Scripture Daily

Context No. 1173 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 11:18-26: in context

18The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching. 19When evening came, he went out of the city. 20As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. 21Peter, remembering, said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.” 22Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening, he shall have whatever he says. 24Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them. 25Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions. 26But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your transgressions.”

The morning after Jesus cursed the barren fig tree, the disciples find it withered to the roots, and Peter points it out. Jesus turns it into a lesson on prayer: have faith in God; whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt but believes, it will be done. Whatever you ask in prayer, believe you have received it, and you will. And then, abruptly, he adds: whenever you stand praying, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your Father may forgive you.

Jesus ties two things to prayer that we often keep apart: faith and forgiveness. On one side, he calls for bold, believing prayer, the kind that can speak to a mountain, that asks and trusts God to answer. This is not a formula for getting whatever we want, but an invitation to pray with real confidence in a God who acts. On the other side, and in the very same breath, he attaches a condition that has nothing to do with getting our requests and everything to do with the state of our hearts: when you pray, forgive. You cannot come to the Father asking for mercy while clutching a grudge against someone else; the two cannot coexist. A heart that will not release what it holds against another is not in a position to receive what it asks from God. So Jesus binds them together: pray with bold faith, and pray with an open, forgiving heart. The same prayer that dares to move mountains must also let go of grievances, because both flow from trusting the Father, one trusting him to answer, the other trusting him to settle the accounts we release. Believing prayer and a forgiving heart belong together.

Do I come to God with bold, believing prayer, and do I come with a forgiving heart, releasing the grudges I hold, since Jesus binds the two together at the place of prayer?

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