Mark 11:23’s Mountain
“Verily I say to you, ‘Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be lifted up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that what he speaketh cometh to pass it shall be his.” Mark 11:23 (Rotherham).
In modern Christianity, Jesus’s mountain has been dressed down into a psychological phenomenon. One popular minister put it this way, “Jesus is using the word ‘mountain’ symbolically to stand for any high obstacle that might stand in our way.” While “mountain” may be figurative in a sense (faith doesn’t just apply to mountains), this statement undermines the raw bluntness of Jesus’s “this mountain” (orei touto denotes a specific, identifiable mountain) and his mountain reference Matthew’s account (“not only will you do what had been done to this fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain”). Frankly, the minister’s psycho-mountain or “high obstacle” does not appear to have much New Testament support. Paul, for example, seemed to have quite a number of “high obstacles”:
“Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labours more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils of false brethren; in labour and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” 2 Corinthians 11:23-27
While Jesus didn’t sit down with the disciples and explain in minute detail what every “mountain” might be, we understand His meaning(s) through the use of faith in the Gospels and the book of Acts (and doctrinally in the Epistles). In many instances we see Jesus speaking directly to sicknesses and demons and commanding them to leave. We see the same for the disciples in Matthew 10 when He gave them authority over all manner of sickness and disease and all devils. (they lost their faith by Matthew 17). In the Gospels, the use of the God-kind of faith was toward certain, concrete objects or personalities that had to do with redemption realities. Nowhere do we find the disciples commanding psychological “high obstacles” to be removed.
The same is seen in the book of Acts. Two examples:
“Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. And it came to pass in those days, that she fell sick and died … the disciples hearing that Peter was there, sent two men unto him, entreating him, Delay not to come unto us … Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes; and when she saw Peter, she sat up.” Acts 9:36-40 (RV).
“And at Lystra there sat a certain man, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speaking: who, fastening his eyes upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped up and walked.” Acts 14:8-10
In Acts 9, we see Peter entering into the room and kneeling to pray. Evidently in this prayer he received the faith of God or God-kind of faith because he turned to the body and commanded her to get up. While this instance involved sickness and physical death which would include one or more of the manifestations of the Spirit, it conforms exactly to Jesus’s prescription in Mark 11:22 and 23. Also, notice that Peter did not ask and then wait for God to raise the body up, but he spoke to it by command and Tabitha was brought back to life.
In Acts 14, Paul was obviously preaching the Word and by that preaching faith came or was produced. (Romans 10:17). While the Word says that the man “had” or possessed faith to be made whole, it was Paul who performed the Mark 11:23 speaking. This confluence of faith, the man’s and Paul’s, removed the “mountain” which had been the man’s impotency in his feet. The man was not some sort of hypochondriac; his disease was just as real and concrete as his healing.
By these accounts, we understand some of the depths and contours of “this mountain” and the command of faith found in Mark 11:23 and none of them have to do with psychological phenomena. Indeed, alleviating or ameliorating psychological “high obstacles” has much more to do with the renewing the mind than it does with Mark 11:22, 23.