EPISSODE 234 GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 21 "A Fig Tree, a Parable, and a Pornstar"

Welcome to Share the Word. We're on episode 234 with Pastor Paul Nitz, bringing you great insight of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 21. We're all broken, and we all have rebellious nature. But have you ever examined your life and found that you were just like those religious enemies that Jesus dealt with during his ministry? Ah, the things you learn when you listen closely. Matthew chapter 21: A fig tree, a parable, and a porn star.

Have you ever gone to the fridge at night after a serious snack attack, really, really hungry because you've been busy all day and haven't really properly stopped to eat, only to find the leftovers you were sure were in there were gone? Who ate my... Man, when this happens to me, and it does, it can trigger a flash of anger, just for a moment, of course. Believe it or not, Jesus had a similar experience. But let's back up and remember where we are in the story. Jesus had already told his disciples, we talked about this a couple episodes ago, that it was time for him to go up to Jerusalem.

The end of his public ministry had come, and his suffering and death were now just ahead, the reason for which he had come into the world. As chapter 21 opens, we read about his final public entrance into the capital, the triumphal entry, as it's strangely called. It was kind of a formal presentation of himself to the nation and its rulers as Messiah. Jesus chose to do that very openly and in a striking way, coming down around the Mount of Olives on the east side of Jerusalem, riding a young donkey, a donkey, surrounded by his disciples and a lot of arriving, excited Passover pilgrims. The other gospel writers tell us that a lot of people also came out of Jerusalem to meet them who were anticipating Jesus' arrival. And as they did, they lined the roads to welcome him, and they were calling out, Praise God for the Son of David!

Blessings to the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise God in the highest heaven! As Matthew remembers it, the entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as they entered through the eastern gates that Sunday. All this was on purpose. He was fulfilling a prophecy about Messiah found in the Old Testament writings of Zechariah. Matthew points this out at verse 4, where he writes, This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: Say to the daughter of Zion, which is Jerusalem, 'Behold, your king is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'

Jesus knew what he was doing. Intentionally, he was fulfilling Zechariah's words, and that was a powerful statement. Once inside the city gates, he went straightway to the temple, and seeing what he saw there, went on something of a rampage against those who were using that space for merchandising and crooked money laundering. This isn't the first time he did this either. It had happened before when he was in Jerusalem. Matthew describes Jesus overturning tables and flipping chairs, saying, It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you're making it a robber's den, my house, he said.

He also performed miracles that day, right there in the temple courtyard, healing blind people and lame people, no doubt beggars who were there because this was the beginning of Passover week, and there were large crowds of worshipers, much more than their usual. Matthew remembers there were children too, following Jesus everywhere, calling out the same kinds of messianic slogans as people had on the road during the approach to the city earlier. The temple officials, the high priests and elders, were upset by all this, even by the miraculous healings. Certainly by the disruption of their lucrative businesses they operated out of that temple courtyard, and all these people hailing Jesus as the Son of David, a messianic title. So they confronted and questioned him, By what authority are you doing these things? And don't you hear what these little children are saying?

Jesus wasn't about to apologize for what he had done, nor to tell any of his followers to shush. Rather, he said, Have you never read, 'From the lips of infants and children you, Lord, have called forth your praise'? Their praise of Jesus was praise for the Lord, he said. These religious enemies wanted badly to do away with Jesus when he was in the temple openly teaching early that week, but they were afraid of how the throngs of people there would react, so they were cautious. When not at the temple, Jesus and the disciples were staying in Bethany, a village a few miles from Jerusalem, probably at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, or possibly Simon, remember that man whom he had earlier healed of leprosy. Matthew remembers that it was early the next morning, so Monday, as they headed back to the temple, Jesus spotted a fig tree near the road in full foliage.

It must not have eaten anything that morning and was hungry. Here's how Matthew describes what happened next. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said, May you never bear fruit again. And immediately the tree withered. Yikes.

Matthew says he and the others were amazed at that. I bet they were, probably for more than one reason. A healthy-looking tree died right before their eyes. Jesus mutters something and it just shrivels. And maybe they were just as amazed, seeing that, I think, flash of anger, momentarily at least. Was he really that ticked off that he found no figs, or was something more going on here?

Certainly had to be more. An angry Jesus lashing out was definitely not the norm. But let's remember, let's be sympathetic. Just a day before, they had seen him so angry he went on that rampage in the temple's outer courtyard. He wasn't himself normally like this. He was in a foul mood.

Darkness is starting to encroach over him. Jesus is going to die a terrible death in a matter of a few days. He knew that, and don't tell me that was not on his mind. And after three years of tirelessly calling on Israel to repent, all the while demonstrating in countless ways he had come from God, nothing much had changed in that land. In fact, they had killed John the Baptist. And most people seem more interested in seeing miracles than repenting, eating free bread from him than really understanding him.

