And passing by early in the morning they saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots.
The next morning the disciples take the same road to Jerusalem. They see what the Lord's word of the day before had done: a tree not just wilting, but dead to its roots. Two questions follow. Why did the One who healed and fed people curse a tree? And what were the disciples meant to learn?
The tree was not judged for failing out of season. Its own growth pattern explains why.
A fig tree grows its fruit before its leaves. So where there were leaves, there should have been fruit on the fig tree the Lord cursed, even though the usual fig season had not come. This pictured Israel. Scripture had compared Israel to a fig tree bearing its first-ripe figs, Hosea 9:10. But in the days of the Lord, Israel had plenty of leaves. The nation claimed to be God's favoured people, yet it produced no real fruit for Him. Luke 13:6-7. As a nation in the flesh, no fruit will ever be found on it.
The detail Mark records is the direction the death travelled.
Coming into the city the next morning, they saw the fig tree the Lord had spoken to, dried up from the roots. The blight that had fallen on it worked against nature, which would have withered the tree from the top downwards. This showed it to be an act of God. Peter was struck by it and pointed it out, and so invited the Lord to comment on what had happened.
Every other work of Jesus gave something away. This one took something away, and commentators treat that oddity as the key to its meaning.
It is important to notice that here the Lord's miracles are not only a sign and proof of power. They also show the goodness that was acting in divine power. This is what gives the true divine character to the miracles of Jesus. All His works are the fruit of love, and they bear witness to the God of love on the earth. There is only one apparent exception, and even that proves the point. The exception is the cursing of the fig tree. But this was a picture of the people Israel, and you may say of human nature too, under God's cultivation, which produced no fruit — only leaves, that is, hypocrisy.
If the sentence was "never again," does Israel have any future?
Does this mean that Israel can never be restored? No, it does not. A tree may die, and in that first state it never bears fruit again. Yet "there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease; though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground" (Job 14:7-8). Israel will rise again, in a different state from the one that brought her to ruin. This will truly be "life from the dead" (Romans 11:15).
Peter's remark draws out the Lord's lesson. The mountain thrown into the sea points to the nation the fig tree pictured.
The fig tree stood for the people in their religious show, now plainly empty, and judged by Him whose right it was and still is. So "this mountain" seems to mean their "place and nation," which in their unbelief they fought hard to keep under Roman protection. ("We have no king but Caesar.") It looked strong in Jewish eyes. But before the faith of the disciples it was doomed.
The lesson was practical. A few fishermen faced the whole religious establishment.
On the surface, those who opposed the Lord and His teaching held all the power and authority of the established order. How then were a few poor fishermen to stand against the wisdom and power of men in high places? The Lord's answer is, "Have faith in God." All the power of the people pictured by the barren fig tree would vanish before the power of God used by faith… though the mountain would be removed, God would remain, the unfailing resource for faith.
The Lord ties this confidence to one thing in the one who prays.
Believing prayer! What results may come from it! What mighty deeds may be accomplished! A mountain removed, and the heart realises the power of faith. But such prayer can only come from someone at peace with those who have offended him. There must be a forgiving spirit before the prayer of faith can be presented to God.
- Root cause. Leaves without figs made a false promise. The tree, and the nation it pictured, offered fruit it did not have.
- Root judgment. The death spread up from the roots, against nature. That marked the withering as God's own act, not decay.
- Root exception. Every other miracle of Jesus did good. This one act of judgment fell on a religion of leaves without fruit.
- Root revived. The tree in its old state bears nothing again, yet writers point to a future for Israel that is "life from the dead."
- Root of power. Faith in God topples what looks immovable. But the heart that prays must first forgive.
And Peter, remembering [what Jesus had said], says to him, Rabbi, see, the fig-tree which thou cursedst is dried up.
A day later Peter walks the same road and sees the tree the Lord had spoken to, dead from the roots up. Why did a withered plant shock him, and why did the Lord answer his remark with a lesson about faith?
The tree withered overnight because Jesus had spoken. One writer asks whether that should have surprised Peter at all:
Next morning, as the Lord and His disciples passed the spot again, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. But should this have surprised the apostle? Was there not power in the words of Jesus for even greater wonders still? For the voice that cursed the fruitless fig tree was the same voice that ages before said, "Let there be light," and there was light (Gen. 1:3).
Mark notes which way the withering ran. That detail shows whose hand was in it:
The blight that fell on the tree worked in a way that was contrary to nature. Nature would have withered it from the top downwards. This fact showed it to be an act of God. Peter was struck by it and pointed it out, and so he invited the Lord to comment on what had happened.
