But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses

 

 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it.

So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.  Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'?  But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city.

Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.  

"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."

 

- Mark 11:12–26 

 

On Saturday, we read that when Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; and He said to them, "Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat.  Loose it and bring it.  And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately he will send it here."  So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.  But some of those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?"  And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded.  So they let them go.  Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.  And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:  "Hosanna!  'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'  Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!"  And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple.  So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

 

Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.  When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it.  My study Bible explains that it was not the season for figs means that this fig tree had sprouted an early full foliage, indicating a first crop, but without bearing any fruit.  Jesus finds not even one fig, and condemns it.  In Scripture, a fig tree is frequently symbolic of Israel (Hosea 9:10).  Her fruitfulness had ceased, as illustrated by the corruption in the temple allowed by the leadership (as well as Christ's Passion to come and the role they play in His death and leading the people to reject Him), so the Kingdom will be taken from her and given to another people, who are called to bear spiritual fruit, my study Bible explains (see Matthew 21:43, Galatians 5:22-23).

 

 So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.  Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'?  But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city.  Those who bought and sold in the temple were trading in live animals which would be used for sacrifices.  The money changers would change Roman coins for Jewish coins.  This was because Roman coins bore the image of Caesar (who was worshiped as a god), and so were considered defiling in the temple.  The doves were the least expensive sacrifices, and therefore sold to the poor.  The cleansing of the temple, my study Bible says, also points to the necessity that the Church be kept free from earthly pursuits.  As each person is also considered to be a temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19), it's also a sign that our hearts and minds must be cleansed of earthly matters.  That is, devotion to God comes first.  We may recall here what Jesus will later teach in the temple in this final week of His life, as He debates with the religious leaders:  "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (see Mark 12:14-17).  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56:7, Jeremiah 7:11.

Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."  My study Bible comments that the cursing and withering of the fig tree is a prophetic act, which signifies the judgment of Israel.  The disciples need to learn that the old covenant with Israel is becoming "obsolete" and will "vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13).  They will establish His Church, which will ultimately be filled with Gentiles and Jews, and they need assurance that they are following His will.  The fig tree will provide them with an indelible image in the their minds.

 

So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."  My study Bible comments that while it is not recorded that an apostle literally moved a mountain, the patristic writers are clear that they had this authority if the need had arisen (certain saints are said to have made crevices appear in mountains).  Moreover, not everything the apostles accomplished was written down.  Beyond the literal meaning here, this promise also illustrates the power of faith and prayer in all areas of life.  My study Bible quotes the commentary of Theophylact:  "Whatever we ask, without hesitation and believing in God's power, we shall receive" when we ask for spiritually profitable things.

"And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."  As in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:14-15), Jesus insists on mutual forgiveness between people as a precondition of God's forgiveness.  Here, He links this statement inextricably to the power of prayer, as in the Sermon on the Mount where these statements are made immediately after teaching the Lord's Prayer (or the Our Father- see Matthew 6:9-13).  In the Sermon on the Mount, this teaching reiterates and enforces the statement of the prayer in verse 12, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."   Here, the efficacy of prayer is linked to our commitment to forgiveness before God.

After all of the miracles performed during Christ's ministry, we might pause to wonder why this image of the withering and cursing of the fig tree plays such a strong role in the minds of the apostles.  Perhaps they understand its symbolic implications for the people of Israel and the future of the Christ's Church.  But nevertheless this strong promise of the power of prayer by Christ is accompanied by another iteration of the need for the practice of forgiveness.  In the context of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6: 9-13), "debts" illustrate the principle of forgiveness, in the same way that we would say a debt to a bank or other creditor is forgiven when it is wiped off the books.  In this case, a debt-holder would a person who has been injured (metaphorically or otherwise) by some sin of another person, and to forgive in the context of prayer is to give that sin up to God for God's adjudication, and forego vengeance of our own device.  It is a way of asking for and acknowledging our own need for forgiveness.  It does not simply dismiss a sin as if it never happened, and it doesn't dispel the need for discernment in terms of one's relationship with the person involved.  It doesn't take away responsibility.  But it does put us more firmly in relationship to God in the ways we acknowledge community, with God and faith at the center of that community and guiding how we relate to others and conduct ourselves.  It is in this context that we see how it is related to the notion of powerful prayer, as it more firmly places us within our faith and in relationship to God to whom we pray.  If we give up debts to God in order to be guided in our lives as to how to respond, then we become more deeply dependent upon our faith, and more clearly efficacious in our prayer as fewer things stand between us and our communion with God and community.  It is a way of clearing the barriers to faith, the things that get in the way of a heart fully devoted to putting God first before everything else, even a personal sense of having been wronged, and placing all in God's hands, seeking God's guidance in life.  In the context of the cleansing of the temple, we can see how it is affirming to a certain way of life, as Christ proclaims, with Isaiah, that God has made the temple "a house of prayer for all nations."  But giving it up to commerce, and in particular as the text highlights those who sell to the poor so that they may participate in the sacrifices, we are asked to understand how earthly notions of commerce get in the way of God's grace and love and worship in the temple, the community God has sought to establish among God's people.  Sin is not a matter of adding up column A and column B and seeking to rectify debts or trespass through like retribution; instead, sin is a matter of God's arbitration.  In giving up our debts or the trespasses of others against us, we seek God's will in how we respond.  And therein is embedded the power of prayer, bringing us closer to God, and closer to understanding the things we truly need and for which it is worthwhile to pray.  In that sense, God is the banker who ultimately holds all debts, and it is to God we go to make our prayerful requests.  In the text, Jesus phrases the debt or trespass in the term, "if you have anything against anyone."  This more clearly sets the tone of lifting restrictions or barriers by giving them up to God, so that God arbitrates community and how we are to function within it -- thus also removing barriers in our relationship to God.  It's not a way of saying that crime or violence against us doesn't need to be addressed in worldly terms, not a way of saying every material debt must be foregone payment, nor is it a way to say that we must be in close relationship to those who would offer us harm.  Neither does it preclude any of those things, but rather gives us freedom for prayerful response.  It is a way of placing all things in the hands of God, of seeking first the Kingdom (Matthew 6:33) before we decide that our own ideas are better for policing our own backyard.  It is a way of recognizing the true Judge before our own passionate responses.  Our lives do not consist only of debts and credits and a materialistic bottom line, but also of the grace we seek.  So let us make it a habit to offer God all the debts we hold in life when we offer prayer and stand before the Judge.  For ultimately all things must be held in the place we worship, and it is from there we seek to know God's wisdom for our lives and how to live them.  For, as my study Bible reminds us, we are each temples of God.  Jesus gives us a way to build the faith that moves mountains.  In the withering of the fig tree, He illustrates what it is to forget what we are meant to be about.