⚡WEB · Mark 11:21
What does Mark 11:21 mean?
"Peter, remembering, said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.”"
— Mark 11:21 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.
When evening came, he went out of the city.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots.
Peter, remembering, said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.”
Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening; he shall have whatever he says.
Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them.
Explanation
This verse comes at a pivotal moment in Mark's Gospel, capturing the disciples' astonished reaction to something Jesus had done the day before. On the way into Jerusalem, Jesus had approached a fig tree that had leaves but no fruit, and he pronounced a curse on it: "May no one ever eat fruit from you again" (Mark 11:14). Now, as the disciples pass by the same spot the next morning, Peter notices that the tree has completely withered from the roots up, and he points this out to Jesus with evident surprise, addressing him respectfully as "Rabbi," meaning teacher.
Mark, traditionally understood to be recording the preaching of the apostle Peter for a largely Gentile, likely Roman, Christian audience, structures this episode carefully. He famously "sandwiches" the fig tree story around the account of Jesus cleansing the temple (Mark
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