Jesus’s teachings are often taken out of context. They are frequently quoted or misquoted based on the desire to teach something fantastic, frequently so that the teacher can get other people to believe in something that they want the people to believe instead of what Jesus was wanting his hearers to understand.
Here is a good example. Tell me if you have heard this one before:
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.
I read that today and wondered why Jesus would have said this. And for that matter, what use would it be to say to a mulberry tree to be uprooted and be planted in the sea? What good would that serve? Yes, it would be fantastic to have a faith so powerful that I could move the mulberry tree with a word. Or, as recounted in other Gospels, to throw a mountain into a sea. Yes, that would be awesome. I want to have a faith like that!
But Jesus isn’t talking about having some sort of personal superpower. He isn’t saying that you can develop the power, as a result of your faith in Christ, to be able to move things around physically with your mind. No, he is using this teaching as a response to his disciples about forgiveness.
Forgiveness is one of those topics that is easily accepted, but hard to practice when it becomes personal. When someone has hurt us, has wronged us, has betrayed us, or even more, we want vengeance. We want them to feel what we have felt. We want them to know the pain that we have known. They need to pay, and they need to pay dearly.
Because we know that we are right. We know that we are justified. We know that the truth is on our side.
But before I get back to the story, I think a reminder is in order at this time. Each of us, every person, has been in rebellion against God. Every person, in our sin, has denied God, who he is, and what he has done. And so, in our sin, we were God’s enemies.
Think about that. You and I were God’s enemies.
If you had to say who God’s enemy is, who would you say? Probably Satan, right? We would see the most evil being that we could imagine in our mind’s eye. We would imagine him as the enemy of God. And you would be right. He is God’s enemy.
Yet the Bible says that we were God’s enemy. And while we were God’s enemies, Jesus came for us, he came to die for us. He did that so that God would be glorified. He did it so that all of the glory for the love and grace and mercy that he displayed to his people would be given back to God. Jesus did not come to save us because we were good enough to be saved. He came to save us specifically because we could not save ourselves, and because he did that, God would be lifted up and glorified before all of creation. Amazing!
But remember, at the time that he did that, you were his enemy.
So now, let’s go back to the story. Jesus is explaining to his disciples that they must forgive. The disciples don’t realize it yet, but Jesus is saying that they must forgive their brothers and sisters – not literally brothers and sisters, but anyone who has wronged them – over and over and over. Jesus says that they should rebuke them, they should call out their brother’s sin, or their sister’s sin. But if that brother or sister asks for forgiveness, they must forgive them.
If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.
Luke 17:3-4
Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.
Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.
Wait, what? The disciples were confused. How is that possible? I have to forgive them even if they keep doing the same thing over and over? Even if they keep hurting me? Even if they keep offending me? Even if they keep insulting me? I still have to forgive them? Shouldn’t they have to pay? Or maybe I can just get away from them? Or maybe I can…
No, Jesus says. Even if it happens multiple times in a day, you must forgive them.
Wow. One time is enough. How could I possibly live like that? How could I possibly have a faith that is solid enough that I could forgive like that? This is what the disciples are thinking, and that is why they say in response, “Increase our faith!”.
Rightly so, they realize that Jesus is teaching them to do something that is other-worldly. From a human perspective, this is not done. From a human perspective, in fact, this is impossible.
And so Jesus explains that, no, in fact it is possible. Not on your own. Not in your own way of thinking. No, instead, only by faith. In fact, a faith as small as a mustard seed can make this happen. He is saying that with the same measure of faith that you could uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea… in the same way that you could do something that would look fantastic, would look amazing, would be an incredible outward display of your faith… in that same way, you can forgive. And, Jesus is saying, you know what guys? Forgiving others in this way would be just as fantastic and just as amazing. It would not only show your faith, but it would show the power of God flowing through you. You do not have the strength and ability to forgive others in the way that I am telling you to forgive them any more than you have the strength or ability to uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the sea. But by faith, you can do it. Even if you have a faith as small as a mustard seed. That is how it could happen.
If you have ever been hurt, or lied to, or betrayed, you will know what Jesus is talking about here. He knows what he is asking because he has come proactively to offer forgiveness by sacrificing his own life for the sake of the sin of the world. The entire world has been against him. His entire creation has rebelled against him, and yet he is here to offer himself for every person, for all of creation, so that every person in all of time, along with the entirety of the rest of his creation, and worship him and glorify him. Jesus is telling his disciples that they can do it precisely because he is in the middle of offering his same type of forgiveness to us even in the middle of saying what he was explaining to them. What he has done, as his disciples, they must also do.
Imagine what that would look like. Imagine a people who lived with a mustard seed-sized faith. Imagine what could happen within our world. Would it not be as amazing as seeing someone, by faith, uproot a mulberry tree and have it planted in the sea? Of course it would! The world would change. Everything would be turned upside-down. That is what the kingdom of God is like. That is how it works. That type of love and grace and mercy is what Jesus displayed to his entire creation and is exactly what he calls us to give to others as well, forgiving them because of even a mustard seed-sized faith.