Using the Mustard Seed of Faith

October 6, 2013

Luke 17:1-10
1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves.
“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He 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.
7 “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Have you ever prayed for more faith or a stronger faith? And what would you do with that bigger faith? Just don’t use it on something stupid or wasteful. Don’t use it to plant trees in the sea. You do not need faith to do that. All you need is a shovel. Use your faith to do something really humanly impossible. Use your faith to forgive your brother seven times.

That is why the apostles requested more faith. It was not to move mountains, but rather to move mountains of sin. It is hard to forgive other people. It is especially hard when they keep on repeating the same offensive behavior seven times over and over. To forgive that you need faith and love and patience and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And yet Jesus says it is easy to forgive. All that is needed is a little tiny bit of faith, the size of a mustard seed. And we all have at least that much and even more faith if we believe in Jesus as our Savior. We can forgive our brothers and sisters seven times because we have been forgiven countless times by Jesus when he died on the cross.

Throwing sin into the sea is a good place, because when it is the sea of baptism, the drowning turns into a resurrection of forgiveness and eternal life.

In today’s Gospel reading, at verse 1 the Twelve are called “disciples” and at verse 5 they are called “apostles.” Disciples are students, apostles are those sent out on the mission work of Christ. The apostles are missionaries who proclaim the work of Jesus on the cross, namely, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins. Not just telling about forgiveness, but actually, in the Name of Christ, to forgive sin. When the Gospel is proclaimed and believed, sins are forgiven by God. Also, when we live our lives in the midst of other people, there will be personal insults and injury. And so there will be personal forgiveness from our hearts just as God forgives. That is what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It is the work of apostles, the church, all Christians, you and me, to forgive sins. It is a big mission and challenge, and yet even though we are doing a great and wonderful thing, we cannot be proud. Rather we say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ We haven’t done such a big thing. It was only a mustard seed size of faith. Jesus did the big thing on the cross.

Hallelujah! Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

Sermon Index