Jesus wants breakfast. The fig tree is covered in leaves but there are no figs. He tells it that it will never bear fruit. It dies immediately. The disciples are amazed at the power Jesus displays. He says that they can do it. He ends by saying “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
I’ve summarized Matthew 21:18-22. The story is also told in Mark 11:12-25. There, it takes 24 hours for the tree to die, and Mark adds that it wasn’t the season for figs.
Which is most troubling to you in the synopsis above?
- that Jesus killed a fig tree because, it seems, the tree inconvenienced him,
- that it wasn’t even the season for figs, so it was an irrational act,
- that Jesus says if you believe enough, you’ll get what you pray for, or
- that the accounts can’t agree about the very timing of the events.
Each point can be challenging to those of us who are following Jesus, who want to be like him. Either he is cranky, agriculturally clueless, out of touch with our experience of prayer, or part of textual conflict that we have to ignore or reconcile.
I understand the challenge. But just because it makes no sense to our sensibilities doesn’t mean we can avoid this passage.
At the time, the disciples weren’t concerned about why Jesus was killing a tree; they were stunned that he could make a tree die. Though we are familiar with Roundup, we would be stunned, too. In response, Jesus invites the disciples to believe that their words, with God’s affirmation, do things.
I know that we often pray and nothing happens. But what if Jesus is right? What if we could move mountains?
What if we asked with confidence…that it was what Jesus wanted?

