Please read first: Luke 17:5-10
I feel extremely hot in this rope this morning. Isn’t it strange that we are already passing a week in October and still having 85 degree weather? What do you think this winter will be like? There’s a story of a tribe of Indians on the remote reservation, who asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was an Indian Chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.
Also, being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.
A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Is it going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it’s definitely going to be a very cold winter." The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.
Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," the man replied. "It’s going to be one of the coldest winters ever."
"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked. The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting wood like crazy." (Andrew Chan)
The Chief put his faith in the NWS as much as NWS put their faith on the Indians. How great it is?
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The scripture lesson for this week covers Jesus’ answer to the disciple’s request to increase their faith. Maybe they were requesting this because of what Jesus just taught them in the previous passage, that they are required to forgive those who offend them seven times a day, and they felt it would need quite a lot of faith to keep forgiving others. So they asked the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
Maybe to their surprise, the Jesus answered, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Jesus is saying that you don’t need to increase it; all you need is a tiny bit of it, the size of a mustard seed. A mustard seed is proverbially small, and the Lord says that’s as much faith as you need to do the impossible. A mulberry tree is a large tree and can be as tall as 35 feet, and it has roots widely spread out, so it would need some incredible effort to plug it out and move it elsewhere, and it wouldn’t be possible to be planted in the sea because it floats on the water. It’s a metaphor for an impossible task.
Jesus is teaching the followers an important attitude of effective discipleship. Let’s look at the key actions steps of this attitude that Jesus expects us to apply in our journey to fruitfulness.
1 - Apply What You Already Have
It doesn’t really need much to make a difference in life. If you look at the people that have made significant difference in human history, you will find that not many of them are the smartest and the most privileged people. Jesus’ human background was just carpenter’s son and he changed the world through a bunch of fishermen.
The most educated one among the apostles was probably the Apostle Paul, but he became highly effective after he declared intellectual and meritorious bankruptcy; he said, “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” The word rubbish was politely translated in NRSV from the Greek word which actually means the four letter word that starts with “s.” The King James Version translated it into “dung.” The point is Paul didn’t depend on his power and privilege to make the difference in history.
Jesus says you don’t need much to do what I command you to do—my burden is light and my yoke is easy. However, you must acknowledge what you already have. In the same times, there is a sense that the disciples are saying, “Lord, unless you give us more faith, we can’t forgive people the way you ask us to forgive, we can’t love others the way you ask us to love, and we can’t do the things that you command us to do.” It is somewhat like saying, “let me win a lottery so I can feed the poor.” Jesus doesn’t want us to get trapped in thinking that we always need more to make a difference in the world.
Many people give excuses for not achieving something significant for God’s ministry. If you ask them why, they always say, “I don’t have enough gift; I don’t have enough money; not enough time, talent, skills; I don’t have the right spouse, the right parent, or the right teacher.” In this case the disciples are saying, “We don’t have enough faith!”
If you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you have enough to make a difference in the world because all you need is that you sow your mustard seed faith and God will make it grow and bear fruit. That means even if you only have two pennies, you have enough to make a difference in the world.
You might remember the story in Mark 12:41-44. Jesus was watching people who came to give their offerings, many people put large sums of money, but a widow came and put in her two little copper coins, and Jesus said, she had given more than any other contributors. If your faith is as poor as the worth of two pennies, that’s all you need to make the difference. Why? It’s because you are making a statement of faith that God will use what I have, no matter how little it is, to make a significant difference. It’s God’s power in me, not my power that makes the difference.
From this point of view we can interpret that when Jesus scolded the disciples, “You of little faith...,” it actually means those who didn’t use what they have. If you use what God has already endowed in you, you will see your faith grow. That brings to the second point of Jesus’ teaching.
2 – Cultivate the Faith
There are other things that are smaller than a mustard seed, such as a grain of sand. Why didn’t Jesus say that all you need is a faith the size of a grain of sand, in stead of a mustard seed? It is because a seed can grow and become a tree, then bear fruit and produce more seeds, and multiply itself a hundred fold, a thousand fold, or a million fold.
A seed has life. Therefore, each time you apply your mustard seed faith, you sow the seed into the soil. Then you see God’s power at work and produce the result. When you see the result you grain confidence and your faith grows. Look at this PowerPoint slide that illustrates the cycle of faith growth.
Of course this is overly simplified because sometimes you don’t see the result right away. Some of your action might take a generation to see results. But if you take massive actions with the little you have, like that widow in Mark 12 that gave all she has, you will see some immediate results out of many, and they are enough to make your faith grow.
As a seed that doesn’t stop reproducing, you should not stop taking actions after seeing the result and experiencing the growth. In order to continue to grow, we should build on it, by taking more actions, and continue the upward spiral of growth.
3 – Serve Relationally, not Transactionally
Our proper relationship with God is servant master relationship. The actual word is “slave” rather than servant. It would be quite difficult for this generation to get the concept because we don’t have slaves in our society. By using the term slaves, Jesus was not advocating having such class of people, but he was simply using the social structure of his time to give an example for his teaching. A slave must do everything for his master without expecting reward.
“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’?” Jesus was not demeaning the servant, but to make his duty clear based on the relationship between master and servant. A servant does not have the rights to come back home after working in the field and say to the master, “I have taken care of what is needed to be done in the farm, would you please cook for me?” Or “I have worked all day, and I am hungry, can I eat with you?”
There is a parable of servant girls that eat with their master, who represents Jesus Christ. But when a master eats with the servants, it is an expression of grace, it is not an entitlement. A servant must do everything the master commands, but never expect any acknowledgement, recognition, or recompense.
Jesus said, “Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’” “We are worthless slaves” is a traditional expression when a slave talks to the master. “We have done only what we ought to have done” should be our attitude of serving God. It is to fulfill our duty based on our relationship with God, not based on a transaction. In a transactional relationship, the attitude is that I will serve you as well as you compensate me.
When the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, Jesus uses this servant story to teach them the proper attitude of following his commands because their request is somewhat bargaining with Christ, “You increase our faith and we will do what you command us to do.” Just like saying, “Increase our salary and we will serve you better.”
Jesus has actually set up an example for us as to how to be servants. He said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mat. 20:28) He served us to the ultimate extend, that he even gave his life on the cross. At his last moment on the cross he prayed, “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing.” That shows that he served us without expectation, not even a tiny bit of recognition, but with total forgiveness for our ignorance. His death and resurrection provides us assurance of God’s grace that those who trust him will enter heaven on his ticket. We must decide to trust him and follow him, and he will use the mustard seed faith that you have, to make a significant difference in this world, and make your life significant. May God bless you! Amen!
