Faith, Forgiveness, and a Withered Tree Text: Mark 11:20-26
Introduction: An Object Lesson in Judgment
We come now to a passage that is frequently misunderstood, often sentimentalized, and occasionally abused by those who would treat God as some kind of cosmic vending machine. Jesus has just performed one of the most startling miracles in His ministry, the cursing of the fig tree. He has also cleansed the Temple, another act of startling judgment. These two events are not disconnected; they are a sandwich, and the meat in the middle is the corrupt worship of Israel. The fig tree, leafy and impressive from a distance but utterly barren up close, was a living parable of the state of the Jewish nation. They had all the outward signs of spiritual life, the temple, the sacrifices, the law, but they were fruitless. They had rejected their Messiah.
So when the disciples see this tree, not just drooping, but withered from the very roots in less than twenty-four hours, they are astonished. Peter, ever the spokesman, points it out. And Jesus uses this moment not to give a lesson in horticulture, but to deliver a foundational lesson on the nature of kingdom power. He is about to explain the operating system of the new covenant, and it runs on two essential applications: faith and forgiveness. The same power that withered a tree and will shortly bring down the entire temple system is the power available to His disciples. But it is a power that must be wielded with a certain kind of heart, a heart that trusts God absolutely and harbors no bitterness toward men.
This is not a formula for getting rich or manifesting a new chariot. This is a lesson in spiritual warfare. The "mountain" Jesus speaks of is not just any topographical feature. In the context of the withered fig tree (Israel) and the cleansed Temple (the center of Israel's life), the mountain is the entire corrupt, apostate system of old covenant Judaism, centered on the Temple Mount. Jesus is telling His disciples that through faith-filled prayer, this entire edifice, which seemed so permanent and immovable, would be cast into the sea of God's judgment. And so it was, in A.D. 70. This passage, therefore, is about the kind of faith that reshapes history, the kind of prayer that executes the decrees of God, and the kind of heart that is qualified to pray such prayers.
The Text
And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.
And being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.”
And Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.
Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.
For this reason I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you.
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.
[But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”]
(Mark 11:20-26 LSB)
The Root of the Matter (vv. 20-22)
We begin with the disciples' observation and Jesus' foundational command.
"And as they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. And being reminded, Peter said to Him, 'Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.' And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Have faith in God.'" (Mark 11:20-22)
The detail that the tree was withered "from the roots" is significant. This was not a surface-level affliction; it was a total and catastrophic judgment. The source of its life was destroyed. This is what Jesus was pronouncing on the temple-centric system of first-century Judaism. It was not going to be pruned; it was going to be uprooted. Peter's astonishment is understandable. He saw the direct, immediate, and devastating result of the authoritative word of Christ.
Jesus' response seems, at first, to be a non-sequitur. Peter points to the effect of Jesus' power, and Jesus responds by talking about their faith. "Have faith in God." But this is the very heart of the lesson. Jesus is transferring the principle. He is saying, "The power you have just witnessed is not a private, messianic parlor trick. This is the power that belongs to God, and it is accessed by faith in God." He is turning their gaze from the miracle to the source of the miracle. The power that withers is the same power that builds. The power that judges is the same power that saves. And the key to this power is not found in a formula or a technique, but in a relationship of absolute trust in God.
This is not a vague, general encouragement to "be more spiritual." It is a command. It is the imperative mood. In the face of seemingly impossible circumstances, in the face of a religious system that had stood for centuries and seemed as permanent as the mountains, the disciples' one great task was to trust God. All that follows is an unpacking of what this kind of robust, God-centered faith looks like in practice.
Mountain-Moving Faith (vv. 23-24)
Jesus now gives one of His most famous, and most frequently misinterpreted, teachings on prayer.
"Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. For this reason I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you." (Mark 11:23-24 LSB)
As we have already noted, the "mountain" here is not a random illustration. Jesus is standing on the Mount of Olives, looking across the Kidron Valley at the Temple Mount. He has just enacted a judgment on the symbol of Israel (the fig tree) and the center of Israel's worship (the Temple). He is telling His disciples that this entire mountain, this entire system of worship and national identity that has rejected Him, is going to be removed. This is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, which came to pass within a generation. The faith He is calling for is faith in God's declared purpose to judge the old and bring in the new.
This is not a blank check for our whims. The one who prays this way must not "doubt in his heart." This is not about suppressing intellectual questions. This is about a heart that is fully aligned with the will and purposes of God. To pray without doubting is to pray with a deep, settled conviction that what you are asking for is what God Himself wants to do. It is to be so immersed in the Scriptures and so in tune with the Spirit that your prayers become an echo of the decrees of heaven. You are not trying to bend God's will to yours; your will has been so shaped by His that you are asking for what He has already determined to grant.
Verse 24 amplifies this. "Believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you." This sounds paradoxical to our modern ears. We think of receiving as the end of the process. But in the economy of faith, it is the beginning. This is about resting in the character and promises of God. When we pray according to His will, we can have the confidence that the matter is settled in heaven. We are to consider it done. It is a faith that takes God at His Word so seriously that it counts the future promise as a present reality. This is the faith of Abraham, who "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief" but was "fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform" (Romans 4:20-21).
The Non-Negotiable Prerequisite (vv. 25-26)
Jesus then adds a crucial, and often neglected, condition. The heart that wields this kind of power must be a heart that has been shaped by grace, which means it must be a forgiving heart.
"And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. [But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”]" (Mark 11:25-26 LSB)
This is not an arbitrary rule tacked on at the end. It is organically connected to everything He has just said. You cannot presume to approach the throne of grace to ask for mountains to be moved into the sea if you are harboring a mountain of bitterness in your own heart. An unforgiving spirit is a flat-out contradiction to the gospel. It is to ask for grace while refusing to give it. It is to plead for a mercy you will not extend.
Notice the logic. Our forgiveness of others does not earn God's forgiveness. We are not saved by our works. Rather, our forgiveness of others is the evidence that we have truly understood and received God's forgiveness. The man who has been forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents and then goes out to throttle his neighbor for a hundred denarii proves that the initial forgiveness never took root in his heart (Matthew 18:21-35). He did not understand the grace he had supposedly received.
Therefore, an unforgiving Christian is a walking oxymoron. Unforgiveness clogs the channels of prayer. It is spiritual sludge in the arteries. Why? Because it is a form of profound unbelief. It is to say, "The grace of God in Christ is sufficient for my sin against Him, but it is not sufficient for my brother's sin against me." It is to set ourselves up as a higher judge than God. It is to say that the cross is good enough for me, but for that person who hurt me, they need to pay. This is a diabolical pride that short-circuits the very power of faith Jesus has been describing.
Conclusion: The Conditions of Power
So what do we take from this? The power of God is available to the people of God. The kind of power that can wither a tree, cleanse a temple, and cast a mountain into the sea is the power that resides in faith-filled prayer. This is the power that turned the world upside down through the apostles and is the same power that is at work today to advance the Kingdom of Christ.
But this power is not a toy. It is not for the presumptuous or the self-willed. It operates under two great conditions. The first is faith. Not faith in our faith, but faith in God. A faith that is so saturated with His Word and His will that it asks for great things, impossible things, mountain-moving things, because it knows that these are the very things God delights to do for the glory of His Son.
The second condition is forgiveness. The heart that would be a conduit for divine power must be a clear channel, uncluttered by the debris of bitterness, resentment, and score-keeping. We are called to be a people who have been so undone by the scandalous grace of God toward us that we cannot help but extend that same grace to others. When we live in this reality, when our faith is fixed on Him and our hearts are free toward others, then we can pray with a holy boldness. Then we can speak to the mountains of rebellion and unbelief in our culture, in our communities, and even in our own lives, and say with confidence, "Be taken up and cast into the sea." And because we are praying according to the will of our conquering King, it will be granted to us.