Where we discuss ‘driving out’ from the Garden and the temple; withered fig trees and covenants; Jeremiah 8; the Parable of the Landowner; outlaw vine-growers and irritated religious leaders.

Tim: I want us to examine some interesting things in Matthew 21. I’ve shared some of my struggle in my opposition to those who are blatantly corrupting the Gospel. When commenting on or interacting with institutional churches today, how direct should we be? Is it grace to come right out and say, “You are corrupting the Gospel!”?

Matthew 21 narrates an intellectually violent exchange that Jesus had with the scribes and Pharisees. This contentious encounter will continue through Matthew 23. This is a particularly tumultuous time in Jesus’ life before his own crucifixion. Jesus is standing on one side claiming to speak for God and the Pharisees are on the other side also claiming to be the voices of God’s will. The dispute indicates that these two worldviews are incompatible with one another. The two cannot be blended. You cannot join the two together. Jesus would not join ranks with the Pharisees and the Pharisees refused to join with Jesus.

¹² And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. ¹³ And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robber’s den. ¹⁴And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

This is an intriguing passage because we notice language similar to that in Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and God “drove them out” (see John 2:15).

I advocate that instead of reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, start with the New Testament. Read the Gospels and epistles first, once you have a fundamental understanding then go back and start reading Genesis. You might find that the metaphorical language of Genesis tends to make more sense when you see the historical times in the first century. In this instance, we have a real-life situation of Jesus confronting people who were sitting down and feasting at the table being served heaping portions of fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

If we take the metaphor in Genesis and apply it to what we just read in Matthew, what does that real life situation look like? Perhaps the sin in the garden was taking a life of grace in God and institutionalizing it. In the temple, they are selling their religion, making money off of it. They are using their religion to increase their profits.

If they were asked to consider the blind and the lame coming into the temple, they would probably find that offensive. After all, aren’t they in that condition because they are under the curse of God? Let’s consider that as an illustration of what happens when people feast at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The picturesque language of Genesis depicts the establishment of this kind of religion.

Dwight: How far into the temple could the blind and lame come?

Tim: I’ve seen diagrams of the temple where there was a portion sectioned off to the side where they could stand and watch the proceedings. It was built into the theology of the leaders that there still remained an uncleanness in them. If they were holding to the literal text of Deuteronomy, they would conclude that any deformity indicated sin before God and thus judgement. They could watch, but actual participation was forbidden.

Dwight: I was asking because it says here, they came into the temple and Jesus healed them. I’m guessing that was a pretty scandalous thing.

Tim:  I think it would be. Remember how they reacted when they thought Paul brought a Gentile into the temple area? Matthew goes on to say,

¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant ¹⁶ and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?”

I’m just riffing here, but I wonder if this is a parallel to the conflict between Cain and Abel. Hebrews says Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. We are told that it was a testimony from God that even though Abel was dead he still spoke through this act. What these children are saying is a similar testimony. The children were speaking the truth of Christ just as Abel was doing centuries earlier.

When Abel made his sacrifice, did he do it in the joy of righteousness and liberty? Cain offered his sacrifice as a sweat offering, offering things from the ground which God had cursed. Was he angry at his brother because of his brother’s peace before God, his confidence that God had accepted his sacrifice? Was Cain driven to anger because his sacrifice was an empty effort at useless religion?

After Jesus humiliated them and exposed their empty commercialism, he displayed the true power of the Gospel by healing. This was a stark contrast: The dead and lifeless religion of the descendants of Cain with the glorious power of God and imparting life. I think Cain saw this in his brother’s sacrifice and it drove him to violence. The scribes and Pharisees, rather than marveling at the beauty of God’s healing power, dug in to defend their empty religion. They became indignant and contentious just like Cain. Are they the New Testament picture of Cain while Jesus represents the righteous Abel?

The next account is regarding the barren fig tree. I eventually want to examine the Parable of the Landowner further down in the chapter, but I do not want to rush us.

Roger: John also gives an account of Jesus disrupting commerce in the temple. In that account, Jesus told them to quit making my father’s house a place of business.

Tim: Yes, I think we find that account in John 2.

Roger: Are there two different times that Jesus cleared the temple?

Tim: A lot of scholars and commentaries think so. He did it at the beginning and towards the end of his ministry.

