Insights

Rev Gav

What does it mean to have faith?

Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “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.

“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’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 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!’ ”

Reflect

This whole passage is a response to the disciples’ exhortation to ‘increase our faith’, and Jesus responds with a phrase that you have no doubt heard many times about having ‘faith as small as a mustard seed’. At best, this phrase has been used as an encouragement to have faith and, at worst, it has been used to berate people for not having enough faith, leading to a guilt that, because a mustard seed is so tiny, clearly they do not have enough of it.

Today’s Bible Reading begins with this phrase, and then Jesus goes on to say something that sounds a bit like ‘abuse’. A servant has been working all day and then when they get home they are expected to first wait on tables instead of taking a break? Really?

First, back to the mustard seed. No giggling. Is size important? Is it the size of the seed that matters? Well, it depends on what Jesus was trying to communicate. Was Jesus trying to change our beliefs or our behaviour towards others? You see, to me, it seems that Jesus was very much concerned with the latter — relationships. How we act towards God, towards other people, and to the world around us matters. Yes, of course, God is concerned about what we believe, but if it makes no difference to the way we treat others then it is worthless (perhaps like salt that has lost its saltiness and is only useful for throwing out?)

Faith and belief are two different things. Belief can exist as a thought or idea that is detached from relationship. If I say, “I believe in elephants” then it is an abstract thought that has no bearing on how I interact with elephants, however, if I say, “I have faith in elephants” it means that I am trusting in the loyalty of elephants to behave in a certain way in the real world. Faith is relational.

Sadly, the word faith has lost its meaning and belief and faith are often considered to be the same thing, and in contemporary Christianity, this has led to us reading Bible passages about right ‘faith’ as being about right ‘belief‘. This lexical error has resulted in pastors and churches demanding we ‘believe’ the right things, and through doing so we are unwittingly undermining Jesus’ emphasis on relationship and behaviour. This error is exemplified by adding the word ‘personal’ in the mantra, “Do you have a personal faith in Jesus Christ?” Remember, there is no such thing as a personal or private faith!

Because faith is about being in trusting relationship, having faith is a real-world expression of loyalty to God, others, or the world around us. In the Bible the Greek word for faith is ‘pistis’ and because it is a verb and involves doing, it is sometimes (and I think better) translated as ‘faithfulness’.

Throughout Luke’s gospel, Jesus calls people to have ‘faith’ or, more helpfully, ‘faithfulness’. It is through having faith in Jesus Christ, being in a trusting relationship, that we act in love, welcoming the marginalised, poor, needy, broken, and bruised. As citizens of heaven living on earth we pray ‘may your sovereignty come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. We are called to live out heaven on earth in the here and now, and it is through our faithfulness to Jesus that the world is transformed.

So, do you see now why this phrase about the mustard seed is not about having enough ‘belief’ but about having ‘faith’? Jesus was saying that faith in him brings about dramatic, transformative changes in the real world. And it gets better — a lot better.

Our Bible translators (bless them) have done us a mis-service. The literal translation in the original Greek is: “If you have faith as a grain of mustard.” It is important to note that there is no size comparison! Jesus did not say, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed.” There is no ‘the size of”‘and this is a case of Bible translators giving us their interpretation of the original Greek!

Think about it. What does a mustard seed do? It grows. And Brassica Nigra, the black mustard plant with its tiny seeds could, in the right conditions, grow 2.5 meters high! Likewise, the faith and trust that we have in Jesus Christ is called to grow and deepen, but (and this is the important bit) remember that the disciples asked, “Increase our faith!” Well, Jesus was saying the smallest amount of faith in him is enough to bring about the transformations in the world that we long to see. He was essentially saying that their faith was enough.

Theologian and pastor Simon Cross puts it like this, “A mustard seed… grows into a mustard plant — that’s all it can do. It can’t become a pine tree, or a courgette plant. It can only become a mustard plant. It might not be easy, but it gets on with it. The mustard seed doesn’t worry about the fact that it is small, and the plant is big — it just germinates and grows, and grows for the course of its life.”

Similarly, when we understand the context, the next part of the Bible Reading makes sense. Faith is not a commodity, like wealth, that increases for our own benefit. It is not a rating or something by which we can measure status. An increase in our faith does not bump us up the ladder of success. No, faith in Jesus Christ is to serve, and to do so with loyalty. Our duty is to be connected, through faith, to Jesus Christ, and when we do so we do not seek applause or congratulations! Faith in Christ equips us for the work we have to do in the world — to feed the poor, bless the needy, welcome the marginalised, and heal the wounded.

So, what does this mean for you today? Well, firstly, it means do not worry about how much or little faith you have within you — the important thing is that you have faith in — and a relational trust and loyalty to — Jesus Christ. Being a mustard seed is enough and a mustard seed is precious!

Secondly, there is a lot of pain and hurt in this world, and detaching ourselves from Jesus is not the answer. I am not into American Football, but you may know the phrase, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’? Well, similarly, when we experience or have empathy with the world around us — the pain, grief, or loss of others, or the destruction of the environment — we can think of faith as something that is within us that we need to retain, or we can simply be the hardy, tiny seed, that stays planted in Jesus Christ — a seed that never gives up and, through being connected to God, changes lives for the better.

Amen.

Credits

Thanks to Simon Cross and his Progressive Reflections on the Lectionary.
Photo by Jaspreet Kalsi on Unsplash