I had a college friend whose cynical humor always made me laugh. He pretended to host a TV show called “Twist That Text”. Contestants infamously twisted the biblical text to make it say what they wanted it to say. We have a text that’s been twisted like that: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).
“Whatever” is a key word. We want it to mean, well, whatever. We want Jesus to be promising a Mercedes or a better job or a thinner waist. A look at the context, and the promise itself, will straighten us out. We have time to look only at the context today.
First, Jesus curses the fig tree (11:12-14).
The next day (after the triumphal entry) as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
Jesus sounds like a spoiled kid who can’t get what he wants. “No figs for me? Bang! You’re dead!” He also sounds unreasonable. Why look for figs when it isn’t fig season? But Jesus is neither petulant or irrational. Something else must be going on here.
In the Old Testament, a fig tree symbolized Israel (Jeremiah 8:13; 29:17; Hosea 9:10, 16; Joel 1:7). If Jesus means this fig tree too, Israel is fruitless. According to the prophet Micah (around 700 B.C.) Israel has been for generations.
What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net. Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire– they all conspire together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of their confusion. Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– a man’s enemies are the members of his own household (Micah 7:1-6).
This day of Jesus cursing the fig tree signals a time of divine judgment for the nation’s long-lasting fruitlessness.
Second, Jesus cleanses the temple (11:15-19).
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.'” The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, they went out of the city.
Six hundred years earlier, through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord had condemned Israel’s leaders for making his holy temple a thieves’ den. “Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching!” declares the LORD (Jeremiah 7:11). The temple was the LORD’s holy house. But the Jews had made it a “den of robbers”. They charged Passover visitors from throughout the Empire exorbitant prices for sacrificial animals and for “clean” offering-money in exchange for “unclean” Roman money. The Lord intended his temple to be a place where his people could meet him in prayer, but to the chief priests and law-teachers it offered big business profits.
Angry, Jesus abruptly shut business down that day. And his temporary “mini-judgment” pointed toward maximum judgment. Forty years later the Roman General Titus would lead his army over city walls and destroy the temple once and for all.
So this day witnessed the Lord’s wrath against the greedy sins of the nation’s leaders.
Jesus teaches the disciples (11:20-25).
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. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 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 him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
We’ll study Jesus’ words here next time. Until then, it’s important to remember Jesus gave this remarkable prayer-promise on a day of wrath—a day that, in turn, would fuel great Jewish hostility against him.
And aren’t times like that when we need a remarkable prayer-promise like this? When we’re comfortable, our greed for even more rises up. And we twist the text toward more “stuff.” But this promise is made for days when the world’s on fire and kingdoms are clashing and we feel tiny and defenseless.
With that in mind, we’ll turn to Jesus’ gracious promise next time.
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