Holy Week - Follow the Final Steps of JesusSample

Miracles still happen...

Monday:

Jesus left Bethany, a town on the hillside of the Mount of Olives, and walked with the disciples to Jerusalem. On the way, Jesus pointed to a fig tree that had leaves but wasn’t bearing fruit. Jesus cursed the tree and it withered at once.

Astonished, the disciples wondered how the tree withered at just a word. Jesus responded, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘be taken up and thrown into the sea’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matt. 21:21-22)

There’s so much that can be said about the fig tree: its lack of fruit, its instant withering, and the disciples’ astonishment. But let’s look at Jesus’s response: “if you have faith”. This scripture often gets plucked from Matthew and used as a hall pass for praying down whatever we want from a genie-like God. But here, Jesus emphasized the power of faith not to get what we want, but to reign over what looks impossible. Jesus calls us not to lower our expectations of what God can do, but to raise them.

When we look at this verse in light of its timeline, just days before Jesus's death, we know the impossible thing coming. It's more impossible than a tree withering or a mountain thrown into the sea. It's the impossibility of resurrection, a dead man coming back to life. Faith doesn’t simply believe God answers prayers but that He transforms lives. He raises not just his son, but every believer.

Nothing is impossible with God, “if you have faith”. So, how is your faith? Do you need a reminder that every salvation is an astonishing miracle? That means, as long as God is still saving people, miracles still happen.