white Americans in particular, have little or no concept of corporate evil or they are actively set against the idea. I think it’s very important for me as a white man to say “Look, that’s wrong.”

Tim Keller
Supporting the “White man is evil narrative”

 “White nationalism is a manifestation of an ancient evil that we as Christians, of all people, ought to recognize immediately. White nationalism emerges from what the Bible calls “the way of the flesh.” This is a form of idolatry that exalts one’s own creaturely attributes, making a god out of, for instance, one’s ancestral origins or one’s tribal culture.”  

Russell Moore
Supporting the idea of the White Nationalism is evil

What was controversial when Harry Hopkins spoke it in 1941 has become de rigueur in the pulpits of “conservative” American pulpits across the country. The premise behind all these words is that the white man has “left little in his trail except misery and poverty for the people whom we have exploited.”

Because this narrative has been established the Christian white man has been loaded with false guilt that cannot be atoned for, even if it were true, by the finished work of Jesus Christ, but can only be atoned for by bowing and scraping to leftist minorities (no Biblical minority would ever believe any of this or expect his white Christian brothers to bow and scrape before him), by impoverishing ourselves for the sake of reparations, and by coming underneath the whip hand of the stranger and the alien in our own homeland.

And if these people are successful then what will happen here is what has happened in South Africa. Illiana Mercer has warned us in her book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot,” but still the Christian white man continues to believe this false narrative that the white man is exploitative leaving nothing but a trail of poverty and misery.

The Christian white man is the best thing that has ever happened to the non-Caucasian world, and that not due to the fact that he does not have a sin nature. The Christian white man has been the best thing that has ever happened to the non-Caucasian world only because of the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Romans 5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ


II.) What is the basis of this Peace promised?

So, here is this promise of Peace among the Nations and we must pause to ask ourselves, “On what basis is this peace achieved.”

And the answer to that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ holds that God is at warfare with man because of man’s rebellion against God. Because of man’s defiance of God, there is and can be no peace between God and man. God is implacably opposed to rebel man.

For those outside of Christ, God hates. That hatred is reciprocal as those outside of Christ are at war with God.

Peace can only be sued for on God’s terms and God’s terms are the demand that those who want to be free of God’s hostility towards them and have forgiveness for their rebelliousness against God is the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Christ came to be the peace child between God and man. By His work on the Cross Christ quenched the anger of God and so, as a substitute, became the appeasement of God as sent by God for those who would sue for peace.

God could not offer peace to rebellious man except on His terms. And His law terms required that His violated law be satisfied and so Christ came in His first advent to be God’s sacrifice for the sins of His people.

And so God Himself makes the peace. We do not have peace because of our repentance though certainly, repentance is a necessary consequence of our having peace with God. We do not gain peace by our obedience to God’s law though obedience is a necessary consequence of having peace with God. The only sufficient and necessary means to having Peace with God … the only way we can be delivered from God’s active warfare against us … the only way that a nation will ever beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks is by placing themselves under the protection of the Lord Christ who gave Himself up as the substitute for warmongering rebels like us.

And even the placing of ourselves under the protection of the Lord Christ is subsequent to be placed under His protection by His irresistible sovereign grace.

Then having Peace with God we can wage peace for God with our fellow man.

1.) Biblical Theology: Old and New Testament — Gerhardus Vos

This will give you an insight on how to read the Scriptures in a way that you won’t typically find coming from the pulpit. Vos gives us Biblical theology as opposed to Systematic theology. It is not that systematic theology is bad (it is to be prized) it is just that it is not the only tool in the toolbox. Biblical theology reads Redemption like a novel seeking to identify underlying architectonic themes and then tracing their progress, growth, and advance in the Scriptures. When done right (and nobody does it better than Vos) it is an exciting way to read the Scriptures. (But beware… there are hosts of people out there who really do a hatchet job on the Scriptures using this methodology.)

2.) Prevailing Worldviews of Western Society Since 1500 — Glenn Martin

This is Martin’s 101 work on Worldviews and the way they work. Martin was my mentor in undergrad and so I am prejudiced in favor of his work. This book will begin to peel the onion on how ideas have consequences and will demonstrate how it is we must be careful in what we believe.

