WITWpt2 (shorts!): Mustard Seeds

by Aaron

What in the World? Part 2 SHORTS!

Sadly, I believe this will be my last blog in our What in the World Part 2 series; it is not my last because I have run out of questions, it my last because I have saved some good questions for an eventual part III of What in the World. What in the World is where we are answering your questions about verses in the Bible that make you scratch your head and ask, “What in the world does that mean?” The shorter-to-answer questions are being addressed in blog form. Today’s question is this, In Matthew 17:20 Jesus talks about faith as small as a mustard seed. I know how small mustard seeds are, but why are we supposed to have faith like it, what in the world does it mean?
 
First off, you are right, mustard seeds are tiny (just google it, it is a very small seed). In the context of Matthew 17 the disciples are trying to cast out a demon, something Jesus gave them power to do, but they were unsuccessful. It seems like they were questioning the power Jesus gave them and not their own lack of trust in Jesus…it’s kind of like they have faith in faith and not faith in Jesus. It is important were our faith lies, so the text says: Matthew 17:18-20 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. 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.”
 
Faith is more than mustering up enough belief, our faith as Christians starts in history, that our God came and lived among us in order to redeem us. This is why faith is very important in the scriptures, it is why we call Christianity a “reasonable” faith because it is verifiable. Where something like Islam says, “submit,” our God says “let us reason together” in Isaiah 1:18. Our God stoops to our level so we could trust Him in a real and true way; it is not how much belief we can muster up, but the object that our faith is in. We are told that faith is so vital that it is impossible to please God without it in Hebrews 11:6, but we are also reminded it is a gift (in more ways than one) in Ephesians 2.
 
The Mustard seed analogy is used two times in the Gospels, Matt 17 and Luke 17, both in reference to doing something so out of the ordinary (mountains moving or trees uprooting and being planted in the sea) that it stretches the bounds of mere belief. This is why we must understand how Rabbis taught, especially in using an analogy like the mustard seed. Jesus is pointing to this small seed in reference to true faith in the One real God, not faith in your own power or faith in your own belief. Our faith can be tiny, but it truly matters who our faith rests in because God is faithful.
 
In Matthew 13:31-32 Jesus talks in a parable about a mustard seed being planted and eventually, if left to grow, it can become a tree that birds can rest in. I think this illustrates what faith and a foundation that grows into a legacy can become in our lives. It can start small, but Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. By continuing to trust Him, no matter how small or frail our ‘faith’ seems at the time, eventually our faith will grow and encompass friendships, family, children and grandchildren…it will last generations and leave an inheritance for those who come because it is not based in us, but in Jesus Himself.
 
The best definition for the word we translate as “faith” in the bible (the Greek word pistis) is probably our word “trust.” Let’s put our faith, as small as it sometimes is, in the person of Jesus. Michael Ramsden wrote, Ever since the church began, the refrain has always been the same: Come, believe, follow the light of the world. It has never appealed for people to leap into the dark; no such invitation is found anywhere in Scripture. Instead, we are called to step into the light. The Christian gospel is not a message that revels in ignorance. It is the revelation of God in the person of Christ, so that we might know there is no other.”