Mark 11.

Mark 1 Minute

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17 thoughts on “Mark 11.”

  1. As I listened to Mark 11, I cringed at verse 24: “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” Why? Because I’ve had frustrating experiences when people tell me the reason God has not answered my prayers for my healing is because I am not truly believing, I’m not believing “enough”, I’m not really believing, my faith isn’t strong enough, etc. I have had this told to me both personally and from the pulpit and/or in teaching scenarios. For many years, this would cause me to turn my back on God. A very helpful verse to me is Mark 9:24 “I do believe, Help me overcome my unbelief.” Comments and your perspectives and insights are welcomed.

    1. It is an unfortunate circumstance that Christians (and non-Christians) will take a scripture which might have a certain emphasis and treat it as the full counsel of God.

      In this passage, Jesus is teaching some specific things about prayer, but not everything about prayer. What I hear Jesus saying is this:

      1. Faith is essential in our life, and more specifically in how we pray. The picture of moving the mountain is a way of saying prayer can overcome “any difficulty.”

      2. Pray in expectation of an answer. There is no room for prayer as ritual or half-hearted hope in an answer. James says it this way: “6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” (James 1:6,7)

      3. Pray as a forgiver.

      These ideas then, are what Jesus is emphasizing during this teaching. They’re essential. But they’re not the whole picture. So, what else does the counsel of God tell us about prayer? Here are some additional considerations:

      1. We are to pray according to God’s will. And recognize that God answers prayer according to his will. In 1 John 5:14 we read, “14 And this is the confidence that we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

      2. We also need to pray with right motives. James says in 4:2-3, “2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”

      Jesus isn’t presenting a formula for how prayer works in all circumstances, but a reminder that our prayer should stem from our faith and that it’s a powerful force.

      As to your own situation, Barb, I’m confident that you have been able to move past short-sighted comments that rest on incomplete understanding of all of God’s teaching on prayer, and that you DO, in fact, pray in faith with expectation. And I pray that you are able to live with the understanding that it is God’s will, at this moment in time, that you will have to live with our health situation.

      1. Thanks for your reply, Jim. Yes, I have moved beyond people’s simplistic, short-sighted comments, thanks to many conversations with Pam over the years, as well as the in-depth topical study we did on Healing in BCC Sunday class not too long ago.

        Berle–That’s one of my favorite verses. Thanks for reminding me about it!

  2. I agree with you Barb, these verses along with so many others I long to understand but they are beyond my grasp …..I am reminded “As the heavens are higher than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” l have to say lord you lost me on this one but I will keep trying!

    Berle

  3. Something that jumped out at me in Mark 11 occurs in verse 11. Jesus saw everything that was happening in the temple a day before he cleared the temple. Because it was late, however, he joined the Twelve and went to Bethany. He is back the next day to put things right at that temple. It is interesting that Mark includes this preview Jesus had of the situation at the temple and then sandwiches the clearing of the temple between the cursing of the fig tree.

    2. In some class long ago or maybe a book (can’t remember exactly) I learned that the fig tree represents Israel. By cursing the tree, Jesus is essentially announcing the end of the temple system of forgiveness. This helped me a lot because I always felt bad for the fig tree being cursed for not having fruit when it wasn’t even the right season. It’s place in the “sandwich” shows us that he wasn’t merely cleansing the temple of wickedness, he was announcing it’s irrelevance and replacing it with himself.

  4. After Mark 11 I wanted to listen to this “song” of scripture as I “watched” Jesus riding into the Holy City on the donkey.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R0_I1chNMow

    Also, appreciating everyone’s thoughts and comments, and listening for what Holy Spirit wants to say in response 🙂 Thank you all.

        1. I think my internet was weak and just wasn’t refreshing quickly. I saw no links, no embeds, until I logged on today.

  7. So many confrontations in Jerusalem. This incident brings back fond memories.

    27 They came again to Jerusalem. While Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the experts in the law, and the elders came up to him 28 and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question. Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: 30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven or from people? Answer me.” 31 They discussed with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘From people—’” (they feared the crowd, for they all considered John to be truly a prophet). 33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

    Years ago, BCC staged major productions for both Christmas and Easter. One year, a great friend, Harold Smith, played the role of Caiaphas in the Easter production. I will never forget his delivery of the line, “We don’t know.” In every confrontation Jesus faced, he came out on top. There’s a rabbinical thing going on, but more than that, Jesus was speaking from the truth. The pharisees just wanted to trap him, and cared nothing for the truth.

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