Few sections of verses have caused so much distress and heartache from misinterpretation.
In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
‘Name it and claim it’ doctrine came out of these verses.
Pressure to just believe and manifest it into reality came out of these verses.
“Just have more faith” pressure has come out of these verses.
And when what they believed didn’t happen, countless have been devastated. Because isn’t it right there? Just believe and you’ll get whatever you want?
First of all remember this is in response to when Jesus cursed the fig tree. Jesus had just cursed it the day before and now it was withered. That’s fast!
And remember why he cursed the fig tree. It’s that he was making a point about the religious leaders that they had all the trimmings that looked like fruitfulness, but they had no fruit. It really was a rebuke not of the tree but of the religious leaders and even the nation of Israel. It was a prefiguring of what was to come–judgment upon Israel.
The problem with the high priests and temple leaders and more was that they were all about serving self. They lined their pocked with their greedy ways, exploited the people, and did so all in the name of religion.
Jesus let his curse be on the behavior.
So when someone uses these verses to name and claim things for themselves, it often comes out of a selfish, unrighteous desire. Not serving the people, but for serving oneself.
There’s a reason these teachings are connected to the cursing of the fig tree.
Jesus goes on to say, “Have faith in God.” It doesn’t say “have faith in faith.”
If you have faith in God, and not faith in faith, then you will ask things that line up with the will of God. Many things people ask for are not in the will of God.
Let’s again compare this to the religious leaders that Jesus was rebuking. They wanted things. They wanted money and security and comfort and respect and wealth. But they didn’t get it through the path of righteousness.
What Jesus is saying here is that he will supply your needs. But through faith in him in righteousness. Not using godliness as a means of ungodly gain.
How do we know that this lining up with the teaching of the fig tree even further? Because when Jesus continues to teach, it is on prayer. Just like he was saying that “his house will be called a house of prayer,” he is now teaching on prayer.
1) He says to believe and not doubt. This is a similar teaching we find in James 1.
2) Our heart must be right before God. How can we pray if we have a seed of resentment, anger or bitterness towards another? We can’t. We have to come to him with a clean heart before one another.
Ok…so what about when we pray for a sick person to be healed? Isn’t that the will of God? And we believe with all of our hearts…and they aren’t healed? They die. What about this? Was there not enough faith? Did someone not believe hard enough?
Here’s the truth. I don’t know for sure. This is one of those hard ones. Why do we pray and believe and it seems the will of God, but where is the answer?
I don’t know, but it does remind me of Lazarus. Mary and Martha believed in Jesus, sent word to him, and yet their brother died. He was dead, buried in the tomb, and it seems their special friend Jesus who could do something did nothing.
They could have been angry. Bitter. And told him to never come around again.
And while they were really hurt and hurting, one of them still ran to meet Jesus–Martha.
Martha gets such a bad rap because when Jesus was there before, she was angry with her sister for being busy and not helping. And Jesus upheld Mary as the better example for just sitting and being with Jesus.
But here Martha was the one to run to Jesus. It seemed Mary had yet to hear he was around
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
You can see her pain in v. 21. Jesus didn’t deliver. He didn’t come when he could have. But even in that, we still see faith, even though it wasn’t the faith for Jesus to raise him from the dead (v. 22).
Then Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus. Martha, ever the practical one, warned him about opening the tomb. It will stink she told him. She wasn’t thinking resurrection. But Jesus was.
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
Did you see the two “if” stataments?
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Jesus replied,
“if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
And this is the moment where he raised Jesus from the dead.
It’s like the healing of the paralytic man. He went to teach them that he had the power to forgive sins. And he healed the man to show that he did indeed have that power (Mark 2).
There’s a bigger picture that goes on with faith. We don’t always understand the ways of God. Why didn’t Jesus drop everything and go immediately to heal Lazarus before he died? He could have. But he wanted to teaching something greater.
That he is the power and resurrection for those who believe.
Even when someone dies. Even when things do not work according to our plan. If we believe in God, he has a greater purpose. This life isn’t all there is.
Trust him.
Walk in his ways.
Forgive one another.
And one day it will all make sense. Maybe in this life. But certainly in the life to come.