The Vanishing Mountain

The Vanishing Mountain

By Richard P. Joseph

Sometimes I can read scripture my entire life and not really understand it until one day it all becomes clear.  One such scripture is Matthew 21:21.

21 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, 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 also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.”

Pretty much, the only explanation of this scripture that I have ever heard is that “if we have enough faith, we can move any obstacle in life that hinders us from doing God’s will”.  Actually, that does apply to a certain extent and we can do miraculous things by having faith in God.  Unfortunately, most, if not all, don’t even have the faith of a mustard seed, which is very small.  As I often do these days, I apply audience relevance to my study of the bible in order to understand what those that first heard it thought it meant.

So, as I read Matthew 21 today, a new thought came into my mind that had never occurred to me before.  The setting is that Jesus was approaching Jerusalem and was hungry.  He spied a fig tree but upon closer examination he found it was barren. It had nice leaves but produced no fruit.  He then cursed the tree and it presently withered away and died.  First of all, we all know that being fruitless is a sign of sin.  As Christians we are to produce much fruit that is acceptable to God.  The disciples were marveled at the dead tree and asked what it meant.  Their amazement is that it died so “quickly”.  They didn’t marvel that it died but at the speed in which it perished.  This is when Jesus assured them that if they had faith and do not doubt you can remove this “mountain” and cast it into the sea.  I would like to focus on the word “this”.  

If you remember, Jesus was approaching Jerusalem and going to the temple.  Jerusalem is built on a small mountain (mount).  This is similar to Mt. Gerizim in Samaria where the Samaritans worshiped and once actually had a temple on top of it.  When Jesus was having a chat with the woman at the well, she reminded Jesus that they worship on "this" mountain, not the one in Jerusalem.

John  4:20

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

This is the same line of thinking when Jesus was conversing with his disciples about moving a mountain.   I can picture Jesus pointing at Jerusalem and the temple when he said “...but also if you say to ‘this’ mountain, ‘be removed and cast into the sea,’ it will be done.”  In other words he may have been providing yet another indication of his soon return in judgement against the unfaithful city.

Reading the scripture as a full preterist has completely made those hard to fit pieces of the puzzle easier to fit together.  When the priests confronted Jesus about his triumphant entry and his authority to clear the money changers out he told them the parable of the landowner who leased his vineyard out to vinedressers.  The landowner went into a far country and returned and punished the evil vinedressers.  What Jesus was saying is that they will kill him.  He will then go to his father (in a far country), then return and pronounce judgement on them and cast them into hell and destroy the unfaithful city and give the vineyard to another people who will make it prosper.  As you can see, at his parousia between AD 66-70 he did exactly that and the mountain (temple and Judaism)was plucked up and cast into the sea.  The sea represents a multitude of peoples.  So, this scripture was literally fulfilled at his second coming at the end of the Jewish age in AD70.  The unfruitful tree was obviously the unfaithful Jews that rejected the chief cornerstone; those that said yes to their father but did not go and do his will.  The massive temple in Jerusalem and the populated city could certainly not be plucked up in such a short time; or could it?  As history has pointed out, yes it can.