24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.[g] He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
Question 1
What are any similarities between the fig tree and the temple?
Imagine you’re hungry and realize that your kitchen cupboards are completely empty! If you got angry with the cupboard your family would think you were crazy. Perhaps reading Jesus’ words to the tree you think he is doing something similar here. But once again Jesus uses things as symbols in order to teach his disciples something.
When Jesus went to the temple, what did he expect to see? It was the most sacred place of the Jewish religion, the place where men were able to come and worship God. The place should have been full of spiritual fruit – people worshipping God and loving each other. But what he sees is men buying and selling, cheating people out of their money, using the house of God in order to steal. Jesus saw that there was no spiritual fruit there, just like the fig tree! When the disciples see that the fig tree is dead, Jesus explains to them that faith can achieve anything.
But why does Jesus give the example of a mountain being thrown into the sea? The mountain it refers to is the mountain that Jerusalem and the temple were built on. What Jesus is saying is that a new order has begun, with him being King over it. We don’t need the temple any more because we don’t meet God through the temple now, but in Jesus Christ. If you have faith in him, and believe that is enough to save you, then you can throw away the temple.
There are two obvious outcomes of that faith. First, if we have faith then we will accept what we ask for. But it is the nature of real faith to think in the same way as Jesus Christ; So if we pray by faith then we will obviously ask for what He thinks is best. The second outcome is that our faith changes the way we treat others. If we have received forgiveness from God, then how can we not forgive others?
Question 2
Why is faith so important when praying?
Question 3
Why is forgiving others important?
Pray
for faith to believe that God will give you what you ask for in Christ’s name.
.