The judgment looks harsh until you know how a fig grows. Fruit comes first, leaves afterward:
The fruit comes before the leaves. So where there were leaves, there should have been fruit on the fig tree the Lord cursed, even though the usual fig season had not arrived. This was a picture of Israel... but in the days of the Lord, Israel had plenty of leaves. The people claimed to be the nation God favoured, yet they produced no real fruit for Him.
Every other work of Jesus was a work of love. This one looks like the exception, and one writer explains why it is not:
All His works are the fruit of love, and bear witness to the God of love upon the earth. There is only one apparent exception... the cursing of the fig tree. But the tree stood for the people of Israel, and you could say for human nature too. God cultivated it, and it bore no fruit. There were only leaves, that is, hypocrisy. So He judged and condemned it, and it will never bear fruit again... Man must be born again — must be created again in Christ Jesus.
Peter addresses Him as "Rabbi." Here is what that word meant to the people who used it:
A title of respect among the Jews, signifying "master, teacher"... People applied it to the Lord too, though the King James Version often translates it as "master."
Peter asked no question. But the Lord's answer to Simon (Peter's other name) shows how He heard him:
Peter's remark was not put in the form of a question, but it seems to have had much of a question about it. We gather this from the Lord's reply. Simon only said, "The fig tree that You cursed has withered!" Yet the Lord took His servant's remark to mean, "Lord, what is the lesson we are to learn from this remarkable act of judgment?"
The answer aims at what the disciples had been leaning on:
They tended to put their faith in things they could see: in the system of law given through Moses, in the temple, in themselves as a people, or in their priests and leaders. We have exactly the same tendency... all such things fail, but God remains. He is faithful, and He remains as the Object of faith when a curse falls upon our cherished little fig tree. The word is literally, "Have the faith of God." It is as though the Lord says to us, "Hold on to the faithfulness of God, no matter what may wither up and disappear."
The Lord goes on to speak of moving "this mountain." One writer asks what that mountain stood for, and what must go with faith:
The fig tree stood for the people and their religious show, now clearly empty... so "this mountain" seems to mean instead their "place and nation"... It looked strong in Jewish eyes, but before the faith of the disciples it was doomed... This is the declared power of faith. But there is another requirement: the spirit of gracious forgiveness toward anyone who has wronged or otherwise offended us.
- Word. The tree withered because Jesus spoke; the same voice once said, "Let there be light."
- Root. It died from the roots up, against nature — the mark of God's own hand.
- Leaves. Figs come before leaves, so a leafy tree owed fruit. God judged a show of leaves with nothing behind it.
- Question. Peter only exclaimed, but the Lord answered him as though he had asked what it all meant.
- Faith. Stop trusting what looks solid; trust God, who never fails. And forgive, because faith and forgiveness go together.
And Jesus answering says to them, Have faith in God.
Peter points to the fig tree the Lord had cursed, now dead from the roots. The reply is not an explanation of the miracle but a command about God. What kind of faith is meant, what is the "mountain" that faith moves, and how far do the promises attached to it reach?
The men who opposed the Lord held all the power. The disciples held none. One writer sets the scene:
The Lord teaches His disciples the great principle. It enables the weakest believer to overcome the greatest difficulty and the most cunning opponent. Outwardly all the power and authority of the established order was in the hands of those who were opposing the Lord and His teaching. How then were a few poor fishermen to stand against the wisdom and power of men in high places? The Lord's answer is, "Have faith in God."
The phrase is unusual in Greek, and the wording matters. It is not confidence in general, warmed up by religion; it is faith defined by the One it looks at:
"Have faith in God" in Mark 11:22 is in Greek "the faith of God"; that is, it has God for its object.
William Kelly compares Mark's wording with Matthew's, and points to who needs it most:
The Master's answer was, "Have faith in God" — a more pointed form of speech than the one in the Gospel of Matthew, and of the gravest importance for the servants of God when they face the guilt and ruin of what seems finest, or at least is most valued among men.
Commentators read "this mountain" as something specific, not as any hardship at random:
The fig tree stood for the people and their religious show, now clearly empty, and judged by Him whose right it was and is. So "this mountain" seems to mean rather their "place and nation." In their unbelief they worked hard to keep that nation under Roman protection. ("We have no king but Caesar.") It stood strong in Jewish eyes. But before the faith of the disciples it was doomed, soon to be violently torn up and lost in the sea of the Gentiles.
