The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 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. Luke 17: 5-6 NIV
Jesus replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20 NIV
Have you ever wondered what Jesus meant when He said that if we have even the smallest amount of faith—like a grain of mustard seed—we could move mountains or plant trees in the ocean?
Well, no one has ever physically moved any earth and rock mountains or uprooted trees by the power of their faith, so what is it that Jesus is speaking about? What makes the potential of faith so powerful?
Why do some Christians seem to have an abundance of faith, and other Christians have so little? What does it take to have an abundance of life-changing faith? Over the next few weeks I’ll attempt to provide some insight into how we should understand this important communication of Jesus, addressed to his disciples.
The context of any Biblical passage is important to comprehending what is being said and ultimately taught. More often that not, when we take a single verse out of its native context, we end up misinterpreting the verse. This is a common mistake with people who like to “proof text” their theological positions. Someone comes up with a novel way to think theologically, and then searches the Scriptures to find biblical support for their view.
So when we get to a passage such as Matthew 17:20 wherein Jesus says... “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you,” we must first look at the overall context of the passage – what is the setting for this statement of Jesus’?
Jesus, along with Peter, James and John, had just come down from the mount of transfiguration, and they encounter a man with a demon possessed child. The man tells Jesus that he had earlier brought his son to his disciples, but they couldn’t cast the demon out (Jesus earlier in Matthew 10:1 had given his disciples the authority to cast out evil spirits). Jesus on hearing this, chastises the crowd for their lack of faith and then casts the demon out of the boy. Later, when his disciples inquire as to why the demon didn’t obey their command, Jesus replies with his statement in Matthew 17:20. Jesus rebukes them for their weak faith and says that even if they had mustard seed sized faith, they could command the mountain to move.
Contextually speaking, to what does the “mountain” refer in this passage? The mountain is metaphor for a barrier, an obstacle, something that must be overcome. In this case it would refer to the challenge of casting out the demon that was afflicting the man’s son.
Jesus tells his disciples that if their faith was stronger, they could have commanded the demon to leave the boy, and it would have happened. The essentiality of faith was clearly the expectation in Matthew 10 when Jesus sent them out to cure diseases, cast out demons and spread the gospel.
It should be clear from the context that Jesus does not intend to assert that mustard seed sized faith can literally move mountains. If you consult commentaries on this passage, you will learn that the expression Jesus uses was a common colloquialism of that day. To a Jew of Jesus’ day, a mountain was a metaphor signifying a seemingly impossible task.
The point Jesus was making in using a mustard seed, one of the smallest of all seeds, to illustrate faith, is that even a little bit of faith can overcome mountainous obstacles in our lives.
Even the smallest amount of faith is life-changing. When Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed was enough to pluck up a mulberry tree by the roots and transplant it into the sea, He was illustrating the incredible power of faith.
Jesus, while most likely frustrated with his disciples over their limiting faith, he was compassionate and patient... knowing that their faith would grow. His rebuke was not harsh, but helped them understand where they were in their spiritual growth.
Faith even the size of a mustard seed can move the mountains blocking the horizons of our hopes, shadowing the light and beauty of God’s love in our lives, limiting the scope of our service to His Kingdom. Faith the size of a mustard seed can make the improbable possible.
Faith can stand up to and move, indeed remove, the things that trap us, the stuff that scares the daylights out of us, the things that test and erode our confidence in God and make us wonder whether God is in fact able to make something of our efforts.
Faith enough to move mountains. What kind of mountains? Don’t worry, a testing of your faith will not mean you have to demonstrate your ability to move Pike’s Peak into the Pacific. The very real mountain looming in front of the disciples on that day was the challenge of healing that sick boy that had been brought to them.
Each of us is called by God to do something different. Whatever it is that God has called us to do, He has also given us full authority to accomplish “our challenge” by the strength of our faith and the guiding and leading power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. So what is your "mountain"?
It may be a mountain of sharing Christ with a person very close to you. It may be taking a stand for Christ in a new, more powerful way. It may be accepting new responsibilities, such as a role of leadership in your service to Christ.
It may be a mountain of turning over that last little area of your life that you’ve not been willing to part with, giving your life completely over to Christ. It may be a mountain of refusing to sit quietly while your business colleagues, casual acquaintances, co-workers, trample the name of Christ.
It may be to accept Christ into your life. It may be obeying the gospel, and submitting to be baptism (Acts 2:38).
There’s even another category of "mountains" that may be standing before you today. These are mountains that shout back at you, taunt you, as if saying, "You don’t stand a chance in getting past me!" Mountains like self-rejection; mountains of fear; mountains of doubt; mountains of discouragement all brought into sharp focus by past insecurities and failures.
Once again, the promise holds: Christ has given you full authority to get past these mountains; and with faith even as big as a mustard seed, you can do just that. You can do it because Christ promises that you are accepted and loved by him.
You can do it because Christ promises that he wants to transform you, making even a life that’s been marked by fears, doubts, failures, disappointments, rebellion, anything at all, into a life that mirrors His own. (Romans 12:2)
God can move your mountains. Trust him “by your faith” and watch what happens.
Next week... digging a little deeper on the subject of “faith that moves mountains.”
