Mark 11:21 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 11:21

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Peter records Christ’s cursing of the fig tree. It happened only the previous morning, and yet now the tree is completely withered. Peter has never seen a tree die so quickly. Evidently Christ had performed a miracle. ‘And Jesus answering, said unto them, Have faith in God.’ The implication is clear. Peter is not only thinking of what Christ has done, but of whether he too can do such things. He and the other disciples have already been given power to heal the sick and cast out demons. Will Christ also give them power to do miracles such as this cursing of the fig tree? In verse 23 Christ speaks of what Peter and the other apostles will be able to do, and the key to this is faith. He turns it into a lesson on prayer.Does this trouble us? But how should we understand this promise? Who does it apply to, the apostles or all believers? Is it literal or figurative? If you stand in front of a mountain and say, ‘Be removed; be cast into the sea’; if you can believe that it will be done, it will be done, says the Lord. Quite obviously, so obviously, we are not to take those words literally. If Christ had said, ‘If you say to this tree, Be removed and cast into the sea’, perhaps somebody might think, ‘Oh, I think that should be taken literally.’ You could somehow imagine that would be achievable. So to make sure that none of us can be so foolish as to think this is to be interpreted literally, Christ chooses a mountain, the Mount of Olives, because surely nobody would think that this should be taken literally. It is an illustration, a symbol, an example. He is instructing the future apostles, those who will be, under God's power, founders of the New Testament church, the greatest missionaries and church planters; those who are bringing about the visible the birth of the church of Christ. He is instructing them, ‘You must have great faith, you must believe.’ So he chooses a mountain. If it is an obstacle to you, if it is in the way of the progress of the work and of the church, it can be made to disappear, cast into the sea, never to be seen again, if you believe.

Application

So what does it symbolise? Following the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ came the wait and the day of Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the disciples will embark upon their task of spreading the gospel into the world. They have got intense Jewish nationalism against them. The Jewish leaders will surely take them, arrest them, end their whole mission. What an obstacle! The hypocrisy of the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees – what a mountain! How can they prosper? How can they carry out the great commission? ‘We must believe the words of our Saviour and our Lord, who was commissioned us, that as we proclaim to all the world, so he will be with us. The obstacles will be removed and the word will go forth, and we may well endure suffering and even martyrdom, but the word will go forth. The mountain will be removed into the sea.’ And so it proved to be. The impenetrable, immovable mountain of Jewish leadership opposition and nationalism was removed out of their way, and within half a century the gospel was widespread.

We see it in church history. Think of the Reformation. There were certainly all kinds of strands of influence that God used to prepare the way for the Reformation, but nevertheless, the fundamental drama remains. Luther, a penniless monk, and a band of likewise penniless monks who stood with him, turned the iron grip of the Roman Catholic empire upside down. One man nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517, and it heralded the beginning of a mighty Reformation. The mountain of Catholicism and its stranglehold on society was broken and removed. So it is with the annals of missionary endeavour. We love to read the books and how different things have happened, and conquests have been made: access to nations, wonderful things accomplished, and souls saved in their hundreds of thousands.

Some people from this passage teach, if I want gold-plated bath taps and I believe hard enough, then my prayer will be answered and I shall have whatever I want. It almost sounds like that on the surface. There are people who think this entitles us to pray with a fierce and vehement belief for anything we want. But it is not about that at all. In all prayer, as were taught in the Scripture and by the Lord, God is sovereign. ‘If the Lord will’ we read in the letter of James as the absolute standard for prayer. There is always a condition on prayer. Although this may sound an extravagant statement, it still comes under the heading, ‘if the Lord will.’ He is sovereign; he hasn't passed his sovereignty to me.

Our faith has no right to invent anything of its own. Faith does not make up the objects of belief, but receives them from God. It is because God has spoken that faith is warranted. We can trust all that he says, for he cannot lie or raise our hopes falsely. Here Christ gives a great promise, and faith is expected to take hold of it. Small faith can receive great promises if it stops focusing on itself and start considering who gave the promise. He has told them to exercise faith, and now follows a promise which faith can attach itself to. Faith always thinks of who has spoken, and in doing so it is strengthened.

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Mark 11:21 Commentary and Bible Study