Hamilton Smith adds that the mountain would go, but the resource would not: "though the mountain would be removed, God would remain, the unfailing resource for faith" (Hamilton Smith).
If faith has God as its object, then it moves with God. It does not give orders of its own:
It is certainly not that faith decides what it wants to do. Faith rather depends on the will of God. God had decided that the fig tree (Israel) would wither: faith therefore could act on God's will in the matter... For faith makes no independent decisions: it simply trusts the word and will of God.
Yet the promise itself stays wide. Commentators warn against cutting it down:
The promise here, of course, applies in many different ways. It would be entirely wrong to limit it in any way, except as the Lord Himself does. He clearly makes His last assurance as full as possible. To faith nothing shall be denied. But it is no limitation to insist that faith must be faith.
The passage does not end with mountains. It ends with grudges, and commentators treat that as part of the same instruction:
He assures His disciples that whatever they asked in faith would be done. But to secure this they must walk and act in grace, if they want to enjoy this privilege... I have no doubt why we so often get no answers to our prayers. Our hearts are not right before God in this respect. Someone keeps an old grudge alive instead of dropping it for good.
Another writer pictures the failure: "Two brothers kneel in the same prayer meeting... but they have hard and unforgiving thoughts towards each other; their prayers are vain and empty words" (J T Mawson).
- Object — The Greek says "the faith of God." It is faith with God Himself as its object, not confidence in yourself.
- Occasion — A dead fig tree prompted the words. The lesson was for men with no power, facing rulers who held it all.
- Mountain — Commentators read "this mountain" as Israel's place and nation. It would soon be torn up and lost in the sea of the Gentiles.
- Limits — Faith makes no decisions of its own. It trusts the word and will of God. And no one may narrow the promise the Lord gave.
- Condition — Faith towards God comes with forgiveness towards others. An old grudge explains many unanswered prayers.
Verily I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou taken away and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but believe that what he says takes place, whatever he shall say shall come to pass for him.
Peter points out the fig tree Jesus had cursed, now dead from the roots up. The Lord's reply turns it into a lesson about what faith can move, and it raises two questions: what is "this mountain," and how far does the promise reach?
The Lord gives this promise to men with no power of their own.
The Lord teaches His disciples the great principle that enables the weakest believer to overcome the greatest difficulty and the cleverest opponent. On the surface, those who opposed the Lord and His teaching held all the power and authority of the established order. How then were a few poor fishermen to stand against the wisdom and power of men in high places? The Lord's answer is, "Have faith in God."
The phrase that opens the Lord's answer carries another possible rendering.
"Have faith in God" can also read "faith of God" — that is, Divine faith. Compare Paul's phrase "righteousness of God."
The mountain image was not new. God had used it before, when His people faced a ruler who stopped their building work.
The king of Persia had commanded the work to stop. He might look like a great mountain, an obstacle God's people could never move. But God says to them for their encouragement, "Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain." Later, when on earth, the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Have faith in God; for truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea' … it will be done for him" (Mark 11:22-23). When faith rests its eye on God, the great mountain becomes a plain.
One reading takes the mountain as a specific obstacle in front of the disciples that day. History then shows what happened to it.
Of course the Lord is not speaking of a literal mountain. "This mountain" is the obstacle of Israel's condition at the time, just as the fig tree pictured her condition. The obstacle was Israel's opposition to the Lord Jesus. Its removal into the sea took place not long after the death of Christ. The nation was driven from her land and swallowed up in the sea of the Gentile nations.
Others read the mountain more broadly, as a picture of any obstacle.
The mountain is the type of an obstacle. Every obstacle can be and will be removed out of the way in answer to prayer. That there is a reference to Israel in these words is no doubt true. The nation was a mountain. By its disobedience and rejection of the Lord, it was an obstacle in the path of the Gospel.
Some would cut this promise down to size. One writer refuses, while keeping the one condition the Lord Himself attaches.
But the promise here has many applications. It would be quite wrong to limit it in any way, except as the Lord Himself does. He makes His last assurance as full as possible. To faith nothing shall be denied; but it is not limitation to insist that faith must be faith.
The promise is not an invitation to test whether it works.
Genuine, God-given faith, not mystical or imagined faith, is what is meant here. Many have probably tried this promise out as an experiment, only to be disappointed. Muhammad, it is said, had the nerve to order a mountain to come to him. When everyone could see his folly, he tried to escape the shame by saying, "If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad will go to the mountain." But God does not give His promises, or the power of His Spirit, for curious experiments or for serving private ends.
So faith and God's will belong together.
Faith does not decide what it wants to do. Instead, faith depends on the will of God… Faith that leans on God in dependence could discern what God had decided, and so speak of it beforehand. For faith makes no decisions of its own: it trusts the word and will of God.
- Source — the Lord's answer opens with "have faith in God." The phrase can also read as divine faith: faith that comes from God and rests on Him.
- Sight — the nation and its religious order looked immovable. Faith saw it already on its way into the sea of the nations. A mountain becomes a plain when faith rests its eye on God.
- Scope — commentators differ on whether "this mountain" means Israel or any obstacle. They agree it is wrong to shrink the promise. To faith nothing shall be denied.
- Standard — the one limit is the Lord's own: faith must be faith. It is genuine and God-given, never mystical, imagined, or an experiment.
- Submission — faith makes no decisions of its own. It does not choose the mountain. It discerns God's will from His word and then speaks with no doubt in the heart.
For this reason I say to you, All things whatsoever ye pray for and ask, believe that ye receive it, and it shall come to pass for you.
The Lord speaks these words the morning after He cursed the barren fig tree. Peter had just pointed out that it withered from the roots. The promise that follows is very wide. It makes us ask what believing really means here.
The disciples were a small group. They faced the whole religious establishment. The promise answers that helplessness.
The Lord teaches His disciples the great principle. It lets the weakest believer overcome the hardest difficulty and the cleverest opponent. On the surface, the men who opposed the Lord and His teaching held all the power. How then were a few poor fishermen to stand against the wisdom and power of men in high places? The Lord's answer is, "Have faith in God."
One writer looks past the promise itself to what would happen to Israel as a nation.
We may well see here a hidden promise about Israel. Israel was now only an obstacle in the path of faith, and as a nation it would disappear among the nations. But this promise applies in many ways. It would be quite wrong to limit it, except as the Lord Himself does. He makes His closing promise as full as He can. Nothing will be denied to faith. Yet it is no limit to insist that faith must be real faith.
One writer weighs the two words that make the promise so broad.
"Whoever says … and does not doubt in his heart, but believes … it will be done for him." The whoever and the whatever make this a very sweeping statement. It almost takes our breath away. But it is connected with the prayer described in the next verse. In both these verses everything clearly hinges on the believing.
One writer refuses to set a limit where Scripture sets none. He applies the promise to everyday needs as well as spiritual ones.
I believe this is true of every spiritual blessing we need. And it is not limited to the spiritual. "Whatever you ask" sets no limit, and I refuse to add one where Scripture does not… The Lord often uses our daily needs to teach us. When faith prays to Him about them, we learn to pray and trust Him about the deeper spiritual needs.
Everything turns on the word "believe." So we need to know what belief is.
Belief is faith. Faith is not something we produce ourselves. It is not make-believe or imagination. Verse 24 does not mean that if I can work myself up to imagine I receive what I ask for, then I do receive it… Faith is the God-given power in me that receives God's Word. Faith is the eye of the soul, which receives and appreciates divine light.
One writer points to a confidence God Himself gives about one particular thing. He also warns against testing the promise.
Scripture recognises specific faith about a specific thing… This may be the special kind of faith the Lord means when He says, "whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24). Genuine, divinely given faith, not mystical or imagined faith, is what is meant here. Many have tried this promise as an experiment, only to be disappointed… But God does not give His promises and the power of His Spirit for us to experiment with, or to use for our own private ends.
One writer takes the verse as a rule for all prayer, not a blank cheque for our own wishes.
Mark 11:24 gives the principle on which we are to pray in every case… all prayer should be with faith. Praying in the Holy Spirit is now tied to Christ's words staying in us… As a rule, the Holy Spirit will keep those words in our mind, if our hearts are right.
The same writer allows both realities: that God may give a specific assurance, and that our own will can distort a request.
It is always right to bring what we ask to Him, subject to His will… And the answer will be more glorious and blessed than what we asked, even when it is not the answer we wanted. Let us trust His love, and it will not fall short. If He has given us faith to expect a specific answer, let us bless God for it. Only our own will must not come in… But where there is earnest faith, God will hear, though He may guard us against our own will in it.
One writer ties believing prayer to how we hold our feelings towards other people.
If I hold a grudge against anyone, I do not have a good conscience towards God… I must be "without anger" as much as "without doubting" if I want to receive good things from God's hand.
