Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,
The day after Palm
Sunday, Jesus and his disciples walked back the couple of miles from Bethany
into Jerusalem. Along the way, with only his powerful word Jesus cursed a fig
tree. Tuesday morning on the same trip, the disciples noticed the tree had
withered. St. Matthew combined these two days.
We will not get into
the details about why Jesus did what he did. We focus our attention instead on
the power Jesus used to do it. That same power, Jesus’ power, is the power of
our faith. Jesus’ power is the power of our prayers we offer to God.
Prayer is not the
last resort when all else fails. We need to use prayer’s power first. When
something does happen in our lives, we dare not chalk it up to coincidence but
recognize God’s answer to our prayer. How do we know this? Hear these words of
our Savior, spoken a few short days before he died: “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt . . . you can
say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
I Tell You the
Truth . . . Faith Can Move Mountains. See Jesus’ power at work. Reminded of Jesus’ power, know you can trust
his promises
What
promises! If you do not doubt, it will be done! If you believe, you will
receive! Jesus’ power was nothing new
to his disciples. Things in nature obeyed their Creator for no other reason
that he said so. The disciples had heard Jesus still the storm with a
simple, “Quiet. Be still.” [Mark 4:39] They had gathered multiple
baskets of leftovers from a little boy’s lunch that fed thousands. These newly
blackened fig leaves testified that this man takes a backseat to no one, not
even nature. His power is wondrous. We sing in our liturgy, “The works of God
are great and glorious. His name is worthy of praise.”
Jesus directs the
disciples’ eyes and ours away from the fig tree to the Mount of Olives, one of
three peaks along a ridge east of Jerusalem. “Look at those mountains. As tall
as they are, as solid and strong as they are, if you have faith, if you don’t
doubt, they can fall into that sea 4,000 feet below and behind you.” “I tell
you the truth.” We do not doubt Jesus’ word for a minute. Like the first
disciples, we have seen what Jesus’ power can do. That power is the power of
our faith and the power behind our prayers.
All too often, we
hear statements like, if you have faith and if you believe, with
emphasis on the “you.” On the contrary, what makes Jesus’ statement the truth
is the power of the One who makes the promise. Jesus, who can wither a tree
with his tongue, promises, “I tell you the truth . . . faith
can move mountains.” Jesus’ power in his promise makes prayer effective. Jesus’
power makes our faith powerful. Moving mountains does not depend on the one who
has the faith. It depends on the One in whom you have faith.
Lent with its
missing alleluia, and hymns in minor key leads us to contemplate the
seriousness of our sin. Words like repentance and confession dominate.
There is also a danger. We can begin to ask ourselves some inappropriate
questions like, “What kind of a believer am I? What kind of a faith do I have?”
Satan wants us to
rest our assurance of the validity of our faith on our own actions and words.
Satan wants us to base the power of our faith in prayer on how we have seen our
prayers answered in the past. “I prayed that my loved one would get well, but they
didn’t. . . . I prayed and believed I would get the job, but I didn’t receive
the offer.” My faith and my prayers must not be that good.”
We can begin to
wonder, “Do I really believe? Do I believe enough in Jesus?” Or
worse. “Is Jesus worth believing? Can I trust him when he says, “I tell you
the truth . . . faith can move mountains?”
Reminded of Jesus’
power, know you can trust his promises. Jesus’ point is not whether or not he
has or will make mountains fall into the sea at my request in prayer. His point
is that he can. He is that powerful. Jesus’ disciples, through prayer, tap into
that power. What a loving thing to teach his disciples in his final week. In a
few days, the disciples would see Jesus arrested, beaten, and crucified. Their
faith would shake. For us that is in a few weeks.
This withered little
tree and Jesus’ conversation remind them and us of Jesus’ power. They would
know Jesus did not die because of weakness, or because Judas had outsmarted
him. Jesus died of his own accord. Did the disciples put that mountain moving
faith to work always? Have we? No. At times, we join Peter and cower under the
mere statement of others, “You are one of Jesus’ followers.” We act like the
disciples and huddle together afraid for our reputations, if not for our actual
lives. No matter. Jesus’ statement remains, “I tell you the truth…you can
say to this mountain go and throw yourself into the sea, and it will be done.
If you believe you will receive, you will receive everything you ask for in
prayer.”
Our faith builds on
Jesus’ power not only for prayer. Reminded of Jesus’ power, know you can trust
his promises. “This bread and wine are my body and blood given and shed for you
for the forgiveness of sins.” “Today you will be with me in paradise.” “It
is finished!” We will see a Savior declared with power to be the Son of God
by the resurrection from the dead.
Our faith depends on
the One who has tree-withering, death-defying, sin-erasing, Satan-crushing
power. May that remove all our doubts. May that lead us to receive whatever we
ask for in prayer. Amen. <SDG>