Tyrone: It seems like everything that Jesus does is a reversal of Genesis. Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden. Cain is forced to wander. Here Jesus is driving them out of the House of God as a representation.

Tim: If the temple is a representation of the garden, and there are some who support that, then we understand that the temple represents the dwelling place of God where he meets with his people. If Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden because they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and Jesus drove out the money changers from the temple, then what does that tell us?

I think Jesus sees this corruption going on in the temple and interprets it as God did in the garden. This is the human manifestation that results from eating the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you corrupt yourself, if you make religion a business to prosper yourself, then you forfeit the garden, the beauty of communion with a loving God.

Walking with a loving God ceases to be important to you when you institutionalize Christianity. The love of God is the farthest thing from your mind. You become busy enriching yourself, so the blind and the lame are inconsequential. As far as you are concerned, they dwell outside your garden. Ty rightly said that Jesus is reversing this. He is casting out those who corrupt God’s ways and bringing in the blind and the lame to heal them. He is bringing them in to feast on the Tree of Life.

Tyrone: For us, this is the Tree of Life. For the Jews of that day, Jerusalem was the holy place of all holy places. Their whole life and culture were tied up in the temple.

Tim: Yes, I think this complicated things for them and made it more difficult for them to see the light of God in Christ. Remember that in the early church there were two Jerusalems under the Gospel. Paul speaks of this in Galatians 4 that there was a Jerusalem above that was free and the Jerusalem which was in slavery. This is a critical passage in Galatians 4,

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under law, do you not listen to the law? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bond woman and one the free woman. ²³ But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. ²⁴ This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding on Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. ²⁵ Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.

Jesus was proclaiming the Gospel to the Jerusalem that was Hagar, the one in slavery with her children. He was proclaiming the Gospel to a people enslaved. Genesis began with the creation of the heavens and earth. The Gospel age is established at the creation of a new heavens and earth where a New Jerusalem comes down. Let’s move ahead in Matthew,

¹⁸ Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. ¹⁹ Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. ²⁰ Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” ²¹ And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly 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 even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. ²² And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

First, Jesus was not authorizing them to go around to curse fig trees. We have no record of the apostles taking time in literal cursing of fig trees. Let us get that out of the way.

Roger: The fig tree was a representative of Israel.

Tim: Yes. Let us go back into the Old Testament and see if we can glean some insights. In the Old Testament, God did not go around cursing fig trees, he cursed nations. He would curse cities and kingdoms because of their rebellion. He would illustrate these events using images of vines and fig trees. These would be prophetic statements of judgment about to come to these nations. Let’s look at this passage from Jeremiah 8,

⁴ “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord,

“Do men fall and not get up again?
Does one turn away and not repent?
⁵ “Why then has this people, Jerusalem,
Turned away in continual apostasy?
They hold fast to deceit,
They refuse to return.

If you read the whole passage, it has some nasty language. It is reflective of what we just read in Paul about being the picture of Hagar who is in bondage. We have considered this as being the result of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Or, we could say it is the result of Old Covenant legalism. Let us continue in Jeremiah,

⁶ “I have listened and heard,
They have spoken what is not right;
No man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his course,
Like a horse charging into the battle.
⁷ “Even the stork in the sky
Knows her seasons;
And the turtledove and the swift and the thrush
Observe the time of their migration;
But My people do not know
The ordinance of the Lord.

⁸ “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
Has made it into a lie.

Verse 8 reflects the dialogue of the Pharisees. They would say, “We are the wise ones around here, we are the ones who are the keepers and arbiters of God’s law here.”

⁹ “The wise men are put to shame,
They are dismayed and caught;
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
And what kind of wisdom do they have?
¹⁰ “Therefore I will give their wives to others,
Their fields to new owners;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is greedy for gain;
From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone practices deceit.
¹¹ “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.

Of course, this is the perfect setup for the Parable of the Landowner.

³³ “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. ³⁴ When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. ³⁵ The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. ³⁶ Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. ³⁷ But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ ³⁹ They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. ⁴⁰ Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” ⁴¹ They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.”

Compare this parable to what we just read in Jeremiah. Jesus puts the Pharisees into the witness box and compels them to judge the vine-growers. They hear the testimony of the vine-growers killing the servants sent by the master and eventually the murder of his son, and they render a “guilty” verdict. They sentence the culprits to be handed over to the master and brought to a wretched end. Then the master is within his rights to rent out the vineyard other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper season. Jesus then delivers his closing argument:

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,

‘The stone which the builders rejected,
This became the chief corner stone;
This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³ Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. ⁴⁴ And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.

