Matthew 21--Fig Trees & Mountains

Then Jesus told them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and don't doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, 'May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen. You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it." -Matthew 21:21-22

"This is the only miracle in which Christ cursed rather than blessed—destroyed rather than restored life. This has been raised as a difficulty. Such criticism betrays an ignorance of the Person of Christ. He is God, the Sovereign of the universe. Some of His dealings are mysterious to us, but we must begin with the premise that they are always right. In this case, the Lord knew that the fig tree would never bear figs and He acted as a farmer would in removing a barren tree from his orchard."  -Believer's Bible Commentary

My own notes:

*fig tree represented Israel, was symbolic.  Should have bore pre-fruit, because it didn't it was a sign that it wouldn't bear fruit in season either.  This was symbolic of the Jews who were not only not bearing fruit, but openly hostile to Christ.

*claim about throwing the mountain into the sea and the power of prayer is always puzzling to me:

It's a puzzling promise to me, even with "context"

You can tell me all day long that you have to consider the context of what Jesus is saying here, but I cannot but help stack the high words of this promise up against the manipulative attempts of many Christians to "harness"  the power of God and His Spirit through too literal attempts to apply this verse.  I have no doubt that God invests His believers with power, but clearly there is a disconnect here between how we are trying to receive this verse and how He intended it.