Jim Gregg
January 9, 1012
Have you ever read the following?
Mark 11: 12 The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 Jesus told it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” and his disciples heard it.
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20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. 21 Peter, remembering, said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.” 22 Jesus answered them,
“Have faith in God. 23 For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening; he shall have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them.
Pretty neat promises don’t you think? “all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them”.
I have read this many times and marveled at the power of God that is available to us. Yet is that really what Jesus meant to tell us? Could I possible ask “ all things whatever you pray and ask for” and receive them “ and you shall have them”?
Then I jump down to the commentary at the bottom of my Study Bible. Lo and behold! This guy sure doesn’t think so. So I go to another commentator on theWEB. Wow! He has an even more restrictive answer as to what I can ask for. Yikes! It seems like Jesus didn’t really know what He was saying.
Why according to these learned professional theologians I have to do this and that and only ask for this under this circumstance. My head is dizzy trying to unravel the very thought of it. You can never seem to find a unemployed tax lawyer to give you a hand when needed. I have read contracts with less verbiage.
Jesus put it so simple “Have faith in God”, “Ask”, “Believe”, and “Receive”. That is the way Jesus’ life was. Simple yet profound. It seems to take a theologian to confuse it. Jesus was speaking these words to common fishermen. They were crude, unkempt, smelly, and assuredly not highly educated. Jesus Kept His messages simple.
It is in that tone that I choose to read and understand these verses. Simple and to the point.
One commentator said that speaking of the withered tree symbolized our withered self before we came to Christ. Did they ever read v.13? Jesus went to a real tree looking for real fruit.
Matthew tells us a this story a little different.
Matthew 21:18 Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away. 20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?” 21 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith, and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done. 22 All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Jesus said “you will not only do what was done to the fig tree”. So he is relating the fig tree in a real way when He gave us the promise. I don’t believe he was talking about some spiritual state of our being. He said do you remember that tree? Well you can do the same thing to this mountain.
They were standing on the Mount of Olives at the time and could see the Dead Sea off in the distance. There was no need to come up with some mental image. This was a simple object lesson. Plain and simply Jesus meant the Mount of Olives that He was standing on. Not some ethereal representation of a problem in your life that looms over you like a mountain. Yet this is exactly what preacher after preacher says. Why you can say to this mountain of despair in your life to be removed and cast into the sea and it will.
In real life you do not see too many mountains being thrown into a sea. What a CNN event that would be. EPA would be there as well as Greens Peace and Al Gore. What a calamity. What about the thousands of people who lived on the mountain, how are they. Not to mention the tsunami that would be set off by this massive amount of rock being pitched into the deep.
Why does this not happen if Jesus said that it could. Trying to answer this question is probably the reason so many have opted out for the less meaningful rendition of it being a mountain in your head and not a mountain of solid granite. Quite frankly I do not think that anyone has the faith to believe it. Pure and simple. You can believe a lot of things, but to cause an actual 14,000 foot mountain to be ripped out of the earth and cast into the sea seems totally impossible. So it does not happen.
Possibly to the very assured Christian who does posses the true faith needed to cause this natural disaster, other things become more important than causing a natural terrifying event. These are the ones off feeding the hungry, raising the dead, leading lost souls to Christ.
I can see several 14,000 foot mountains on my way to work each day. I have a lot of faith in God and power given to me by Jesus. Yet it does not occur to me to want one of these splendid pinnacles of Gods nature to be ripped out of its socket just to please my thoughts. What possible good or end could there be in such an undertaking?
Yet because that Jesus told me that I could do this if I wished, it to be gives me great comfort in the strength of the faith I have in Him. I can do all things because of Christ, not just trash prime skiing terrain.
I started writing this to help unravel the meaning behind what those verses of Scripture said. I believe I have accomplished what I set out to do. Yes we can move a physical real hard rock mountain and cause it to be cast into the sea. It has to be, Jesus said it.
But why would I want to do it? Just because I can. Having such great power direct from God I would much rather use it to do a greater amount of good in this world. I know that I can move Mount Evans, but I would rather minister to the needy in a 3rd world country. With such power available to me just by asking nothing can stand in my way as I seek to serve the living Savior with my life.
Stand back Satan. You can not pass, you can not thwart me, you have no power over me. I have Jesus Christ watching my back with His hand on my shoulder. I am invincible through Christ who strengthens me.