The gospel of Mark presents the clearest outline of the events in Jesus’s life during what we call Holy Week—the week of Passover, the week leading up to his death on the cross. The gospel places Jesus’s cleansing of the Temple on Monday, following his entry into Jerusalem on Sunday—Palm Sunday.
On that Monday, Jesus took charge of the Temple complex. He drove out those who were selling and buying the animals that the Temple authorities had certified as meeting the requirements for sacrifice. He turned over the tables of those exchanging Roman coins into Temple currency—at a significant rate of exchange, of course. He refused to let people traffic through the Temple compound, arguing with the prophet Jeremiah that it was “a house of prayer for all nations” not a market place (Mark 11:17).
The gospel writer wrapped the story of Jesus’s cleansing the Temple with two stories—both centering on a particular fig tree. The first story points to the meaning of Jesus’s actions in the Temple; the second applies the principle found in the story of the fig tree to our lives as individuals.
On the way to the Temple Monday morning, Jesus saw a fig tree in leaf. As he was hungry, he was eager to gather some figs to eat on the journey into Jerusalem. However, when he reached the tree, it had no fruit. Consequently, he cursed the tree: “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (Mark 11:14). Fig trees put on fruit before they leaf out. Thus, the presence of leaves suggested the presence of fruit—which is why Jesus anticipated finding figs even though, as the gospel writer noted, “it was not the season for figs” (Mark 11:13). Jesus cursed the tree for having the appearance of being fruitful but failing to produce fruit.
The gospel writer used the fig tree as a metaphor for the Temple. The Temple, too, had the appearance of being fruitful but failed to produce the fruit for which it was created. It trafficked in sacrifices and religious acts but failed to help people know God or connect with God. It failed in its primary purpose—to be a house of prayer where people could meet God. Jesus’s cleansing of the Temple was his confrontation of the Temple’s failure to produce the fruit that was expected. Jesus’s curse of the fig tree foreshadowed the destruction of the Temple—the focus of Jesus’s discourse found in Mark 13.
The second story of the fig tree happened the next day—Tuesday—as Jesus and the disciples made their way back into Jerusalem. As they walked the same road they had walked on Monday, the disciples noticed the fig tree—the one Jesus had cursed—had withered away to its roots (Mark 11:20). Peter called Jesus’s attention to the dead fig tree. In response to Peter, Jesus taught about faith that could move mountains—specifically, the mountain they were standing on, the Mount of Olives. “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:23-24). As the Mount of Olives still stands today east of Jerusalem, Jesus’s language was clearly metaphorical. The mountain to which Jesus referred was not a literal, physical mountain.
To what mountain, then, was Jesus referring?
The gospel writer offers a clue in the next verse—a verse that introduces a topic that seems out of place in the context. “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:26). This verse suggests the mountain that can be removed by faith is a mountain that resides in our hearts—the inability to forgive someone who has wronged us or hurt us. The lack of forgiveness is generally held in place by harbored anger and resentment that views the other as an enemy and treats them as evil. It holds onto the hurt as evidence of the other’s wrong. The mountain in our heart—the lack of forgiveness—is part of a mountain range!
This second story continues the theme found in the first two—being fruitless while presenting the appearance of being fruitful. These things—the inability to forgive another, harboring anger and resentment, viewing the other as an enemy and treating them as evil, holding onto hurt—keep us from producing the fruit expected of the followers of Jesus. Carrying these “mountains” in our hearts allows us to have the appearance of being a follower of Jesus without producing the fruit that goes with discipleship—loving as Jesus loved, forgiving as Jesus forgave, accepting all as beloved children of God, living out of a servant spirit (just to name a few).
So how do we avoid the issue raised in the story of the fig tree—having the appearance of being fruitful while being fruitless? Jesus said the key was faith (Mark 11:22)—faith that is expressed by praying (Mark 11:24). Moving mountains is God’s work, not ours. Our work is to pray in faith about the “mountains” we recognize in our hearts, confessing them to God. In acknowledging them to God, we give God permission to remove them. Jesus’s promise was “and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).
Jesus confronted a fig tree and the Temple for having the appearance of being fruitful while bearing no fruit. He then taught his disciples how to avoid the same fate. He taught them (us) to pray with faith, confessing the “mountains” that were in their heart to God.
God is in the mountain-moving business. The Spirit is in the heart-cleansing, spirit-healing, life-transforming business. As the followers of Jesus, we are in the fruit-producing business . . . as long as we have enough faith to pray about the “mountains” in our hearts.
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