And then there were those jealous, plotting religious leaders, so anxious to destroy him. I know many commentators try to explain away the cursing of the fig tree as a simple object lesson Jesus was doing, but I think Jesus was deeply irritated that morning. Feeling intense internal disappointment, frustration, and dread, and at least momentarily, he snapped in anger, a very human thing to do. Why is this my take? Well, I'm connecting it to something Jesus said earlier, maybe a year earlier. This is from Luke chapter 13.

Listen. Then Jesus told a parable: A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but didn't find any. Sound familiar? So he said to the man who took care of that 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 even be using up the soil?

Sir, the man replied, let's leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and I'll fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, good. But if not, then we'll cut it down. Jesus came to his own and by word and deed for three years called the nation of Israel to repent and believe in him. The prophet John the Baptist had sounded the same message for a year prior. So Jesus, on that previous occasion, was saying, We've been at this for three years already.

This is what the parable was saying. We'll give it one more year. Perhaps there will be fruit then, but if not, it's going to get cut down. Well, that year had now passed, and here we are once again at another holy festival in Israel, the Passover, and although a lot of religious stuff was going on and people were excited and having fun, it was all leaves and no fruit, all foliage and no figs. Nothing Jesus was hungry to see happening was actually happening. I think we can read that mood into both parables Matthew records that Jesus told later that same day there in the temple courtyard.

The shorter one is in verses 28 to 32 in our chapter, and it was directed at those elders of Israel and priests who had confronted him while he was teaching. What do you think? he asked them. There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, Son, go and work today in our 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 didn't go. So Jesus asked, Which of the two did what his father wanted? They must have thought, Hmm, is this some kind of trick question? Because the answer was obvious.

The first, they said, the son who, although initially rebellious, in time changed his heart and mind and obeyed. This was a very patriarchal society, remember. For son number one to have defiantly answered, No way, when his father asked him to go and work in their vineyard was hard to imagine. Not like today when many kids are rebellious at even 10 and 12 years old, and when rebellion is almost a rite of passage for American teenagers. But in Jesus' society, to look your father in the face and say, No, I will not, that would have been shocking. But later on, Jesus said that son had a change of heart.

Metamelomai is the word, and he went and did what his father had asked him to do. With son number two, things went completely the opposite. He was respectful and agreeable at first when his father said, I need you to work in the vineyard today. He replied, Yes, sir, I will. But in fact, he never did. The moral of the story comes at verse 31.

Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. What? How unthinkable that dregs of society are getting into heaven before us? But Jesus explained, For John, referring back to the dead prophet John the Baptist, came 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 that, you still did not repent and believe him.

So those in the parable you'd most expect to scoff and rebel at John's preaching of repentance, Jesus said, in time many of them turned and became his followers. Matthew himself was one of those, metanoia. The word Jesus used in verse 29, to be sorry, to have a change of mind. And the word used in verse 32, metanoia, means to repent, to turn, to have a thorough change of heart. The second son, who represented the majority in Israel at the time, who were outwardly at least religious and seemingly respectful of God's laws, did not respond to John or to Jesus. Sure, at first they seemed intrigued by both, but when God's prophet and later God's Son challenged them to repent of their hypocrisy and their spiritual indifference and called for repentance, most people were unmoved, if not offended.

Realize, it was the nation's leaders Jesus was talking to here. They could not possibly misunderstand him when he said, Prostitutes and tax collectors will be in God's kingdom before you. It would be hard to overestimate how unimaginable that was to them, or how such a condemnation from this man Jesus, right in their holy temple, right in front of lots of people, would have angered them. His next story, the parable of the tenant farmers, which is in verse 33 and following, was even more pointed, in case they needed a thumb in their other eye. We did an entire episode on that story from Luke chapter 20. It's episode 42, I believe.

Check it out if you have not heard it before. But before we move on from this chapter, I want to make two pertinent applications. That scene of Jesus cursing the fig tree, understood by most to foreshadow the coming judgment on the nation of Israel, the destruction that happened in 70 A.D., since the fig tree is used elsewhere in the Bible as a symbol of the nation of Israel. And I think it is highly likely, looking back on this decades later, that was part of what was in Matthew's mind when he described that strange scene, because, yes, the nation had heard the preaching of John and heard all kinds of truths and proofs from Jesus, yet had largely rejected their call to repent. There was always plenty of religious activity in Israel, but nothing God was really looking for. It was all leaves, no figs, as I said.

That exact imagery, interestingly, was used by several Old Testament prophets prior to previous judgments God had brought on Israel. For example, Jeremiah, who pronounced judgment on the kingdom of Judah in the sixth century B.C., used this exact imagery here in Jeremiah chapter 8, shortly before the southern kingdom and Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians. And now, several hundred years later, it was déjà vu all over again. My point is simply that God is always looking for fruitfulness from His people, not just leaves, not just a show, but real fruit. If you're a Christian listening to this, when Jesus looks through all the leaves of your life, all the activities and busyness and even religious stuff in your life, all that it's made up of, will He find any actual fruit of the kind He cares about?

A life that shows real holiness, real devotion to Him, a life manifesting fruits of the Spirit, someone who influences others for the gospel, a peacemaker, a life of faithfulness and submissiveness and generosity. You know, the evidence of a real transformed life, one who has truly turned, who has been heart changed. That's what He's looking for. The other application is for the many who will hear this who are just like the first son Jesus told about in His parable, who were initially rebellious, maybe for a while, hearing the Father's call and turning away from it. Become a Christian? No way.

I'm not interested in that. I like my life the way it is. Me become a Jesus follower? That's pretty funny. But His word stayed with you. It stayed after you.

It never stopped working in you. And in time, your rebellion melted and you repented and had a true change of heart and said, Yes, sir, to Christ and turned your life toward following Him. Remember that. There are people, I bet, who said of you, That'll never happen with them, and others who prayed fervently and regularly that it would. So remember that unlikely turn. We need to remember that when we see so many around us who are still rebellious, who are still so lost, who are still so defiant toward God.

Maybe it's one of your own kids, or another family member, or a friend, or a coworker you really care about. Never lose sight of the power of God's Word to work in someone's life and the power of prayer. As Jesus told his disciples in this very chapter, if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Prayer can move mountains, he told them. In many cases, we don't know what God's will is, and so we're unsure what to pray about. But we do know that God is not desiring anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

He tells us that. So don't stop praying for those you care about, no matter how rebellious, no matter how outwardly disinterested they seem. God's Word can win out. Circumstances change, and they can have a change of heart, just like that rebellious son in Jesus' story, just like many of us. There are tons of testimonies that will bear that out. I want to share one with you I recently read to close this lesson, and I hope it will renew your hope.

Remember, the prostitutes and tax collectors will go into God's kingdom before you, Jesus said. That scripture reminded me of a woman named Brittany DeLaMora, not the name she used when she was popular in the pornography industry, but that's her name now. I read her amazing testimony again this past week on a Christian news site. Here's a slice of it. She said, I encountered a lot of brokenness growing up. My home was far from Christian, but my grandparents were Christians, and they took me to church when I was very young, when I stayed over at their house.

Believe it or not, I always had a heart for God, even though I didn't know who God really was. I badly wanted to belong to God's family, but I didn't know how to get there. I was verbally and physically abused in my own home. I felt rejected, like I was never good enough. So as a teen, I started looking for love in all the wrong places, as they say. I gave away my virginity when I was only 16.

We lived close to the southern border in Southern California, and my friend said to me one weekend, Let's go down to Mexico and party. We ended up going into a club that was a strip club. You can pretty much get into any club in Mexico. That was the first time I ever got drunk. And then some security guards pushed me into a line that ended up on stage with men daring me to take my clothes off. The combination of peer pressure and liquid courage will make you do things you never thought you would do, and I did.

And that night, something happened. I was affirmed. Everyone was telling me, We love you. You're so beautiful. And I made money. And I walked out of that club that night with 160 bucks at 16.

That's a lot of money to make in 30 minutes. So I left there with the idea that if I wanted to be affirmed and make money, this is how I could do it. At college, I started dancing in more clubs. A producer came into them one night. He said his company made romance movies and that if I was interested, I should give him a call. That's how I ended up in the porn industry at 18 years old.

And I was in it for the next seven years. The world glamorizes porn, makes it look so desirable. There's a lot of broken and hurting people in that industry, and a lot of drug use too, and not just for weight loss, to numb your pain. I started with cocaine, but eventually got hooked on heroin. I battled addiction, depression, abuse, and internal torment so strong during those years. I eventually tried to end my life, but thank God I didn't succeed.

One day, I was going to film a porn scene in Las Vegas. On the airplane, for some reason, I started reading from a Bible app, and it was Revelation chapter 2, and I read this: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads many servants into sexual immorality. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling, so I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely unless they repent of their ways. That shook me. She started crying.

I was like that Jezebel. I prayed something to God like, I've been sexually immoral, and I've led many people into sin. I am so sorry. Please forgive me. And the Holy Spirit spoke back to me, Brittany, I love you so much. This is not the life that I have for you.

If you would just quit this industry today, I would bless your life so much. And I quit the pornography industry that day. I started back to church, and God radically transformed my life. You know, Brittany's grandparents prayed and prayed for that day, even when it seemed like that young woman was so far away from the Lord. Today, now 12 years later, Brittany is married to the pastor of a Bible-believing church, and in addition, they co-lead a Christian ministry to people caught up in the pornography industry that's called Love Always Ministries. Matthew 21 shows us that there are many so caught up with their self-righteousness, they may never repent and turn.

And also, that there's no one so broken they are beyond God's grace if they will. So never stop praying. This has been Paul for Share the Word. Thanks, Paul. So where do you see yourself? Jesus caused a great deal of anxiety with those religious leaders because they chose to square off against Him, to attack Him, to try to discredit Him, rather than to get past their self-righteous, prideful, greedy human nature.

Regardless of everything that they witnessed, they had no change of heart. So is your life bearing fruit, or are you like the fig tree that's all leaves and no fruit? It's all for show. You may fool those around you, but you can't fool God. You can't fool God.