Reflection for March 19 – Kate Heichler

Today’s Passage from The Bible: Mark 11:20-33

In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, ‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea”, and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

‘Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.’ 

Again, they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.’ They argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say, “Why then did you not believe him?” But shall we say, “Of human origin”?’—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’

Reflection – Kate Heichler

In this passage, I meet Jesus as one who is comfortable with his authority.  We see in the first part Jesus’ authority over even the natural world, as he and his disciples see a fig tree he had cursed (not my favorite Jesus moment) has now withered and died. Jesus uses their astonishment at this miracle as a lesson for how to pray in faith – believing what you pray for has already occurred. That is really praying with authority – and in my experience can only “work” when we know we’re praying for what God already intends to accomplish. That’s what it means to pray in God’s will. 

And, he says, we cannot fully pray in God’s will if we are unable to forgive people who have hurt us. In fact, Jesus suggests that there is something about our inability to forgive that can impede the flow of forgiveness toward us. That’s authority of another kind. 

As Jesus and his followers come into the temple courts in Jerusalem, the question of authority comes up again as he is interrogated by religious leaders. “By what authority are you doing these things?” They will never believe it is by God’s authority, so he cleverly reverses the trap and refuses to answer. But it remains a good question for us: are we doing anything as Christ followers that challenges the authorities of this world, the natural order? Are we healing, proclaiming, making peace and justice in such a way that others might ask us, “By what authority are you doing these things?” Are we comfortable with the amazing authority we hold as followers of Jesus, members of God’s household, inheritors of God’s promises, presence and power? 

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