3.) Poverty of Multiculturalism — Patrick West

A short book that punches way above its weight. This will begin to give you and idea of what multiculturalism is, its roots, and where it is taking us. I couldn’t put this book down once I started it.

4.) Winter in Moscow — Malcolm Muggeridge

Muggeridge initially swallowed the Communist Utopia dream and then later, upon visiting Russia, had his eyes widely opened. This is Muggeridge’s novel pulling back the curtain on the then new USSR. Written as a novel it is an easy read but again Muggeridge, like his contemporary Orwell, is telling a much deeper story then what appears on the surface. Should be ranked with “Animal Farm,” and “1984.” Under-rated and ignored because it was less than flattering on the Moscow Utopia.

5.) Read something by P. J. Wodehouse

Except for Samuel Clemens, I’ve never read anybody who made me laugh who I knew was setting out to make me laugh like Wodehouse. I’m giving you some reading that can be heavy on the soul. I’ve found that if I can occasionally set the burdens aside and laugh awhile I will be more confident and less dour. His stuff on Jeeves is hilarious. His material on Uncle Fred is likewise the stuff that belly laughs are made.

6.) The Death of Death in the Death of Christ — John Owen

After reading this all you will do is laugh at Arminians. Owen is a 17th century Puritan and he writes like one. Never met a period he like and finds commas to be his soulmates. Still, if you can get through this your faith will be stronger. You can usually find this in paperback.

7.) Secular Discussions — R. L. Dabney

Dabney was the 19th century version of Rushdooney. After reading this book you’ll declare that Dabney was a prophet. He takes on issues that still bedevil us today and traces all the implications and in doing so you see he was exactly right and should’ve been listened to. This is around 500 pages but the nice thing about it is that you can pick it up and read a chapter that interests you and come back to the book later and not have to worry about having lost the train of thought. Each chapter is a self-contained essay and not dependent upon the previous chapters. He takes on issues like Government schools, women voting, social order, how the war against the Constitution will change the culture going forward, etc. A truly beautiful book. If you absorb Dabney you’ll be able to identify Cultural Marxism when you see it.

8.) Nihilism; The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age — Eugene (Fr. Sephraim) Rose.

Another short book that packs a wallop. Rose is Eastern Orthodox but his analysis of modern culture will help you see through the fog that is Cultural Marxism. Trenchant observations everywhere in the book. My copy looks like a pencil vomited all over the pages. I love this book. Underneath Cultural Marxism lies the worldview philosophy of Nihilism. Rose tells you what that is, and what its implications are and how it is eating the West alive.

9.) Read anything by Christopher Dawson. I might recommend starting with “Religion and the Rise of Western Culture.”

Dawson is brilliant. British academic who taught at the most prestigious Universities both in Britain and in the States. Few academics match Dawson in terms of cultural and civilizational analysis. Unfortunately Dawson was Roman Catholic and sometimes that leaks through, but on the whole his work is spot on and again contributes to seeing through the lies of this age. Dawson knew what it was that made Christendom Christendom and he lamented over what he saw, even in his time, as the undoing of the faith that created Christendom. This book will also help you see through the demonic worldview that is cultural Marxism.

1o.) Christianity and Culture — T. S. Elliot

Another beautiful book that should be read before anyone mounts a pulpit. Elliot, like several of the books I’ve listed here (per your request on subject matter) explores the relationship between Christianity and culture. This book will help you smell out R2K, as R2K denies there is a intimate relationship between culture and belief.

There is so very much more Elisa. I’ve tried to give you a starter kit. I’ve tried to give you several books that are shorter in length so you can see that you are making headway while at the same time trying to make sure that these shorter books are still heavy in content. I admire your desire to see through the fog that this culture — both in the Church and outside the church — is offering up.

May God bless you in your reading and your children for your reading.

Psalm 52

5 God shall likewise destroy you (evil man) forever;
He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place,
And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
⁶ The righteous also shall see and fear,
And shall laugh at him, saying,
⁷ “Here is the man who did not make God his strength,
But trusted in the abundance of his riches,
And strengthened himself in his wickedness.”

