Mark 11:20-25 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
The above passage is an interesting one, for it has been interpreted in many ways. Some believe that it refers to moving mountains that everyone has access to such as the mountain we look at every morning: Mt Rainier in Washington State. How confusing life would be if people of faith wanted to remove that mountain to anyplace they chose. Maybe one Washingtonian would move it to Russia, another to Mexico where he vacations in the winter, or maybe a more sinister person would move Mt Rainier to Washington D.C on top of the existing federal buildings to squash the federal government's control over us. No, if we interpret this passage in that way, according to our own whims about something, even a geographical site, great chaos would be brought on the Earth by the conflicting and confusing desires from people of strong faith. Sadly, people have attempted to implement this promise in exactly those ways, even playing God by not burying their dead after several days, supposedly waiting with faith for God to do their will by raising their loved one up again into life. In many ways such prayers of that kind are an attempt to place our will above God's will. Otherwise, our faith becomes the determining factor in our lives, our will, not necessarily God's will that implements his perfect plans. How can we look at this scripture if we are not in the business of moving geographical sites or cursing biological life? For one, we can remember scripture interprets scripture: You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James goes on to remind us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:3 & 6) So often our prayers are for our prideful pleasures or selfish desires.
To find the key to today's passage we must determine what is happening with the tree and with the mountain. In both cases they are being removed from their normal state of existence. The tree is drying up and the mountain is disappearing in the sea. As the tree dies and the mountains disappears, they will no longer exist in our presence. Looking at the last sentence in this passage, we see the central point of Jesus' words: And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. If we want our sins to disappear as surely as the tree and mountain will disappear from where they now appear, we must forgive people anything we have against them. We must clean our slate first by making things right with those we are angry at before God will answer our prayers of faith. Otherwise, he will not hear us because our prayers are not true or holy. We are coming against his will that demands for us to be perfect in love as He is perfect in love. Jesus said, He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:45) He holds no favoritism in blessing people, friends and enemies, with his goodness. Jesus told us to be perfect, complete in our faith, without doubting or resentment. We cannot have true faith if we are not like God. For disbelief's origins are rooted where all sin is, in self-will, not God's will. The sinful nature will not forgive others if it feels it is in the right or deserves to have a blessing. We need the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, for we so easily go astray. Jesus sent the Spirit to lead us into truth, to act as a guide, and to counsel us. When we listen to that still small voice, we pray according to the Holy Spirit's leading with the wisdom of God and with the truth of the Spirit.
What about when our prayers conflict with someone else's prayers? We might want Aunt Joan to sell us her house cheaply, but brother Bill across the street might be praying for Aunt Joan to sell her house to him cheaply. Both pray with faith, both believe they are praying the right way and that their prayers surely will be answered. And, as far as the above scripture is concerned, if neither one doubts, this is going to happen. But God will have to split Joan's house in two, giving a half to each one, to answer these prayers. Of course, we have a silly analogy, but a true one in the sense that if we accept the above premise in all situations, God cannot accommodate the conflicting prayers of his people. Think of all the prayers going up on game days. No, we can best ascertain that this passage refers to what the last sentence refers to, something within us: a mountain or burden within us. Maybe we have something within us that needs to shrivel up and disappear. Maybe because of this dysfunction within us, we are not bearing fruit in season and out of season. This is not God's plan. From the beginning, we were made to bear fruit, for we were created in the image of our Creator. And now we are new creatures with God's Spirit resident in us. John said, How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1) Therefore, what hinders us from standing firm as what God desires us to be? If we discern the hindrance, we should pray with unadulterated faith for our weaknesses to be removed. Faith is the answer for these mountains and fruitless trees to be removed. If we will believe, his merciful scalpel will do the work necessary. His hands will adroitly and successfully remove the cancers of sin and unbelief. There is no chaos in his operating room: all things are done in harmony there, and the eternal result is peace in the presence of the Lord. We recover by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Come to Jesus little children. Come to him and live in freedom!
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