The Departure and the Fig Tree

What the first ones thought—that they would receive more—demonstrates a nature, rather than the intellect of holy men; for they do not reckon this at the time of the resurrection, nor will they accuse then (Mt 20:10). More is owed to the former, because they were living under the rule of death and the devil; for this is the burden of the day and the scorching heat, when even the coolness of the Spirit was not present to assist men toward righteousness.

Regarding the cup and baptism, he speaks of death (Mt 20:22); saying 'to drink a cup' as if of wine, just as it is said in Jeremiah that the punishment is to be a 'cup of wine' which one is able to drain and cast down; and 'baptism' signifies the descent into Hades, which had its ascent from there, just as the one being baptized dives into water and rises again; and by saying 'water' he revealed the turbulence of those in Hades.

The event is a sign (Mt 21:2); for it is not a necessity for the one entering Jerusalem with the Lord to sit upon a donkey, who traversed all Judah and Galilee on foot, but to be seen on a colt at that specific time shows the heavenly leader and king sitting upon the new people of Jerusalem; for the colt made the newness of the calling manifest, but also the old, which is not clean according to those now called; for a donkey is not clean according to the law, but is set apart by the various recognitions of uncleanness from clean animals, because the donkey is nocturnal and does not chew the cud.

The people are the untamed colt, upon which neither law nor prophets had seated, awaiting their Lord; for this is also what the Savior said to the sent-off disciples: 'loosening, bring to me' (Mt 21:2). To what, then, was the donkey tied? To the vine, according to what was said: 'binding his colt to the vine and the donkey to the halter.' Loosening, therefore, from the vine, from the first covenant, bring to me.

That it was done so that the said thing might be fulfilled: 'The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger' (Ps 32:8). Regarding the times, it did not concern all three evangelists much in the narration of the ascent to Jerusalem; for John, having foretold this more accurately in the first ascent, says that these things were done, and in the third Passover he recounts the passion. Therefore, it only concerned them to recount the event, and they have made the narrative into one of the various ascents.

He shows the departure as if from the unworthy; for he comes to take the kingdom away from Jerusalem because of the passion, and to give the grace to those migrating to us, just as it was foretold through the prophets, as Jeremiah prophesies: 'I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance' (Jer 12:7), and the following. He came therefore as if to his own inheritance, but he leaves them as strangers, so that the withdrawing into Bethany was doing as a type of the coming departure, and he was doing these things along with also mourning for the city. And Luke says this: 'And when he drew near, seeing the city, he wept over it' (Lk 19:41), and the following.

But the fig tree is to be understood here as the synagogue of the Jews and the worship in types and shadows, not having fruit that is edible and pleasing to God, the worship in the Spirit. Therefore, as one not producing sweet fruit, the Lord Jesus dried it up in a certain way, being hungry and seeking fruit from out of humanity. Surely, from what he said, that 'fruit shall by no means come from you' (Mt 21:19), he teaches that the worships according to the law are no longer able to benefit the Jews.

He calls the Householder the God who is the master of all, and the vineyard the people of Israel constructed through piety, saying that he was provided with the security of the help of God, by which, having been delivered from the plot of the strangers, he remained upon his own (Mt 21:33-41).