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. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 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 them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Mark 11:20-25

What is the actual meaning of this passage? Is Jesus teaching about impromptu, geological-scale landscaping? Does he intend to teach his disciples how to call up a volcano from beneath the earth? Why does he say “this mountain?”

Jesus has just entered Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling Scripture in what we call the “triumphal entry”. The next day he cursed the tree on his way to the temple. Once there, we see he has overturned tables in the Temple, cleansing the exploitation that was happening there. That’s the context for the cursed fig tree and then this lesson on prayer–and that’s what it is, a lesson on prayer.

What is about to happen in Jesus’ life?

His death on the cross. He knows this, but the disciples don’t quite get it yet. He knows, also, that even after his triumphal return from death they will face struggles. So we get this lesson for us as much as them: forget cursing trees that inconvenience you and maybe forget throwing the whole mountain of Jerusalem into the Dead Sea. But remember this: God wants to grant you miraculous, over-the-top requests. The trick is, we have to pray them first.

Oh and forgive because God forgave you! It almost seems like a change of topic, but Jesus is insistent on forgiveness. It’s also in his model prayer (Matthew 6). In fact, forgiveness and “your will be done” are both there. Not just as a shorthand for God getting his way. This is not the prayer equivalent of “wherever you want to eat is fine”; asking the Lord to work his will goes along with our requests because we are to be asking for things of his will.

To use our restaurant selection example, we don’t say “wherever you want to eat” we say “how about that Mexican place you like?” We don’t say “God give me whatever I need” we say “Lord give me this particular thing to use for this particular task.”

Why would you ever need to move a mountain? If you can think of a good reason and it aligns with God’s will, he might grant it. But how about we start by asking for what we need to do the work he has put before us?

Ethan Kirl