a. The Two Sons
In Matthew 21:28-32, just before the parable of the tenants, we find this parable:
“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
A moment’s reflection will suffice to show this parable also applies to the Jews and the Gentiles. The second son represents Israel, who promised God, “all that you say, we will do.” (Ex. 19:8. See, also, Deut. 5:27; Jos. 24:24; Ex. 24:7; Jer. 42:6, etc.). But Israel did not do what they promised; their repeated unfaithfulness and idolatry led to the kingdom being split in two, with the northern 10 tribes lost to history. Israel promised God that they would do His will, but they seldom did, and they finally sealed their fate by rejecting the Messiah.
The first son represents the gentiles. They were opposed to the God of the Bible, worshiping idols and false gods, and engaging in sexual debauchery (Psalm 2; Rom. 1:18-32). But in the Christian era, the gentiles made Christianity into a world religion. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was introduced to the world not by their physical descendants, not by carnal Israel, but by their spiritual descendants, spiritual Israel, which is the Christian Church.
The gentiles, who said “I will not work for you,” had a change of heart and went into the Lord’s vineyard to work, with great results, carrying the gospel throughout the world and translating the Scriptures into hundreds of languages. By contrast, the Jews, who said, “we will go,” have sat on their hands, and even acted as an obstacle to Christianity wherever they can. They cling to their status as descendants of Abraham and to their traditional legalistic righteousness, and have very little interest in converting others to their stunted religion.
b. Cursing the Fig Tree
Also in Matthew 21 (verses 18 through 22) and Mark 11:12-14; 20-24 we find the following story (we’ll quote Mark’s version as being the fuller telling):
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. . . . In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
What do you think? Was Jesus—who once fasted forty days yet still was not overcome by appetite (Mat. 4:1-4)—so hungry that, when He reached the fig tree and found it without fruit, He had a temper tantrum and cursed the tree out of rage? I think not. I think Jesus was giving an object lesson, a parable in action.
The fig tree represents Israel. In Scripture, fig trees (as also the vineyard and the olive tree) are associated with Israel, and sometimes symbolize Israel (Hosea 9:10, Micah 4:4, 1 Kings 4:25). Jesus told another parable earlier in his ministry that featured Israel as a fig tree:
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” Luke 13:6-9
This parable and Jesus’ later cursing the fig tree constitute one story, one parable, one object lesson. The parable in Luke 13 sets up and explains Jesus’ later action in cursing the tree, and, by placing the fig tree in a vineyard, ties the story to the parable of the tenants, which we discussed in part 5.
Jesus tells us that the owner of the vineyard is frustrated with the lack of fruit on the fig tree, yet he also wants to give the fig tree every possible chance to produce fruit. But the owner’s patience is not infinite; there is a limit. His overseer convinces him to let the tree grow for one more year, giving it fertilizer and everything else that might help it bear fruit.
Note that the owner, who has been expecting fruit from this tree for three years, is convinced to give the tree one more year. The four years are interesting and, I believe, significant. If we begin Israel’s history around 2,000 BC, when God called Abraham out of Ur (Ussher says 1,921 BC, others say 1,954 BC-- chronologies vary), and divide it into four, each of the four segments would be a little less than 500 years in duration. The fourth and final “year” in Jesus’ parable thus corresponds to the seventy weeks, or 490 years, that are decreed, or marked off, for Daniel’s people in the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-28.
This final “year” of the four “years” of their time as God’s chosen people, beginning in 457 BC and ending in 34 AD, was given them:
“To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.” Dan. 9:24.
When the Anointed One (Hebrew: Messiah), arrived, instead of anointing Him, they killed him. And just a few days before they would kill Him, Jesus acted out the completion of the parable when He cursed the fig tree.
Why is Jesus angry with the fig tree for not producing fruit when, according to Mark, it was not even “in season”? Commentaries tell us that fig trees in that region can produce “breba” figs, meaning an early crop that grows on the previous year’s shoots before the main crop arrives. If leaves are in abundance, some early fruit might also be present. Hence, Jesus was not wrong, when He saw the fig tree in leaf, to hope to find some fruit on it.
It could be argued that Israel was not “in season” because it was occupied by the Romans. During most of the half-millennium since the end of the Babylonian Captivity, Israel was always part of a pagan empire, first the Persians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans. How could they be expected to “bear fruit” under these circumstances?
But did Israel do any better when it was independent of the great world empires? Sadly, no. The northern kingdom was always idolatrous; the solemn judgment, “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord” was pronounced on all its kings (and there were 19 of them). In 722 BC, the Assyrians scattered that people to the winds. Because some of its kings heeded the prophet’s warnings, Judah, the southern kingdom, lasted another two centuries. Still, of its 19 kings (and one queen) only eight did “what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”
Moreover, if we look closely at the empires that ruled Judea during the last fourth of Israel’s prophetic existence, we find that—with one infamous exception—they generally did not interfere with Israel’s religion; to the contrary, they often facilitated it. Cyrus the Great was incredibly helpful to the Jews in allowing them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple, and subsequent Persian rulers followed suit.
The Greeks took no interest in the Jewish religion, with the sole exception of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who profaned the temple by sacrificing a pig and erecting an altar to Zeus. But Antiochus’ oppression led to the successful Maccabean Revolt, at the end of which the temple was reconsecrated (Hanukkah commemorates the reconsecration of the temple). The Maccabean Revolt eventually inaugurated a century of Jewish self-government under the Hasmonean Kingdom, which ruled under nominal Seleucid suzerainty from 141 to 110 BC, then independently from 110 to 63 BC, and finally as a client of Rome from 63 to 40 BC.
Herod took advantage of a Parthian invasion to dislodge the Hasmoneans and install himself, in 37 BC, as Rome’s client ruler. Herod spent lavishly on the temple, rebuilding it on a grand scale, making it one of the great wonders of the ancient world. Rome kept its hands off Israel’s religion, allowing the Jews to collect a temple tax, and have an armed police force to protect the temple and the national religion. Rome was proud to have Herod’s magnificent temple within its imperial domain.
After reviewing this history, can we say that Israel, during the final fourth of its existence, was not “in season” because of foreign domination? To the contrary, this period was a high point in Israel’s history—not the golden age of Solomon, but Israel could still have born much fruit. (Before writing this, I did not realize that this period included a full century of Jewish self-rule under the Hasmonean Dynasty.) God had every reason to expect fruit from Israel, just as Christ had reason to expect fruit from the fig tree.
So Jesus said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” Within a day, the tree had withered from the roots. Its death was obviously supernatural, awing the disciples. Just so with the Jewish nation; its death was clearly a divine judgment. In His grace, God extended them another 36 years after the close of the 490-year prophetic period, but the end was cataclysmic. The beautiful temple was destroyed utterly, with not one stone left upon another. A million Jews were killed and thousands more enslaved.
Is the nation of Israel ever again to play a role in salvation history? Jesus’ curse was, “may no one ever eat from you again.” Could that be any clearer? Just as no one would ever eat from that dead fig tree again, so no one will ever find the fruit of the gospel in the Jewish nation. Looking there for truth or salvation is like looking to a dead, withered tree for fruit. Individual Jews will be converted to Christ, and some of them will do a great work for the Lord, but the Jewish nation is a dead, withered tree.