The Withered Fig Tree, and the Question of Authority
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. 21 Peter, remembering, said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.” 22 Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 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. 24 Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them. 25 Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your transgressions.” 27 They came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him, 28 and they began saying to him, “By what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 The baptism of John—was it from heaven, or from men? Answer me.” 31 They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven;’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 If we should say, ‘From men’”—they feared the people, for all held John to really be a prophet. 33 They answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
The tree is dead from the roots, the lesson is praying faith that forgives — and the authorities' demand for credentials is met with a question they dare not answer.
As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots.
The parable's second half: withered from the roots — not damaged but finished, the fate of fruitless display carried to its end. The temple's own root-withering is a generation away Mark 13:2, and the tree stands by the road as its advance notice.
22 Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 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.
Jesus turns Peter's astonishment into a lesson not on cursing but on praying. This mountain — said on the Olivet road with the temple mount in view — makes the hyperbole pointed: the immovable obstacle, faith's proper business. The promise (believe that you have received them, and you shall have them Mark 11:24) is prayer's charter, not a blank check against God's will — the same Lord prays not what I desire, but what you desire three chapters on Mark 14:36, and that prayer is answered too. And the condition attached is neither fasting nor fervor but forgiveness: whenever you stand praying, forgive Mark 11:25 — the upraised hands must be open ones; a heart holding a grievance shut cannot hold a request out Matthew 6:14–15.
and they began saying to him, “By what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?”
The temple's owners-in-residence arrive — chief priests, scribes, elders, the full Sanhedrin roster — demanding credentials for yesterday's closure. The counter-question is not evasion but exposure: the baptism of John — was it from heaven, or from men? Mark 11:30. John had borne witness to Jesus; answer John, and Jesus is answered. Their huddled calculation Mark 11:31–32 weighs truth against consequences — from heaven convicts them, from men riots the crowd — and produces the one answer that ends their authority to ask: we don't know. Men whose office is to judge prophets, declining in public to judge the era's greatest, have resigned the seat they sit in; neither will I tell you Mark 11:33 simply reads out the resignation.
settled What this mark means