Jesus repeats the message of Jeremiah saying, “I will give their wives to others and their fields to new owners.” According to their own statements, the Pharisees concluded that justice could only be achieved through them forfeiting their place which will go to another. They are the “prophets” and “priests” mentioned in Jeremiah (v. 10) that, from the least to the greatest, are greedy for gain. Everyone practices deceit. The so-called “healing” they bring to God’s people is only superficial. They will preach peace, but no peace is to be had.

Jesus healed the lame and the blind while the religious leaders conducted business. They could preach to the poor people to be at peace, but they could not heal, they could not offer forgiveness. Their religion could not remove the curse.

Were they ashamed of the abomination they committed? They were not! They did not know how to blush. Jesus then echoes the word of Jeremiah,

¹² “Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done?
They certainly were not ashamed,
And they did not know how to blush;
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time of their punishment they shall be brought down,”
Says the Lord.

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 will wither;
And what I have given them will pass away.”’”

Roger: The Old Covenant passing away.

Tim: Yes, I think this is the message. What was withering away when they saw the cursed fig tree? That was a physical manifestation of what spiritual truth? I think Roger said it well. This is the withering and dying of the Old Covenant bodied in Israel.

When he tells the disciples that they also will do what was done to the fig tree, that is a Hebraic, picturesque way of saying to his disciples: “You guys will be preaching the withering of the Old Covenant. You will be preaching that the weak and useless legalism is losing its life and will soon wither and die. There will come a day when no more fruit will be picked from that tree.”

He adds that they will say to this mountain, “Be taken up and cast into the sea.” We have discussed this before that he is not referring to an arbitrary mountain but to this mountain. In geographical proximity, that would have been the temple mount.

Roger: It is the temple. Would Hagar represent that mountain? This is the mountain that will be cast into the sea. It is withering, growing old and ready to disappear as we are told in Hebrews 8. That’s the Old Covenant.

Tim: That is Mount Sinai, yes.

Roger: They are about to bruise his heel. Their crucifixion of him is the bruising of his heel, but in being resurrected he will crush their head.

Tim: Exactly right! They say a picture is worth 1000 words and we have 1000 pictures here. We have fig trees, mountains, and all kinds of pictures. Still, the message remains the same. The weak and useless Old Covenant which brought about slavery and bondage is withering and about to die. The scribes and the Pharisees were indignant about this. They were thinking, “Who does this guy think he is?”

Roger: They understood his meaning well without it being literal. They knew exactly what he was talking about.

Tim: They did indeed! They also knew the prophecies of Jeremiah. They spent their whole life studying the law and prophets. They knew that passage in Jeremiah, but they were blind when it came to seeing themselves as the perpetrators. They could not see themselves as those who were going to have their wives and land turned over to someone else. They would insist that was not in the cards.

Roger: They would say, “We would have never persecuted or killed the prophets.”

Tim: They had this self-blindness. Jesus easily guided them to pronounce judgment upon themselves. They never saw that coming. It finally dawned on them that Jesus was speaking about them. The blind were blindsided. It is no surprise that modern, institutional Christianity can’t see the corruption of the Gospel that is being perpetrated in the churches. They are so busy engaging in the business of making profits, increasing numbers, and establishing status that they are blind that their Gospel is devoid of power.

Tyrone: But does anyone ever see themselves as they truly are?

Tim: That is one of the hardest things to do, isn’t it?

Tyrone: I’m asking that rhetorically as I come to a better understanding of the Gospel. You cannot see yourself in that place unless you are gifted by the grace of God. The Pharisees did not receive that grace and they were used by God as an illustration of what is and isn’t important.

Roger: Overcoming blindness is a great struggle for us. It requires a lot of paradigm shifts and recognition of our cognitive dissonance. You must honestly look at why that dissonance is there and embrace the truth that will correct it. It takes time and it is not an easy process. When you do receive that gift of grace, that liberation can get you kicked out of your church. Your brothers and sisters will reject you. You will have people who think that you have missed it completely. They have it all figured out, but you missed it, in their opinions. It is unfortunate because that’s a willful blindness.

