Notes on Mark 11:20-26
These notes accompany the Bible Pacesetter Podcast Having Godly Faith.
20And as they were going by in the early morning they saw the fig tree, withered from the root. 21And Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi look! The fig tree you cursed is withered!”
Unlike the story in Matthew, the withered fig tree is only seen the next day. In Matthew 21:20 there is even an emphasize on the speed with which the curse has its effect. This helps place the emphasis here in Mark on the fruitlessness of the tree, which helps tie it contextually with the cleansing of the temple. Together, the two events tend to say, “Look, guys, your agendas aren’t getting anywhere!”
22Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
Literally, have faith of God. I would suggest “God’s faith” as a good translation. There is more implied here than simply believing enough.
The cursing of the fig tree dealt with the need to bear fruit. Now that they find the fig tree dead, Jesus turns to teaching them about faith and power.
On the destruction of the fig tree, John Wesley notes:
Mar 11:22 – Have faith in God – And who could find fault, if the Creator and Proprietor of all things were to destroy, by a single word of his mouth, a thousand of his inanimate creatures, were it only to imprint this important lesson more deeply on one immortal spirit? — John Wesley
The Interpreter’s Bible notes that the current context is not adequate for this saying. I certainly think many have creating a false understanding of this saying by taking it in this context without consideration of other statements on prayer. The exposition suggests that the one and only adequate context for the saying is the entire life and mission of Jesus. The faith of Jesus was confidence, trust, and obedience (see IB Exposition on Mark 11:22).
23Truly I tell you that whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be raised up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will happen for him. 24For this reason I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you received it, and it will happen for you.
This is the key proof-text for those who teach that we can, in effect, make God do what we want. It has also provided the excuse for non-Christians to challenge believers to demonstrate that the Bible is true by claiming this promise and moving a mountain or so. Praying, and then having someone donate a few bulldozers, which then make removal of the mountain possible, doesn’t seem to be satisfactory.
But this is one reason why proof texts are so dangerous. We might first consider just how desirable it would be for mountains to be moved around on a whim. Second, every scriptural passage needs to find its context in the entire story of salvation as told by the Bible. In this case we need look only a little bit ahead. These same disciples who were being told about removing mountains by faith were to witness Jesus going to the cross and dying, and they would find themselves unable to do anything about it.
Nonetheless, they would record this saying of Jesus. Why would they do that? It’s quite possible that they understood this spiritually and didn’t see it as any kind of a failure at all; in fact, I’m quite sure that’s how they saw it. In spiritual application, Jesus would ask to be relieved of his task (Mark 14:35-36), fully expressing his faith that all things are possible to God, and yet he had to continue to the cross. It is clear that this power does not have to do with our removing inconveniences on a whim.
But there is a spiritual application here as well. On the cross Jesus did indeed move a mountain—the mountain of sin that was separating us from God, thus offering a way directly to the Father through his grace. I have had many people react with annoyance at such “spiritualizations” of passages like this one, but I believe that the evidence is quite good that this passage is intended primarily as a spiritual lesson in the first place.
Two other passages should be placed alongside this one: John 15:7 and James 4:3. Both make it clear that God’s power offered through faith has a condition—they must be understood in the context of God’s will and not our desires.
25And whenever you stand and pray, if you have something against anyone, forgive them, so that your father who is in heave may forgive your transgressions.”
The introduction of forgiveness at this point in the discussion is very interesting. We tend to view the physical miracles as the most difficult, but Jesus emphasized spiritual things, like forgiveness of sins. This saying parallels Matthew 6:14-15 reasonably well.
This introduces a condition into the prayer. If we forgive, then God forgives. There’s many ways to argue around this, but I believe at a minimum we must realize that an unforgiving spirit will make it difficult to accept forgiveness as well.
26{But if you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive your transgressions.}
Verse 26 is not included in the best manuscripts It is probably added by a scribe by analogy with Matthew 6:15.
I’m curious. Assuming you have forgiven everyone; and assuming you are quite convinced of God’s will in a matter and even have found Scripture to support it (all of which the Word of Faith teachers DO emphasize), how would you interpret Mark 11:24 then?
Sorry to take so long to reply.
In my view, it’s very easy for us to convince ourselves that we are asking in God’s will, and even to believe we are supported by scripture than it is to actually be in God’s will. The problem will remain as long as we are trying to adjust God, no matter what we convince ourselves of first.
The bottom line here is that in my view prayer is more about adjusting myself to the way God works in the world, a way that often frustrates me, than it is about getting things working smoothly as I would like.
I too convince myself that things are God’s will and find out that they aren’t. That’s part of the experience of bringing my will into alignment with God’s.