It is amazing to me the adulatory craze that is being lifted for Kobe Bryant. Now, granted, sudden deaths of anybody on the younger side of life is a sad event. However, it is not healthy for a culture to mourn the wicked except as the mourning represents a sadness that someone has gone into eternity apart from knowing Christ. If we, as Christians, were to take Psalm 52 seriously we might well be laughing at the news of Mr. Bryant’s death. However, here the Psalmist and Scripture is clearly counter-intuitive to our modern sensibilities.

Lets keep in mind that while Mr. Bryant as an athlete excelled on the Basketball court he was hardly a role model by any standard. His own wife accused him of multiple illicit liaisons with women not her. There was also the well known rape allegations against Mr. Bryant which, while not pursued in criminal court, did result in a settlement as a result of civil action by the Colorado woman assaulted. Let’s remember the description given of this violence,

When asked about bruises on the accuser’s neck, Bryant admitted to “strangling” her during the encounter, stating that he held her “from the back” “around her neck”, that strangling during sex was his “thing” and that he had a pattern of strangling a different sex partner (not his wife) during their recurring sexual encounters. When asked how hard he was holding onto her neck, Bryant stated, “My hands are strong. I don’t know.”

This wasn’t a comparatively polite”date rape.” This was gorilla violence in the extreme as a perusal of the account will explain in detail. Let’s be polite and just say it was a few weeks before the victim could sit comfortably for very long.

They used to call Mr. Bryant’s pursuit of multiple paramours “whore-mongering,” but that is no longer polite.

Now, some will object to my mentioning these realities on a few counts. First some will object that “none of us should want to be remembered when we die for our sins,” and, on the whole, all things being equal, who could ever disagree with that? I know I don’t want to be remembered for my sins in life — secret or public.

But not all things are equal here. What is happening via the adulation is that a serial adulterer and rapist is being elevated to some kind of secular saintly status. I object to that strenuously. My objection is augmented by the fact that those media trollops who are spilling all the adulatory ink attempting to elevate Mr. Bryant into a Cardinal in the church are the same media trollops who went apoplectic upon hearing a decades old tape of Trump talking about grabbing females by their femininity! (Kudos to Lea Land for that last sentence.)

Let’s keep in mind, concerning the objection that protests, “none of us should want to be remembered when we die for our sins.”

1.) Kobe if he was Christian was Roman Catholic — ergo not Christian.

2.) If he was repentant I wouldn’t note what is noted above but as lots of rapists die daily I don’t get the adulation of this rapist apart from acknowledging his crime.

3.) If Stalin had confessed Christ after all his mass murders would that mean upon his death it would be unseemly to mention his mass murders — especially if praise was the sound going up upon the news of Stalin’s death?

4.) The guy excelled at putting pigskin as inflated through a circle. He’s a hero for that reason?

I would rather not be remembered for my sin either … UNLESS, the adulation upon my death (I know … unlikely) was so great Christ gets lost in the adulation.

A second objection is that “now is not the time for theological reflections, but rather for allowing people to grieve and to process the death.”

I just disagree that there is ever a time that isn’t proper for theological reflections. The time to stop misdirected adulation is when the adulation is happening. Again, as I said earlier. One can admit that there is always a certain sadness in death. Further, one can acknowledge that such sudden death bring us all face to face with our own mortality. (I suspect a good deal of the public grieving might be connected to this.) However, these realities must not stop us from suggesting, with whatever tenderness and winsomeness we can that it is not proper to praise the wicked dead.

A third objection is that, in terms of the rape case, the female involved was just asking for it and she got what she deserved. Allow me to concede that women can be flirts and that kind of flirtation can lead to all kinds of bad things. However, having said that, even a loose woman who flirts can be raped and at the end of it all rape is rape.

Now, I can hear through the screen, people yelling at me saying the only reason I’m going on and on about this is that I am a racist. On that score, all I can offer is that I would be typing the very same thing if the athlete in question had been named Ben Roethlisberger instead of Kobe Bryant.

Our heroes are a reflection of our culture. Mr. Bryant was no hero.