Mustard Seed Faith
August 18, 2009
The life of Jesus. Read Today: Disciples ask about the miracle; Matthew 17:19-21; Mark 9:28-29
Matthew 17:19-20 BBE
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, Why were we not able to send it out?
20 And he says to them, Because of your little faith: for truly I say to you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Be moved from this place to that; and it will be moved; and nothing will be impossible to you.
I bought for my daughter years ago a necklace. She loved it so much. In a little glass ball was a mustard seed. To her it represented the faith that Jesus talks about here. How one small seed can be such a big plant. And for years that is what I have read, heard taught, and taught my children as well. One small seed, one big tree, have faith and things will changed, if only you had that little bit of faith.
A new thought came to me recently. What if Jesus was not saying the quantity of the faith but the quality. A mustard seed does not know anything, just that it is a plant and it will grow. Day by day that is all it does is grow. It is that blind, childlike faith that keeps it pushing on.
The disciples were trying to logic and reason out the way to healing the child like so many of us do. What we need is faith that says when we say it will happen, it will.
Read for next time: Jesus discusses his death; Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32; Luke 9:44-45
