Throw which Mountain into the Sea?

While traveling from Bethany to Jerusalem, Jesus cursed a fig tree that had borne no fruit to teach the disciples a lesson about the judgment that was coming upon the Temple and the Jerusalem religious establishment. The disciples were so enthralled by how quickly the fig tree had withered they completely missed the point of the illustration. They were, Matthew reports, “amazed.”

Jesus nevertheless takes advantage of the moment and turns it into an opportunity for a lesson on a prayer. He reassures the disciples that if they have faith and do not doubt, they will be able to much more than was done to the fig tree.  “… 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 20:21-22)

Is Jesus really making the fantastic promise that God will give us whatever we ask for if we just have enough faith?  What is this passage actually about?

First of all, we need to keep in mind that Jesus’ remarks are connected to what he has already said about the fate of Jerusalem leadership.  The entire chapter is in fact about the conflict taking place between Jesus and the nation’s leaders that is about to come to a head. This is the final week of Jesus’s earthy life and the disciples need to understand the spiritual resources that are at their disposal for the coming days ahead. They can do far more than cause a fig tree to wither.

Secondly, to correctly interpret these verses we need to understand the geographical context of this passage. During the Passion Week, Jesus and his disciples traveled back and forth across the Mount of Olives on their daily trip from Bethany to Jerusalem. People today travel the same basic path across the mountain so we can see the very same geographical features along the way that Jesus and his disciples saw.

What mountain did Jesus point out to the disciples? Many commentators argue that Jesus simply has a metaphorical mountain in mind.  That seems unlikely, however, in view of the fact that he uses the demonstrative pronoun “this mountain.” Jesus was referring to an actual mountain. This leads other scholars to suggest Jesus pointed to the Mount of Olives on which they were walking or to Mount Zion, where the Temple complex was located.

There is however a more likely candidate visible on the horizon – the massive mountain palace-fortress built by Herod the Great, which he called “the Herodium.”  When Jesus referred to moving “this mountain” he no doubt had the Herodium in mind due to the fact that Herod actually moved a nearby mountain to build it! He instructed his engineers to use the earth of an adjacent mountain to construct a volcano-like cone base that towered over its surroundings. He built the Herodium within and on top of the mountain – a monumental round palace-fortress that rose five stories above the cone. Its opulence included a lavish swimming pool at the base of the mountain where Herod entertained his guests.

The superstructure has long since been destroyed but the cone shaped mountain still towers above the horizon – an ancient reminder of King Herod’s extraordinary wealth and absolute political power over the land of Israel.  And Herod possessed all that wealth and power because he was a client-king of the Roman Empire. When the disciples – and every other hardworking citizen of Israel - looked at the Herodium, they were reminded of the very same thing: the Roman occupation of the Promised Land. The Herodium was a symbol of the political corruption and economic exploitation that governed their daily lives. And the common people were powerless to do anything about it. 

And that’s where Jesus’ promise to the disciples comes in. If the disciples prayed in faith, they had the power to ask for the Herodium – and all that it represented, to be thrown into the Sea—the Dead Sea, and it would happen.