“…but also if you say to this mountain, ’Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will done” (Matthew 21:18-22).

A hungry Jesus had just withered with a word a fig tree with no figs.  I don’t know why, except, perhaps, to bring graphic imagery to mind when we think about prayer and fruit that nourishes His body.  When the disciples saw it, healthy one day withered the next, they marveled, “How did it wither away so soon?”  Then Jesus said to them, “If you have faith, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.” 

I have wondered about “this mountain.”  Where did the mountain come in?  Weren’t they talking about a fig tree?  Perhaps Jesus is referring to the fig tree He just withered.  A fig tree is very large, but even larger is what this dead, figless tree stands for.  It stands for everything fruitless in our lives that must be put to death.  Scripture says, “Put to death uncleanness, immortality, evil desires, covetousness, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language and lying.”  These are mountainous!  They are put to death no other way than by Christ saying, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.”  If we share Christ’s hunger for fruitfulness, then we will have appetite to ask Him to wither what is fruitless in our lives, no matter how flourishing it looks.  We have His word that He will, so let’s not marvel when He does.  Immediately pray its removal, to be cast into the sea, before it becomes an object of sentiment. 

As sometimes happens when I meditate on God’s Word, I dreamed it.  I saw no fruit behind a flourish of large green leaves.  In the dream I knew they represented selfishness.  “Wither it, Lord!  Wither it!” I woke praying.  Now, “Remove this mountain and cast it into the sea.”

Christ’s divine power gives all that pertains to life and godliness.  If these things are yours and abound, then you will be neither barren nor unfruitful.  When Christ weaves His fingers though the foliage of your life, does He discover figs?  Is the body of Christ being nourished by the fruit of your life?  Has the fruit become so ripe, full and sweet that it simply falls into His hand?  He will feed it to His body.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig