“Have Faith in God”

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. –Mark 11:20-24

It is now Tuesday and Jesus and his disciples are going into Jerusalem for a third time. It will be a busy day; Mark’s account of the happenings of this goes from 11:20 though 14:2. As they near the city they pass the fig tree again and see Jesus’ curse has already come to fruition. Peter’s astonishment has little to do with the meaning of the curse, which we discussed two days ago, but rather is the result of the power that brought it to pass. It seems strange that after witnessing so many of Jesus’ miracles the disciples should still be awed by them; but they were. Jesus however uses this as an opportunity to teach the disciples about prayer, faith, and the power of God.

Jesus tells the disciples plainly that the same power that withered the fig tree is available to them in the work of the Church. This text can frustrate us because we often want to take it at face value, and use it for the fulfillment of our personal desires. However, Jesus clearly makes this pronouncement in the context of teaching on faith.

Before he says anything else Jesus tells them, “Have faith in God.” Faith is trust in God’s ability to accomplish all that must be accomplished. It involves trusting in his strength, and not our own. And, it involves trusting in his knowledge, believing he knows better than we what has to be done. By instructing us to ask as an exercise of faith, Jesus is implying submission is required any time we go before God.

The petitions Jesus is addressing are more important than our personal agendas. They involve the necessary work of the ministry. This is not to say we can never bring a personal petition before God, but the more we recognize that his plan is greater than ours, the more we are able to submit our desires to him. God’s power is manifest in the necessary tasks of the Church; insofar as we encounter mountains in that work, we are to ask for, and expect their removal.

The work of the Church at times seems daunting. Its difficulties, however, reveal the necessity of faith in God. We are right if we believe the work is impossible; it genuinely is beyond our strength to accomplish. We need more power. This is why Jesus tells us to ask for divine intervention through faithful prayer. We are to submit expectations to him. More often than not we will be surprised by the means God will to use to accomplish the work. That we have seen it happen so many times before, should remind us how necessary faithful submission is.