Unrealized Expectation!

*An interesting cartoon shows a fourth-grade boy standing toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose with his teacher. Behind them there is a blackboard covered with math problems the boy hasn't finished. With rare perception the boy says, "I'm not an underachiever, you're an overexpecter!"  *Today in the Word, MBI, April, 1990, p. 30

In Matthew 21: 18-22, Matthew a redeemed Tax collector (Yes it is possible) recalls a story that happened in the last week of the life of Jesus.
The story at first reading seems odd, out of place somehow. Our Lord experiences an "Unrealized Expectaion" resulting in His cursing a fig tree!

If not properly understood, His action seems to be "cruel" as one skeptic opined:

"Cursing a fig tree for not bearing fruit in March is not unlike kicking a dog because it can not speak English thereby punishing it for the inability to do the impossible”

Here is how Matthew records the event:

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither at once?“

And Jesus answered them, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." (Matthew 21: 18-22).

Unrealized Expectations…can become realized when understand:Our Lords expectations for His creation:

He cursed the tree because it should have been growing fruit since it had the outward signs of productivity. Jesus’ calculated timing underscored the spiritual truth that barren spiritual trees eventually run out of time. As for personal application, we should all diligently strive to ensure that we are not the barren fig tree. *2006 Apologetics Press, Inc

Something else we need to remember is:

Fruit is the outward expression of the inner nature.

What is our inward nature? It is Christ himself. If I am abiding in Jesus Christ, somehow or in some way his life or character is going to be manifested in my life in an outward way so that people can see. What I am talking about is this inner abiding, resting in Christ. Ron Dunn

Following Jesus’ curse upon the fig tree, the text says that Jesus went to Jerusalem and began to drive the money changers out of the temple (Mark 11:15-19).

The activities in the temple that once had been fruitful and wholesome had become empty of value and useless. Allen Black commented: “The cursing of the fig tree symbolizes God’s judgment on Israel for not bearing the fruit he wanted from the temple!

When the Lord Jesus looks at your life...is He seeing a Fruitfull Follower?

Ray Stedman reminds us: Every one of us is like a fruit tree in the garden of God, and God is expecting fruit from our lives. That is why we are here!