John Calvin Commentary Matthew 21:18

"Now in the morning as he returned to the city, he hungered." — Matthew 21:18 (ASV)

And returning in the morning. Between that solemn entrance of Christ, of which we have spoken, and the day of the Passover, he had passed the night in Bethany. During the day, he appeared in the temple for the purpose of teaching. Matthew and Mark relate what happened during that interval: Christ, when coming into the city, was hungry, approached a fig-tree, and, having found nothing on it but leaves, cursed it; and the tree, which had been cursed by his voice, immediately withered.

I take for granted that Christ did not pretend hunger but was actually hungry. For we know that he voluntarily became subject to the infirmities of the flesh, though by nature he was free and exempt from them.

But here lies the difficulty. How was he mistaken in seeking fruit on a tree that had none, especially when the season of fruit had not yet arrived? And again, why was he so fiercely enraged against a harmless tree?

There would be no absurdity in saying that, as man, he did not know²¹ the kind of tree, though it is possible that he approached it on purpose, with full knowledge of the result.

Certainly, it was not the fury of passion that led him to curse the tree (for that would not only have been an unjust but even a childish and ridiculous revenge). Instead, as hunger was physically troublesome to him, he determined to overcome it by an opposite desire—that is, by a desire to promote the glory of the Father, as he elsewhere says:

My meat is to do the will of my Father (John 4:34).

For at that time, he was contending with both fatigue and hunger. I am the more inclined to this conjecture because hunger gave him an opportunity of performing a miracle and of teaching his disciples.

So, when he was pressed by hunger and there was no food at hand, he found sustenance in another way—that is, by promoting the glory of God. He intended, however, to present in this tree an outward sign of the end that awaits hypocrites and, at the same time, to expose the emptiness and folly of their ostentation.

²¹ “Il n’a pas cognu de loin;” — “he did not know at a distance.”;” — “he did not know at a distance.”