The Eschatological Coherence of Jesus’ “Random Sayings on Faith, Prayer, and Forgiveness” in Mark 11:22–25(26)

Rather than being random, these sayings are found to have a profound eschatological coherence focused upon the End.

In the ‘rising action’ of the closing chapters of Mark’s Gospel, after entering Jerusalem to cries of Hosanna, and clearing the temple of traders, Jesus curses a fig tree before reflecting upon these dramatic events with a series of ‘random sayings on faith, prayer and forgiveness’ (11:22–25[26]).

After carefully analysing these sayings in their own right, this paper reads them in the context of the narrative-movement towards Jesus’ end, and against apocalyptic expectation of the movement of the world towards God’s kingdom. Rather than being random, these sayings are found to have a profound eschatological coherence focused upon the End.