Tim: Relationships like that are enigmatic. Debbie and I were talking earlier this week about this; sometimes you must come to the point where you accept that if someone doesn’t like you, that’s not your fault. We can treat others with kindness and grace, but their thinking is established in such a way that they will say, “You are an abomination!” The split comes, not because of what you have done, but for what you stand for. We see that in politics today where if you are not on a person’s political side, they will dismiss you. That is just the way it is.

Roger: I remember that scene in the movie, “The Longest Day,” where both the German and American generals we’re praying that God would be with them and give them success. I think it is human nature for us all to think that God is on the side of our cause no matter what we’re doing.

Tim: I remember hearing Lauren Bobert a month or so back at a right-wing religious conference proclaiming that, “God is on our side!” It is not up to us to hope that God is on our side; God is on God’s side and it’s up to us to join him there.

Roger: How many Democrats are doing the same thing?

Tim: I’ve rejected the idea that we can ask God, “Who should I vote for?” I really do not think God endorses one candidate over another. God’s attention is focused on the Gospel and upon the community of love for one another. If we followed the Gospel, bigger government would not even be necessary. I am a bit of an anarchist in that respect. If you have a people who are governed by love, you do not need laws. Many people are shocked by that idea.

Chuck: It shows how much we are governed by laws.

Tim: Yes, the more that love and compassion are downplayed, the more that law has to have dominion. There was a letter to the editor written by a Democrat that was insightful. They mentioned a study that asked, “Would you be friends with someone who was not of your political party?” Apparently, many responded that they could not be friends with anyone who was in the opposite wing of their politics. The letter-writer was very honest and said he was disappointed with the results. While there were Republicans who said they couldn’t be friends with a Democrat, he said the larger majority were Democrats saying they could not be friends with a Republican. The rest of the letter was urging that we should not go that way.

Tyrone: But we have gone that way.

Tim: We have gone that way and he was rightfully arguing that’s not a good thing. He is right of course. As long as love and compassion diminish in our culture then there will be the need for more laws. There will be a need for more restraints to lawbreakers. Unfortunately, churches are useless when they model themselves like a corporation rather than building a community of love.

Tyrone: It’s comparable to what happened to us twenty years ago. The stance of the church was, “We do not accept you and your doctrine.” There was no compromise there.

Tim: None. The message was that living a life of love for others was not good enough. If I were showing grace, love, compassion, and forgiveness to those around me; if I had a good relationship with those in my sphere of influence; if I showed respect for them, the Baptists then demonstrated that was not sufficient.

I hope that does not sound bitter, but such an event affects your thinking. Jesus is exposing the emptiness of the religion of the scribes and Pharisees, but all the Pharisees could do was push back against Jesus. They resisted the truth that the Kingdom was to be taken away from them and given to a people who would bear good fruit.

Roger: I’m curious; why don’t we have any letters written after the destruction of Jerusalem? It would be nice to hear the apostles affirming the end of the Old Covenant. I know, we have what we have, and we are at the mercy of those who compiled the Canon of scriptures. Are all the existing letters from the apostles in our Bible or our some hidden?

Tim: They could be sitting in the basement of the Vatican for all we know.

Roger: And all we do know is that it’s all finished. Revelation recorded the last of the Old Covenant. There was nothing else left to say. Even the Jews understood that when the temple was gone, it was gone. That was the end of the Old Covenant.

Tim: Yeah, how are we going to convince the Christians that when the temple was gone, it was meant to be gone?

Roger: Jesus proclaimed about the temple that not one stone was going to be left upon another. Centuries later, there are still teachings declaring that the temple will be rebuilt because Jesus hasn’t come back yet. He just has not come back the way they think.

Tim: We could argue that the temple has been rebuilt. It has been rebuilt with living stones and the people ministering there are a nation of priests.

Debbie: It would have been helpful to have some letters written after 70AD.

Tim: I agree.

Tyrone: I think there were letters written. The problem was the destructive forces of the Roman army. It obliterated everything so that those letters were all destroyed and more time. It was a long, long war where everything in its path was burned up.

Tim: Father, we thank you for this time, and we just pray again that we would continue to gain understanding of this Gospel, to be liberated, to be free and to turn around and set others free as well. Thank you, Father!