In Luke 17:5 the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
and Jesus replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed,
you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the
sea, and it will obey you.” (NIV)
Under the influence of faith movement, Christian often uses this
text to pray hard in order to increase one’s faith to accomplish
greater things. In this sense, faith is treated as some kind of
energy/power to be stored up in a portable tool or electronic
card, so that one could accumulate and apply it to a specific target
and take down the target, so that the name of the Lord may be glorified.
But is this the primary definition of faith? Could faith be stored
up? If so, then faith likes physical stuff that could be quantified.
I really doubt that the faith movement got this interpretation right.
Now let us look at the context of Luke 17:5.
What causes the apostles to request the Lord to increase their faith?
First, it is when you see your brother sins, go and rebuke him. If he
repents, then you have to forgive him. Second, if a brother sins against
you seven times a day, and seven times he comes back to you and
says “I repent”, then again you have to forgive him. The apostles know
that this is very difficult to accomplish. Therefore they ask the
Lord to increase their faith to overcome it. (This is amount to law keeping)
And Jesus tells them, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,
you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea,
and it will obey you. What does it mean? How should we interpret?
This is my observation. First, Jesus does not answer in terms of
quantified faith/measurable faith. He does not say if you have 10%
of faith, 50% of faith, or 90% of faith… his answer is very simple.
That is having or not having. In other words, if you have Christ, then
you have faith. If you have Christ, you have a new life. Because
Christ is the source of our faith, and source of our new life.
(See John 3:36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever rejects the Son will not see (have) life, for
God's wrath remains on him.) And if this teaching is true,
then how could one says that today I only have 10% of Christ, and
probably have 50% of Christ tomorrow, and next year 90% of Christ?
Second, Jesus compares this faith to a mustard seed. What mustard
seed really mean for Jesus? Doesn’t Jesus teach us that faith
can grow like the mustard seed? The answer is No. Let us go to
Matthew 13:31. Jesus teaches that His kingdom is coming in a
form of mustard seed. Even though it is the smallest of all seeds,
but in due time, it grows to become a tree, and all the birds come
and perch in its branches. In this text, Jesus is teaching the
growing and fulfillment of his Kingdom on earth. And it shall
draw all the nations unto Him. It is not a teaching on growth of faith.
Yes, when Jesus first begins his Gospel preaching, no body
welcomes the message. And he only has a small band of believers.
But after Jesus is crucified, resurrected, ascended to heaven,
he sends forth his Spirit to draw many people unto His
Kingdom (see Acts chapter 2). And this Kingdom has uprooted
the mulberry tree, and planted in the sea. This
Kingdom has accomplished the “mission impossible”.
For today, even a Christian still hold grudges against
another brother, yet this sin is already covered by
the precious blood of Jesus Christ. It is because there
is no single sin of the believers that is not fully
dealt with on the Cross two thousand years ago. Yes,
in Christ (not in us), we have peace with God for ever and
ever. May all the glory be unto our faithful
Triune God, Amen and Amen.
Posted on January 03, 2007
