Moving Mountains

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." Mark 11.22ff

This passage is a prime example of how important an understanding of the cultural and geographical context is to our understanding of the text.

Jesus often used his surroundings to help illustrate his teaching points. In this passage, he was on the road from Bethany (southeast) to Jerusalem and off to his left, 7 miles south of Jerusalem, were two mountains, the larger of which was the Herodian:

The Herodion

The Herodion was a fortress built by King Herod (ruled 37-4 B.C.). Herod, an Idumean, whose family was forcibly converted to Judaism during the Hasmonean rule of his homeland, was appointed governor of Judea by Julius Caesar. He ruled with an iron fist, squelching all dissidents with brutal force, and was always fearful of attempts to usurp him.

Josephus, a Jewish historian, tells us:

This fortress, which is some sixty stadia distant from Jerusalem, is naturally strong and very suitable for such a structure, for reasonably nearby is a hill, raised to a (greater) height by the hand of man and rounded off in the shape of a breast. (War I, 31, 10; Antiquities XIV, 323-325)

The key detail in Josephus' account, is the fact that he used slave labor to increase the height of his fortress thus "moving a mountain" (Mt 17.20). In our passage, Jesus is saying not only will you be able to move a mountain, which had been done, but you will be able to "cast it" some 20 miles to the East into the Dead Sea. 

This statement is not only religious, but also extremely political. Jesus preached on the Kingdom of God more than any other subject and his central argument in all those passages, is that God reigns. God is ruler and not Herod and not Caesar. 

This message was not easy to believe because it did not look like God was in control. 

This makes Jesus' message even more powerful: if you believe, and affirm with your actions, that God is in control of the world and that you are to live by the standards of his kingdom, then you will see things come to pass that were once only figments of your imagination. 

As we process the powers that compete for our allegiance, the prayer of a father whose child is stricken with epilepsy becomes especially appropriate:

                                       
                                        "I believe; help my unbelief!"
                                                                
                                                           -Mark 11.24