Mark 11:20-26
20And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. 21And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. 22And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. 23For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 25And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 26But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
There are a couple of things that intrigue me about this passage. In the previous passages (11:12-13) , Jesus is hungry and wants fruit from a tree that is not in season. When he finds no fruit, he says that the tree will never bare fruit again. In today’s reading, we see that the tree has withered, presumed by Peter to have been a result of Jesus’ pronouncement. First, this seems out of character for Jesus to seemingly behave in such a petulant matter. Secondly, when Peter points out the withered tree to Jesus, Jesus responds with his comments about the nature of prayer. That seems like an odd response. What does prayer have anything to do with the withered tree?
Now a lot of commentators go on about how the withered fig tree is symbolic of the corruption of the Temple priests. I agree with that based upon the position of this story in relation to the Temple cleansing story. But I also think this story has to do with the nature of prayer based upon Jesus comments following Peter’s observation. Jesus says to have faith and obstacles will be removed and that one must not be harboring ill-will towards anyone or prayers will be hindered.
This is a very difficult passage and some may disagree with my interpretation. But I don’t think I am too off-base. There are other passages throughout scripture that supports the notion that insistent prayer (that is, a prayer based on faith) of a righteous person (that is, someone with the right attitude with towards God and others) is power and effective (James 5:16)
Essentially, if we are praying without the proper faith and attitude, our prayer life will be as unfruitful as a withered fig tree. It’s not easy to do, though. There are people that really annoy me and I struggle not to let my dislike of their personality quirks to lead ill-will. I tell myself that they are who they are and I have a lot of annoying quirks as well.
So, I when I find myself doubting God or when I realize that I have been thinking unkind things about someone, I stop and immediately ask the Lord to help me with it. Since I KNOW he wants me to have faith and I KNOW that he wants me to love others, then I have absolute confidence that he will grant that prayer. He’ll do that for anyone who asks.
LGL (c) 2009
2 Comments
July 19, 2009 at 12:57 pm
20090719.1030p
Jesus cursed the fig tree a day after He entered Jerusalem on a colt. So it is near the time when He was to be crucified. If we say that Jesus was crucified during the Passover Festival and it happened sometime in March or April, then Jesus should know that the tree would not have any fruit yet during this time because it is a summer-fruiting tree. And summer in Jerusalem is about July/August.
The truth of the matter is that Jesus was crucified on August 17, summertime. When He approached the fig tree, He expected to find fruit but did not find any so He cursed it.
This only proves that the revelation to us (plural) of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was crucified in August is correct. I first heard this crucifixion date of August 17 in 1983 but only checked its veracity when we connected to the Internet in 1999. After four years, in 2003, I was able to prove that the revelation is true and correct. He risked His credibility by revealing such date. Did you know that had I proved that the date is wrong, I would have branded Him as fake.
With love, your brother in Jesus,
Aristeo Canlas Fernando, Peace Crusader and Echo
Motto: pro aris et focis (for the sake of, or defense of, religion and home)
http://www.geocities.com/peacecrusader888/
“The Internet is mightier than the sword.”
August 11, 2009 at 1:49 pm
20090811.1115p
Did you know that the fig tree tells us when the crucifixion happened? The Holy Spirit revealed to us (plural) that Jesus was crucified on August 17. I heard this revelation in 1983 but it was only from 1999 to 2003 that I checked whether there is any ring of truth in it or not. True enough, the revelation is correct. Today, I posted a blog relating the parable of the fig tree to the crucifixion. Please read my blog. Your comments are most welcome.