Are You Prepared?

Tuesday is one of the most active days of Passion Week.  In fact, over four chapters of Matthew (21:20-25:46) encompass this day.  Yet it is also one of the saddest days, surpassed in sorrow only by Friday. 

Why is that?  Because it depicts Israel's final rejection of her Messiah.  The climactic encounter between Jesus and the Jewish leadership crystalizes their rejection of Him and results in His final condemnation of Jerusalem and with it, the nation.

This day of conflict begins with Jesus and the disciples once again walking into the city according to Mark 11:20.  A day earlier Jesus cursed a fig tree with leaves but no fruit and the disciples now marvel that it has withered so quickly.  But why did Jesus curse the fig tree in the first place?

Israel is pictured as a fig tree several times in the Old Testament and often in the context of judgment.  A good example of this is found in Hosea 9:10, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.  But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame.”  Another is Jeremiah 8:13, "’I will surely snatch them away,’ declares the Lord; ‘There will be no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall wither; and what I have given them shall pass away.'"  God will snatch Judah away because of her apostasy and later in Jeremiah 24 we see an entire chapter dedicated to this imagery, both of blessing and judgment.

Therefore this picture of a fig tree in the gospels is characteristic of Israel’s ultimate apostasy.  They had the appearance of fruitfulness because of their elaborate religion but bore no fruit in spite of God’s efforts to cultivate it.  Listen to Jesus' own parable in Luke 13:6-9:

6And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.  7And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this tree without finding any.  Cut it down!  Why does it even use up the ground?’  8And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.”

The picture of Israel’s rejection of Christ is immediately met with the reality of the same.  The chief priests, scribes, and elders challenge Jesus’ authority as soon as He and the disciples enter the temple (Matthew 21:23ff).  But because they are not open to the Source of His authority, He will not reveal it to them.  He will reveal three parables, though, that illustrate their rejection of Him and the consequences to follow. 

Not to be outdone, the religious leaders try to come back with three tests of their own—the question of paying tribute to Caesar, the question of the resurrection by the Sadducees, and the greatest commandment.  However, all will learn you cannot trap God.  You cannot paint Him into a corner.  He will indeed stop every mouth in opposition to Him as Jesus silences His critics.  After them that He is both David’s Son and Lord (Matthew 22:41-46), He then goes into His final condemnation in Matthew 23, concluding with His chilling words in verses 37-39:

37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.  38Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!  39For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" 

Truly the fig tree has withered.

Jesus will not be seen again in public until His crucifixion.  Therefore He spends the rest of this week in private with the disciples.  He still had much more to say to them in spite of their innate dullness.  Why do I say “dullness”?  Because as Jesus has condemned Israel for her rejection of Him, the disciples immediately comment on the temple in Matthew 24:1.  (Mark and Luke are more explicit in the disciples’ comments as they note the beauty of the temple.) 

But listen to Jesus’ response in verse 2, “Do you not see all these things?  Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down."  Indeed, as we mentioned yesterday, the Romans fulfilled indeed these tragic events with the destruction of the temple in AD 70. 

Jesus’ response provokes the disciples’ question in verse 3, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"  Jesus uses this to give His Olivet Discourse in chapters 24-25.  This deals with the events surrounding His Second Coming and is sometimes known as “The Little Apocalypse.”  Jesus concludes the day by spending the night at the Mount of Olives and will continue His teaching in the temple the next day (Luke 21:37-38).

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What an eventful day, one that is filled with passionate words and emotions.  Perhaps we can call this “Passion Week” for more reasons than one.  So what can we take away?

Let us focus on the unprepared hearts of man, hearts that were unprepared for Jesus in His first coming.  They were unprepared for Him because of what we have previously seen—they were looking for a Messiah to deliver them from Rome, not their sins.  That was the condition of the hearts of men at His First Coming, yet just as many will be unprepared for Him in His Second Coming.  That is clear from the book of Revelation.

Is your heart prepared because you have trusted in Him alone to save you?  If not, then why delay?  “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…” (Hebrews 3:15).  His First Coming has passed but His Second Coming is nigh.  And while many are fascinated with the details of Matthew 24, they pay token heed to the warnings of chapter 25.

Jesus is indeed coming back as He told the disciples on the Mount of Olives and the primary reason He gave this prophecy is that we might be prepared for His return.  “2Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be.  We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.  3And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

Is this Scripture true for you because you know Him?  Or do you merely know about Him?  There is a world of difference…an eternity of difference.  If you merely know about Him, then the words of judgment that Jesus spoke on this day will also have a haunting application for you.  But if you do know Him, then may God use all of these events—those past that surround Jesus’ First Coming and those future that surround His Second—to make our hearts more like those of His dear Son.