Have you ever read a book that goes back and forth between what is happening to one person and then another? As I recall, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is like that. The book begins with the well-known statement, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” referring to what it was like in the different cities. It is an interesting way to tell two stories at the same time. I thought of that as I read through the end of Mark 11 this week.

The reason for this is that Mark goes back and forth between two subjects at the end of this chapter. One part (which we will study today) is about prayer, faith in God, and forgiveness (Mark 11:12-14, 20-26). The other part is about Jesus’ clearing of the temple and the religious leaders’ response to Him (Mark 11:15-19, 27-33). You will notice that Mark starts with one thought and then goes to another before returning to the previous thought. So as to keep the topics separate, we will look at the first part now and the second part at another time.