Mark 11:25

‘And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, that your Father who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.’

This is another saying of Jesus which at first sight appears to be even more ‘unattached’. Looking at it from this point of view it is a reminder that if we want our prayers to be answered our hearts must be right with God, and that means having a right attitude towards our fellowman. As we have the heart to forgive, so will we be forgiven (compare Matthew 6:12; Matthew 6:14-15, and note the reference here to ‘your Father Who is in Heaven’ which connects with the Lord’s Prayer). And the corollary of this is that those who are unforgiving cannot expect God to answer their prayers, for they are unable to receive the forgiveness of God. The centrality of such an idea for prayer comes out in that it is such an essential part of the Lord’s prayer.

But if we think about it further we can see that Jesus may well have a specific purpose in mind in bringing in the need to forgive here. For such willingness to forgive, together with its parallel of being forgiven, is elsewhere central to Jesus’ view of what He requires from His new people. It is stressed in connection with the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:14-15), and it is seen as basic to His instructions to the new community (Matthew 18:15-35). Thus in the context of the idea of the spiritual failure of Jerusalem there is good reason to see this as being the alternative that could succeed in enabling the church to triumph where Jerusalem had failed. They were to be the house of prayer. And the secret of true spirituality and prayer lay in forgiving one another and being forgiven by God. Such people would never suffer under His curse, and would be able to pray in faith, knowing that they would be heard.