Matthew 21:18-22
The King condemns fruitless appearance and calls His disciples to prayerful faith that trusts God rather than religious show.
18 Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.
19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?”
21 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith, and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done.
22 All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
The King condemns fruitless appearance and calls his disciples to prayerful faith that trusts God rather than religious show.
Matthew presents Jesus' judgment on the fruitless fig tree as an enacted sign that exposes barren religion and then uses the disciples' astonishment to teach confident, God-dependent prayer.
The scene occurs in the final week before the crucifixion as Jesus returns from Bethany to Jerusalem in the morning.
The King Enters Jerusalem, Judges Fruitless Religion, and Exposes Rejected-Son Leadership
Jesus enters Jerusalem as the promised King who judges fruitless worship, receives the praise and need of the lowly, exposes unbelieving leadership, and reveals himself as the rejected Son and cornerstone through whom the kingdom is given to a fruit-bearing people.