Matthew 21:17-22

¹⁷ And when he left them, he went out of the city to Bethany and stayed there.

¹⁸ In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he got hungry.

¹⁹ And when he saw a fig tree by the wayside, he approached it but found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.

²⁰ When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?”

²¹ And Jesus answered them, “Honestly, I am telling you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.

²² And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

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faith kills fruit trees

The disciples had seen many miracles. They had even had many miraculous answers to their own prayers during their missions campaigns. So the withered fig tree did not pose a problem for them in terms of its being a real event. Their issue was that even though they understood and accepted the reality of miracles, they were still clueless as to their cause. They asked “How did the fig tree wither at once?” Perhaps they considered themselves to be at a point in their Christian walk when they should have insider information on the power that they had experienced. They wanted to know the secret.

Jesus did not hold back. He told them that the very same ingredient that brought them access to Christ as their teacher and discipler is the ingredient responsible for miracle-working faith. Faith kills fruit trees and removes mountains. That is not much of a secret. When authentic Christians come together and pray in faith, stuff happens. In verses 21-22, all the second person pronouns are plural. Jesus is encouraging cooperation in the manifestation of faith. If there is any secret to power in prayer, that is it. When we gather to pray, he is present to answer. Some of our modern powerlessness is due to our stubborn insistence on going alone to the throne room. “I can handle this” is a destroyer of faith in Christ.

LORD, we confess our lack of faith, and our lack of cooperation in prayer. Make us into people who display your power by cooperating with your will together.