How Christ explains the cursing of the fig-tree
After revealing the judgment on a fruitless faith, Our Lord explains that the miracle of the fig tree demonstrates to the power of true prayer.
After revealing the judgment on a fruitless faith, Our Lord explains that the miracle of the fig tree demonstrates to the power of true prayer.
Editor’s Notes
In this part, Fr Coleridge tells us…
How Christ uses the fig-tree miracle to teach the inward laws of prayer.
That faith, forgiveness, and confidence are the foundations of every fruitful petition.
Why He draws the Apostles away from thoughts of vengeance to the deeper mystery of grace.
Christ shows us that true prayer begins in God, purifies the soul, and draws down mercy through faith and charity.
For more on the context, and how it relates to “Our Lord’s strangest miracle” of the fig tree, see the Editor’s Notes to Part I.
The Barren Fig-Tree
Passiontide, Part I, Chapter II
St. Matt. xxi. 19–22; St. Mark xi. 13–26; St. Luke xix. 45–48.
Story of the Gospels, § 134
Burns and Oates, London, 1889
Headings and some line breaks added.
Promise to prayer
‘And Jesus answering said to them, Have the faith of God. Amen I say unto you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, if you have faith and stagger not, not only this of the fig-tree shall you do, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed and be cast into the sea, Take up and cast thyself into the sea, and shall not stagger in his heart, but believe that whatsoever he saith shall be done, it shall be done unto him.
‘And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive. Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever you shall ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive them, and they shall come unto you.’
That great promise here made to prayer, and on which our Lord so much insists, requires some further explanation, although some has already been given in a former place.
There are degrees of faith and confidence in prayer, and it is not to all these degrees that the words of the promise apply in their fulness. All prayer implies faith, for no one can approach God who does not believe in Him, with the faith which is necessary for salvation, which implies, besides the truth of His existence, the further truths of His Omnipotence, His goodness, His fatherly care over us, His listening to our prayers, and the like.
And yet this faith may not be enough for the great promise with which we are here concerned. This faith will lead us to pray to God, but it must go beyond the truth of His general power, goodwill, and care for our welfare, to the further reliance on His goodwill to hear us, here and now. We may have no doubt, which would be sinful, as to the general truth that God hears prayer, and yet be unable to win from Him the granting of our particular petition.
The faith which our Lord required ordinarily of those who were the subjects of His miracles, was something more particular and special, a confidence that the thing asked for not only could be but would be granted by Him. We constantly find Him leading on those who had at first an imperfect faith, to the more perfect faith which was required for the miraculous granting of the prayer.
We see this in the case of the nobleman, whose son was healed by our Lord when at a distance. It is a stretch of belief which had not been instanced before that time, though we find it in the case of the Centurion, whose servant our Lord afterwards healed. So it was with Martha about the resuscitation of Lazarus, and so it was in many other instances. Many things may be requisite for a confident prayer of this kind, and it is hardly possible that such a prayer can be made by those who instinctively feel that there is something in themselves which prevents their asking boldly, such as a want of perfect charity, or anything like negligence and carelessness, which puts them at a distance from God.
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