Move the Immovable

Obviously, then, I’ve never spoken to him directly; but the dead do still bear witness, in various ways.  In Dr. Dickey’s case, there’s his bust down on Park Avenue across from the Post Office.  Beneath the bust is a plaque; on the plaque is Psalm 125:1.  One day last year when I was down to the Post Office for something, I saw that and thought, “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.”

Now, it’s not certain these two verses are talking about the same mountain.  Scholars are evenly split, as far as I can tell, between those who think Jesus is talking about Mount Zion, on which Jerusalem and the Temple were built, and those who think he was talking about the Mount of Olives.  The Gospels don’t tell us for sure.  But even if Jesus and his disciples were walking along the slope of the Mount of Olives at this point, they were on their way to Jerusalem, looking toward Mount Zion.  The focus of this whole section of Matthew is on Jerusalem and the Temple.  It seems most natural to me, then, that Jesus was referring to the mountain ahead of them, which though not a particularly tall peak, stood at the heart of the nation.

A word on the fig tree here, because it’s easy to read this passage and think Jesus is being wildly unreasonable.  The fact is, while it was not yet fig season, Jesus actually had good reason for what he did.  Let me quote you here from a couple of the commentators on Matthew.  First, here’s R. T. France:

At Passover time in Jerusalem (March-April) fig trees are beginning to come into leaf, but there is not yet a full covering of leaves. Once the leaves are fully developed, it is time to look for the early fruit . . .  This “single fig tree” . . . apparently stood out as having an unusually full coverage of leaves for Passover season, which encouraged the hope of early fruit even though, as Mark conscientiously reminds us, “It was not the season for figs.”

Then add this from Craig Keener:

At this time of year, such fig trees contained only green early figs . . . which ripen around June but often fall off before that time, leaving only green leaves on the tree.  Because of their unpalatable taste, these early figs rarely were eaten; but someone too hungry to care about the taste would eat them anyway, as some do today.  A leafy tree lacking such early figs, however, would bear no figs at all that year.

In other words, this fig tree had a fine display of leaves, but the leaves weren’t leading to any fruit and weren’t going to lead to any fruit.  The tree was putting all its effort into itself and offering nothing for anyone else.  As France concludes, “it offered promise without fulfillment.”

To that Jesus says, in effect, “If that’s the way you want it, that’s the way you’re going to get it.  You have all these leaves but you’re not bearing any fruit—fine:  you’ll never bear fruit again.”  And with that, the tree begins to die from the roots up.  Don’t take that “immediately” too seriously, by the way—it’s the same word translated “quickly” in verse 20.  There’s a Greek word that means “immediately,” and it occurs about four thousand times in the Gospel of Mark, but that’s not the word here.  Matthew isn’t saying the tree magically withered before their eyes, or that verses 19-20 happened in the same moment.  He puts the story together like this to make it clear that nothing natural killed this tree, but only the word of Christ.

The disciples certainly got that point, because they’re astounded; they want to know how that could possibly have happened.  Jesus responds by telling them, “If you have faith and don’t doubt, you’ll do much greater things than this.  You see Mount Zion up ahead there?  The psalmist said it can’t be shaken but endures forever.  Micah said that in the last days, it will be established as the greatest of the mountains.  But you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you can tell it to go throw itself in the sea, and it will be done.  What cannot even be shaken, you can uproot, if you pray and believe.”

Now, to our Western minds this seems to say, “You’ll get whatever you want as long as you’re completely convinced God will give it to you”; and unfortunately, that’s how a lot of preachers and teachers present this passage and others like it.  Equally unfortunately, a great many others react in the opposite direction and dismiss Jesus’ teaching altogether.  Both groups make the same mistake:  they think the faith is the point.  They think Jesus is saying that the power is in our faith, that it’s our belief that makes things happen.  This is completely wrong.  There was a song called “Faith” that was big on Christian radio 25 or 30 years ago that declared,

Faith can move the highest mountain,
Turn deserts into fountains,
And part the mighty waters of the deepest sea.
Faith can make a broken heart mend,
Bring the rain from heaven;
Faith can even change the course of history.

That’s popular theology, but it’s pure malarkey, 200 proof.  Faithdoes nothing itself; without works, it’s dead.  God does everything.

So when Jesus says, “If you have faith and don’t doubt,” or, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer,” if he doesn’t mean that faith lets us call the shots, what does he mean?  Well, when the Bible talks about faith, faith is inGod alone, faith is about God alone, faith is from God alone.  If your belief comes from you, it doesn’t matter how passionately you hold it or how utterly convinced you are about it, it isn’t faith, it’s just wishful thinking.  Biblically, if you have faith and don’t doubt, that can only be because God is calling you and God is commanding you to act.  It’s not a matter of dictating to God, but of obeying him.

If Ezekiel had taken it on himself to prophesy to a carpet of dry bones, he could have preached himself hoarse, and they would have just lain there.  When the Lord called him to prophesy to those bones that God was going to restore them to life, he went out and preached, and they stood up before his eyes.  Jesus was humanly inconceivable, but God told Mary what he was going to do, and she said, “I will obey,” and then she conceived him.  Jesus didn’t tell any of his disciples to command Mount Zion to throw itself into the sea, because that wasn’t in his plan; but even that, if they had done it at his word, would have happened.  And though it didn’t happen literally, the disciples did see it happen metaphorically in 70 AD, when the Roman army overthrew Jerusalem and tore down the Temple, leaving not one stone on another.

Nothing God commands is impossible, no matter how implausible or unbelievable we might think it to be.  Nothing God prevents is possible, no matter how easy or obvious it might seem.  The only thing that defines reality and sets the limits of the possible is the will of God.  If God calls you to prophesy to a field of bones that he’s going to restore them to life, then go out and preach, and they will stand up before your eyes.  If he tells you to command the immovable to move, then give the order, and you will see it done.