- Faith in God — what counts is who you trust, not how hard you try. "Have faith in God" is the Lord's answer to a handful of fishermen facing an immovable system.
- Faith receives — believing is not working yourself up to imagine an answer. It is the soul taking in what God has said.
- Faith is given — God grants a specific faith about a specific thing. The promise is not there for us to experiment with.
- Faith submits — "whatever" has no limit, but our own will must not come in. Where He assures us of a specific answer, bless Him for it.
- Faith forgives — believing prayer goes with a heart that holds no grudge: without anger, as much as without doubting.
And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have anything against any one, that your Father also who is in the heavens may forgive you your offences.
Jesus had cursed a fruitless fig tree the day before. The next morning Peter pointed out that it had withered, and the Lord turned the moment into a lesson on faith and prayer. Before He tells the disciples what prayer can move, He names what must move in them first: anything they hold against someone else.
The withered tree pictured a religious system that had failed, and the "mountain" the disciples were told they could move stood for the nation that looked immovable to them. One writer traces how the Lord's promise about faith runs straight into a second requirement:
The fig tree symbolized the people in their religious pretensions, now clearly empty, and so judged by Him whose right it was and is. So "this mountain" seems to mean rather their "place and nation," which in their unbelief they worked hard to keep under Roman protection... Strong as it stood in Jewish eyes, before the faith of the disciples it was doomed, and soon to be violently uprooted and lost in the sea of Gentiles. Such is the declared power of faith. But one more thing is needed, and faith itself would produce it: the spirit of gracious forgiveness toward anyone who might have wronged or otherwise offended us.
The Lord ties two things together in one sentence, and one writer takes the pair into the prayer meeting:
Two things are necessary if our prayers are to be heard and answered: faith towards God and forgiveness towards all others. The Lord Himself has joined them together in these memorable words, and we must not separate what He has joined together... Two brothers kneel in the same prayer meeting. Their being there shows that they have some faith in God. But they have hard and unforgiving thoughts towards each other, and their prayers are empty words.
The promise about faith comes with a moral condition, and one writer names what it costs to ignore it:
He assures His disciples that whatever they asked in faith would be done. But to make sure of this they must walk and act in grace, if they would enjoy this privilege. If you pray for something to be done, there must be forgiveness "if you have anything against anyone." I have no doubt why we so often get no answers to our prayers. Our hearts are not right before God in this respect. We keep up some old grudge instead of dismissing it for ever.
The verse says "your Father who is in heaven." The Lord is speaking to people already in that relationship. So the forgiveness here is a father's dealing with his children, not the settling of eternal guilt:
In the heavenly Father's holy government of His children, the unforgiving spirit comes under His discipline. If someone commits an offence against us and we refuse to forgive, we will miss God's governmental forgiveness. This is not a question of forgiveness for eternity. Those He was speaking to were disciples, and for them that great matter was already settled.
So what is lost is nearness to God, and a second writer shows how deep that loss goes:
If we do not forgive, we are not forgiven as children. Communion with God our Father is put on hold. His Spirit within us is grieved. To go on as though all were right is presumption; it is insincerity and displeasing to God. True prayer is communion with God. It is speaking to Him with the confidence of a heart that does not condemn us.
"Anyone" leaves no one out, and a forgiving heart is not the same as pretending wrong never happened:
Whoever it may be that we have anything against, we must have a thoroughly forgiving spirit toward them. This does not mean that God's assembly should restore them to fellowship while they continue in sinful disobedience. But our personal attitude must be one of willingness to forgive. If it is not so, how can we expect God to forgive our own trespasses and answer our prayers favourably?
The posture in the verse is simply the ordinary one of the people the Lord was speaking to:
Standing was, and remains, the usual posture of Jews in prayer... The scriptural postures are either standing (Abraham, in Gen. 18:22; compare Jer. 15:1, of Moses and Samuel), or kneeling (Solomon, Daniel, our Lord in Luke 22:41, Stephen, Peter, Paul).
- Faith first. Mountain-moving prayer rests on faith in God, and that same faith produces a spirit that forgives.
- Forgiveness with it. The Lord joined believing prayer and a forgiving heart; we are not free to separate them.
- Father, not Judge. The forgiveness at stake is a father's dealing with his children. The eternal question is already settled for those who believe.
- Communion is the cost. An unforgiving heart puts fellowship with the Father on hold. Praying on as if all were well is insincerity.
- No exceptions. "Anyone" means anyone. The willingness to forgive must be personal, whoever the offender is.