Foiled Again! Blessings and Curses in the New Testament

The Old Testament talks a lot about curses, but what about the New Testament? Do we have the power to curse, as Jesus cursed the fig tree?

In “Cussing, Swearing, & Cursing: Do Words Really Matter?,” I discussed the difference between cussing, swearing, and cursing.  Regarding the power to curse others with our speech, I said:

We curse other people when we use hurtful and destructive language…. Instead, God wants us to use the power of our speech for good. In a sense, when we use this type of language against others, we are cursing them. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words have the power to kill. Cursing is a deadly power, without ever getting into the question of supernatural cursing as a phenomenon.

I developed the concept further in “Foiled Again! Blessings and Curses in the Hebrew Bible.” I discussed the supernatural viewpoint that the Hebrew scriptures take on blessings and curses:

Hebrew scripture that communicate blessings and curses as spiritual realities. They are different from beneficial prayers in which a person might ask for God’s boon. With prayers, the individual makes a request and God responds. With blessings (aka benedictions), the individual simply says, “May this be so.”

By the same token, curses are unlike imprecatory prayers in which one person asks God to bring about calamity on another. Instead, they are the generation and direction of spiritual energy by the person pronouncing the blessing or curse. In other words, Isaac isn’t praying for God to bless Jacob and for God to curse Esau. Instead, Isaac himself supernaturally blesses one son and curses the other. As with blessings, the individual simply says, “May this be so.”

In this article, we’ll look at what the New Testament has to say about curses.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

In Mark 11, Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem on a donkey, with the crowds shouting his acclaim. Verse 12-14 say:

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

Jesus then goes to the temple and cleanses it of moneychangers and merchants. Later, he returns to the fig tree Verses 20-23 say:

In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.

The standard wisdom regarding this story is that Jesus was giving a visual picture of how the fruitless deeds of the religious leaders were under a curse. Here are some observations:

1. The fig tree does not wither as a result of prayer. Jesus did not ask the divine Parent to wither the tree—Jesus did it himself.
2. As we have just seen with his overturning the tables of the moneychangers, not everything Jesus did was constructive. Whether Jesus should have used destructive means to achieve his ends is debatable. What is certain is that the power Jesus wielded could heal as well as destroy.
3. Many see this as a miracle that only Jesus could perform. But immediately after he does this, Jesus tells his disciples that they have the power to move mountains.
4. It stands to reason, then, that it’s in our hands as well to speak blessings and curses that can either heal or destroy. It’s up to us how we use this power—though I doubt that Jesus intended us to use it against trees.
5. We should not confuse what Jesus did with prayer. Many link Jesus’ statement about moving mountains with verse 24 in which he says, “So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Yet, Jesus didn’t pray for anything when he cursed the fig tree. Also, when he mentioned his disciples moving mountains, he didn’t reference prayer. Instead, we should understand verse 24 as paired with verse 25 which says, ““Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” In other words, Jesus is assuring people that whenever they ask forgiveness, they will receive it.

What should we take away from this passage? Jesus calls his followers to do the same things he did, and more. If Jesus had the power to bless and curse, so do we. But I’m far more concerned with how we use this power to affect the lives of other people than I am interested in a discussion of our magical abilities. If we interpret our capabilities to bless and curse as superpowers to put on a show or get whatever we want, we’ve missed the point. When we take seriously our call to do as Jesus did, we will use our words to inspire, unite, heal, teach, and encourage others. This is what it means to bless. We will not use them as weapons to tear people down—which is the real power of cursing.

Taming the Tongue

Jesus’ brother James talked about the need to tame the tongue the way we tame a horse with bit and bridle. Just as a tiny rudder guides a large ship, our small tongues can set the direction for our lives and the lives of others. James 3:5-10 says:

How great a forest is set ablaze by a such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of life, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8 but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, made in the likeness of God.  From the same mouth comes a blessing and a curse. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.

Confused Hearts

James says that the problem comes when our hearts are confused. We are like a single stream from which comes both salt and fresh water. He says that fig trees produce figs—not grapes. In other words, those who have Christ in their hearts should produce only Christlike results. Instead, blessings and curses come from the same lips. The result is that the words we speak have not only a psychological effect but a spiritual one as well. In “Can Christians Curse?  What the Bible Says…” I write:

Author Wayne Dyer points out that when you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out. Not grapefruit juice or apple juice—because what comes out is what’s inside. In the New Testament, Jesus says, “The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45 NRSVUE).” 

So the problem isn’t with our words—it’s with our hearts. When we speak blessings into people’s lives, good things result. But when we plant curses in the soil of their lives, the harvest is pain and suffering.

What About Generational Curses?

People talk about curses in both spiritual as well as psychological terms. The two are so interconnected that it’s often difficult to distinguish between them. Frankly, I’m not certain that the distinction is important. Our words can build people up, psychologically and spiritually. They can tear people down the same way. Sometimes, our words can affect people for generations to come.

In my next article, I’ll address the question that many people have about generational curses. Some passages in the Bible suggest that some people are cursed because of the deeds of their ancestors. Other scriptures disagree. I hope you’ll join me for the final article in this series, “What You Need to Know About Breaking Generational Curses.” Between the two opposing viewpoints in the Bible, we’ll see which one wins.