QT 2/23/2022 Matt 21:18-22, We will be judged too

 

Matthew 21:18–22 (ESV) —

18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

 

NOTE: First, I think something should be said about the cursing of the "innocent" fig tree or even the casting out of a legion of demons into "innocent" pigs that then drown in a lake. God sees people as immensely different than plant and animal life. They are not the same. Man is made in God's image, and that is not said of any other life on the planet. Jesus saw value in people. That is not to say we can be cruel to God's creatures, but they are not the same as people.

 

Secondly, these passages (chapters 21-22) are tied together and there is a lesson in them. I think in this case, a literal interpretation (always our first choice) does not make as much sense as a metaphorical. Jesus has just introduced himself as the king in the triumphal entry. Now, Matthew will focus on the response of the people. Israel is the fig tree, and for over a thousand years God has been waiting for fruit. And now, God stands among them and is rejected. And so the generation that rejected their Messiah is judged. Forty years from now, the temple will be destroyed, the entire city burned, and over a million Jews will die because they failed to recognize the time of God's visitation. A remnant will take the gospel into the known world and create a new entity, the church (Jew and Gentile as one). God is not finished with Israel as Romans 11 tells us, but for this failure at this time in history it was judged.

 

PONDER:

1. If God did not spare the true vines, will he spare the grafted?
2. I can't lose my salvation, but I can experience judgment for failing in my mission, what am I doing or failing to do?

 

PRAYER: Protect us from our selfish and small view of the world. You have called us to a mission and we need to be doing it.