Faith as a Grain of Mustard Seed - Luke 17:6

The beloved physician Luke wrote how Jesus said, “Take heed to yourselves: If your brother trespass against you, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to you, saying, I repent; you shall forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith”, and in chapter seventeen and verse six of his book Luke wrote how Jesus said what would happen, “if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed” where we read:

And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamine tree, Be you plucked up by the root, and be you planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

The verse reads, “And the Lord said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamine tree, ...” Luke began with the words, “and the Lord said” or “and Jesus who is the one whom a person or thing belongs about which he has power of deciding or master uttered, declared and proclaimed”, “if you had faith” which means “whether one of Jesus' disciples possessed assurance, belief, trust and fidelity” “as a grain of mustard seed” or “like that of a kernel of seed from a mustard plant which is the name of a plant which in oriental countries grows from a very small seed and attains to the height of a tree”, “you might say” which means “you, Jesus' disciple, could utter, declare and proclaim” “unto this sycamine tree” or “to the tree which has the form or foliage of the mulberry but fruit resembling the fig”. Luke shared how Jesus told His “disciples” if they possessed the “assurance and trust” that was even as small as the tiny “mustard seed” they could speak the following words to a “sycamine tree”.

The verse continues, “... Be you plucked up by the root, and be you planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” Luke added the words, “be you plucked up by the root” or “be uprooted and taken out of the ground”, “and be you planted” or “and let the mustard seed be implanted, instilled and set out” “in the sea” which means “into the sea in general”; “and it should obey you” or “and the sycamine tree will listen to, hearken and submit to the disciple”. Luke shared how Jesus told His disciples if they held only the amount of “faith” of a “mustard seed” they could tell a “sycamine tree” to be uprooted and planted in the “sea” and it would obey them.

When we think through Luke's words in this verse, we learn from Jesus how the amount of “faith” does not have to be a large amount to do great things. God loves people, and He desires to have a relationship with them through “faith” in His Son Jesus. Only Jesus is able to provide a person with the “faith” to believe Him for great things, and those who yield to Him as their personal “Savior and Lord” may “believe and trust” in Him for whatever great “sycamine tree” they encounter.

Next time Luke shares how Jesus asks, “which of you, have a servant plowing and feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by … go and sit down to meat?” so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".