<p>21:21&nbsp;<em>And Jesus answered and said to them: Truly I say to you, If you have faith-&nbsp;</em>See on :20. The faith in view was faith in the Lord's new way of doing things, a religion of kids and cripples outside of organized religion.</p><p><em>And doubt not</em>- The 'faith' was faith in the passing of the Jewish system. &quot;Doubt not&quot; translates&nbsp;<em>diakrino</em>&nbsp;which can better be translated to make a difference, to discriminate. It was as if the Lord was saying: 'I know you believe. But to believe in&nbsp;<em>this</em>&nbsp;will be hard. Don't make a difference, believing in some things and not others. Believe in this too'.&nbsp;</p><p><em>You shall not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if you shall say to</em>- They too were to play a part in the withering of the fig tree- by preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles.</p><p><em>This mountain</em>- There is a clear semantic connection between the cursing of the fig tree and the moving of the mountain into the sea. The mountain in view was the temple mount. The Lord is comforting them that not only would the tree of Israel be withered, but the whole mount Zion, the most sacred space in Judaism, would be cast to the Gentiles the &quot;sea&quot;. This kind of thing was what His parody of a triumphal entry had been all about, and His casting out of the religious Jews from the temple and replacing them with kids and cripples, those formerly excluded from the sacred space. The faith to move the temple mount to the Gentiles was the very faith which Peter was later required to have in preaching to the Gentiles represented by Cornelius.&nbsp; The Lord recognized that this paradigm shift was a matter of faith, and He urged the disciples to realize their psychological problem and accept it needed special help from God to get over. This incident obviously had huge relevance for the first century communities of believers who were baptized as a result of Matthew's Gospel; for acceptance of the end of the Jewish system and the acceptance of the Gentiles was the live issue for the early churches. Mk. 11:25 adds: &quot;And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses&quot;. The motivation in accepting others into fellowship, in accepting the casting of the sacred space of Mount Zion to the Gentiles, was to be from realizing their own urgent need for forgiveness and their moral frailty. Those faced with similar struggles about accepting others, or allowing previously rejected categories into Christian fellowship, need to take this advice.</p><p><em>Be taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done</em>- To be removed and cast into the sea was a word picture of condemnation. And yet&nbsp;<em>airo</em>, to remove or take away, surely reflects the Hebraism of 'taking away' with reference to taking away sin (s.w. Jn. 1:29; 1 Jn. 3:5 &quot;takes away the sin of the Jewish world&quot;). This was a phrase with two possible meanings. The disciples could achieve this in that their preaching would give mount Zion both the possibility of sin being taken away if they responded and of condemnation, being cast into the sea like Gentile Babylon if they rejected their message. The same words and ideas are found in Rev. 18:21, where Babylon is 'taken up' s.w. &quot;removed&quot; and cast into the sea. However, the Lord soon uses the same word in telling the Jews that the Kingdom was to be &quot;taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits of the Kingdom&quot; (:43). This reference to fruit connects with the Lord's teaching about the fig tree which was cursed for not bearing fruit. The rejected servant was likewise to be 'taken away' in condemnation (22:13), just as the flood &quot;took them all away&quot; (24:39), the talent was 'taken away' from the rejected (25:28,29). Significantly, the Lord had used this same word for 'remove' or 'take away' in the first cleansing of the temple, when He commanded the traders to &quot;Take these things away&quot; (Jn. 2:16); and likewise it is used about the 'taking away' of the branches of the tree of Israel (Jn. 15:2). The Lord is telling the disciples that they too will be able to make such a removing of the unclean from the system of Judaism, and likewise cause the withering of Israel's tree. In fact it was the Romans who &quot;took away our place and nation&quot; (Jn. 11:48 s.w.) but this was on account of Israel's rejection of the disciples' preaching. In that sense, therefore, it was they who had caused the temple Mount to be taken away and cast into the sea of Gentiles. This too is the power of our preaching. We are not merely discharging a responsibility to evangelize so that we feel better, let alone doing a PR exercise for our local church or denomination. Our presentation of the message to others has eternal consequence for them- to their salvation or condemnation. Significantly, the same word is used for how on the cross, the Lord 'took away' the Mosaic Law (Col. 2:14).&nbsp;</p><p><em>&quot;</em>Cast into the sea&quot; were the very words used by the Lord in describing the fate of the Jews who made the little ones stumble (Mk. 9:42). The little ones had been brought into the temple to replace the Jewish religious leaders. Those leaders had previously refused to accept those little ones. Their judgment was to be cast into the sea as Babylon (Rev. 18:21 same words). But this would only happen once the disciples had preached to them after the resurrection- they were given chance after chance, despite the Lord's cursing of the fig tree with immediate effect.</p><p>Mt. 21:21 = Rom. 4:20. Paul saw Abraham as being like the man in the parable who had the faith to throw mountains into the sea.</p>