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.