Mark 11:12-14
12On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Jesus is welcomed by the crowd into Jerusalem. He goes to the temple, looks around and leaves for Bethany.
The next day, he sees a fig tree and although it is not the season for figs, Jesus decides to curse it for not having any fruit and later they find that it has withered.
What is this all about? On the surface, it seems like an illogical demand on Jesus’ part, since it is not fig season, nor did He command it to bear fruit.
It is noteworthy that Mark is the only gospel writer who sandwiches the cleansing of the temple with the story of the fig tree. After saying to the fig tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”, Jesus cleanses the Temple driving out those who were selling and those who were buying. Next morning, as they passed by the fig tree, it had withered away.
It is interesting that Luke reports only that Jesus drove out the sellers. He does not mention the buyers. So, it is natural to interpret this as somehow those who were selling were taking advantage of the pilgrims by charging more than what is fair and making it a money-making venture. This tends to be the version we remember.
But if we read what Mark reports, Jesus drives out both those who are selling and those who are buying. Jesus is not angered by the method of the transaction, but the place of the transaction. Jesus believes that there should be no business conducted in the temple.
Both the temple and the fig tree represent Israel. On the surface, they seem to be healthy, but they are not producing the type of fruit that the Lord is seeking.
The Jewish religious leaders are opposing God’s plans. Even though they say that they eagerly wait for the Messiah to come, when the Messiah is standing in front of them, instead of welcoming and worship Him, they reject and want to kill Him.
The disciples are surprised to see the fig tree withered, just by Jesus cursing it with His words. This shows that they still do not quite understand the power that Jesus possesses. His power surpasses human power.
On the surface, vv. 22-24 seem to imply that if you totally believe that what you are praying will come true, it will. From experience, we know this is not to be true most of the time. The Seahawks are playing the Commanders right now, and I’m sure there are sincere Christians on both sides. What happens if one prays for a Seahawks’ victory and another prays for a Commanders’ victory, and both do not doubt what happens?
We must accept that Jesus is using hyperbole here. The basic assumption we must make when we pray is to believe that God hears our prayers and that He has the power to grant them. If you do not believe that God has the power to grant prayers, then there is no reason to pray to Him.
Believe that what we are praying for has been directed by the Holy Spirit and that God indeed will hear our prayers and have the power to grant them. As Jesus taught in other places, we should be praying to God the Father in Jesus’ name, directed by the Holy Spirit. Whether God answers in the exact way we desire is up to God. We cannot order Him around. Often, God uses prayer to realign our will to His, by saying “no”.
Verse 25 also teaches that whenever we pray, we must forgive those who we have something against. It is easy to ignore this part of the instructions, since there are those we have a hard time forgiving. Occasionally, out of nowhere, we are reminded of some injustice that was done to us. We may give lip-service that we have forgiven them when we really have not.
What can we take away from this passage? It is not that God is forced to answer our prayers if we do not doubt. Instead, we must believe that God hears our prayers and is able to answer them. But before we ask, we must first forgive others.
Does the Lord seem unreasonable in what He is directing us to do? Then we need to change our mindset from, “That cannot be done” to “If the Lord is calling us to do this, then we believe that He has the power to accomplish it through us.”
Recall the incident where Jesus comes walking on water in a storm. When Peter sees this, he believes that Jesus has tremendous power – enough power to have Peter also walk on water. Jesus invites Peter to walk out to Him and Peter starts to walk out on the stormy water. But once out there, he gets scared by the enormity of him walking on the stormy sea, which should be impossible. So, Peter starts to doubt and starts to sink, and Jesus has to help him get inside the boat. What we plant in faith, do not dig up in unbelief.
There are many around us who have not been saved. Let us continue our prayer ministry, forgiving others, believing that God does listen to us and has the power to answer our prayers. Let us hang onto our faith in God.
(The above is a summary of the message shared by Pastor Shun Takano during our worship on September 27, 2026.)
