Mark 11:22-23

‘And Jesus answering says to them, “Have faith in God. Truly I say to you that whoever will say to this mountain, ‘be you taken up and cast into the sea’, and shall not doubt in his heart but will believe that what he says happens, he will have it.’

Jesus’ reply to Peter and the others was that, as He Himself had demonstrated, they must have faith in God. He was pointing out the lesson of what faith can accomplish. The one who truly has confidence in God can not only wither fig trees but can even remove mountains. This general idea of moving a mountain was one that Jesus used fairly regularly. See Matthew 17:20 (but not there cast into the sea); and compare Luke 17:6.

This kind of faith was in complete contrast with those who had turned the house of prayer into a haunt for brigands. They had turned from faith to worldliness, and that was why they could be seen as withered. Any true faith was dead. But the faith that had enabled the withering of the fig tree was available to all who truly believed God. So if the leaders of the people were preventing the Temple from being a house of prayer, His disciples must not make the same mistake. Rather they must demonstrate their faith in God, and it is prayer of this kind that will prevent them from withering. Then impossible things will be possible. For when men trust God fully they will be able to cast a mountain into the sea with a word.

Certainly we may see His promise here as including the fact that their Father could deal with any and all difficulties that they met, if their faith was strong, and Jesus may well have had in mind Zechariah 4:6-7 where for Zerubbabel ‘the great mountain shall become a plain’ through the action of God’s Spirit. There the idea was of the great mountain was of difficulties removed. And so, He promised, it will be for all who serve Him fully and pray believingly. There may also be some truth in the comparison often made with Jewish writings where a great teacher who explained difficulties in Scripture was called a ‘mountain remover’. They too would through faith in God become ‘mountain removers’.

But in this context we must see it as pointing to more that that. For when He said ‘this mountain’ He may well have indicated the Temple Mount. Isaiah 2:2 had spoken of ‘the mountain of the Lord’s house’, and Isaiah 2:3 had paralleled ‘the mountain of the Lord’ with ‘the house of the God of Jacob’. This would indeed explain why He spoke of it being ‘cast into the sea’ (there was no sea near enough to be significant), for being cast into the sea was a picture of judgment. In Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2 to be cast into the sea was the fate envisaged for sinners (compare also Mark 5:13; Exodus 15:4; Jonah 1:15; Jonah 2:3). So in the context of the withering of the fig tree and His actions in the Temple He must surely have been hinting here at the future that lay in store. This mighty Temple and this great city were to be ‘cast into the sea’ of judgment because they were spiritually barren. And it was at His word, as He had demonstrated with the fig tree. Jerusalem would be destroyed and its house would be left to it desolate (Matthew 23:38; Luke 13:35).

To ‘have faith in God’ in this way is to trust God fully, it is to walk in His ways and be fully taken up with His will. This promise is not therefore for the sensation seeker but for those who are dedicated to Him and will shy from asking for anything that is not in accordance with His will.

Note what is required. ‘Shall not doubt but will believe that what he says will happen.’ There is no doubt that Jesus knew that He could have cast the Temple into the sea had it been necessary, but that would have been contrary to His mission. He had not come to do the spectacular. Rather His prayers would carry forward into future history when the Temple would indeed be destroyed. Nor was He suggesting that others should do so either. His point is that nothing is impossible to the one who truly prays. But in the end it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the destruction of the Temple was in Jesus’ mind, for the mountain is ‘cast into the sea’.