I tell you this: if you have faith and do not doubt, then you will be able to wither a fig tree with one glance. You will be able to tell mountains to throw themselves into the ocean, and they will obey. If you believe, whatever you ask for in prayer will be granted. Matthew 21:21-22
Jesus cursing the fig tree is a familiar event for many and it has been taught in many ways. To show the power of God, the power of faith, the power of our words, the power of believing and the power of prayer. Now even though all these are very true, and show us how the Lord wants to work through and in us, we often miss the main point. When Jesus did it, He wanted to show the hindrance of hypocrisy in religion as seen in the religious leaders.
Jesus had just cleared the Temple from all the hindrances that were keeping people from worshipping God. Now He was using a fig tree to show that basically, talk can be cheap and deceptive. The fig tree had leaves, which meant it should have had fruit. Because it looked like it was productive, Jesus went over to feed off of it. But lo and behold there were no figs! Jesus wasn’t mad at the tree, He just didn’t want anyone else to be deceived by it, so he spoke to it and said it should never bear fruit again and it began to die from the roots. He was teaching the disciples that if you just say and do things, just to make it look and sound good, without really believing what you’re saying, it will come to nothing. But if you believe with all your heart that what you are saying is the truth and trust in the power of God, you will have what you pray.
See, the religious leaders of the day were very good at making it look and sound good, but they really didn’t believe what they said. They believed they were righteous because of what they said and did, not that true righteousness came from God alone. That until Jesus came there was not one on earth that was truly righteous and only through sacrifices of worship could sins be covered not even removed. They weighed people down so much with “trying” to become righteous by what they did or said, it once again was keeping them from truly seeing and worshipping God. Worst of all, they themselves weren’t doing what they were teaching and preaching and leading the people away from God instead of towards Him.
What Jesus was teaching over the next few days, was to show the difference between religion and relationship with God. It’s not about trying to get to God, it’s about lwtting God get to you. It’s not trying to manipulate and control things to have power, but to allow the power of God to flow through you. So, what things are you “trying” to do so God will bless you and work through you? What are you focusing on, your mountains in your way, or the One who has the power to move the mountain? If Jesus taught this before His death and resurrection when the power of Holy Spirit just empowered people from time to time, how much more impactful is this passage for those of us who have Holy Spirit living inside of us? Once we accept Jesus, His Son, we receive His Holy Spirit that gives us the same ability to walk in the dunamis (dynamite) power He did. So what are we waiting for? This world needs us to impact it just like Jesus did, and you know what? He has given us the empowerment to do so. So let’s get going!
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