Luke 17:6 Commentary and Bible Study

A sycamine tree is said to have the form and foliage of a mulberry tree, but fruit like a fig. It is supposed to be a hard tree to uproot. ‘If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.’ The apostles have said, ‘Lord, increase our faith’, therefore they judge that they have at least some faith, and Christ answers in effect, ‘If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, it could achieve anything.’ Of course, we have to qualify the illustration of the Lord a little. We don't suggest that anybody who feels that he may have faith as a grain of mustard seed should try plucking up trees, and casting them into the sea, because that it isn't what the Lord has called you to do. Those are not the circumstance that you face; it isn't what you are meant to be doing. Nowhere in the Scripture are you told to be going about plucking up trees and things of that kind; it is an illustration. What the illustration means is that anything which it is right for you to be doing, for which you need faith; if you have the smallest amount of faith you will be able to trust God and to pray to him for answers, and for help with regard to that thing.‘Lord, increase our faith.’ Did he answer that prayer? We can be sure he did, for although there was a problem with the prayer, it was a prayer which asked for a good thing. It asked for what God says is his gift, and which we can only receive as his gift, and yet which is vital for salvation and for the ongoing life of every disciple (Ephesians 2:8). How can it be entirely wrong to ask for his gift? So certainly the Lord answered this prayer. But how did he answer it? In a very instructive way. He put before them a wonderful promise, which their faith could take hold of in order to grow stronger. There is an element of correction in this answer, as well as a means of strengthening faith. By saying, ‘If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed’, he takes their gaze off the wrong thing. They are aware that their faith is small, and their solution is to ask for more faith. They are focusing on the size of their faith, but that is the wrong thing to do. He releases them from this concern, so that faith can start to look where it is supposed to look. Faith does not grow stronger by looking at itself. Surely they can believe they have faith as a grain of mustard seed, that they have at least that much faith. A mustard seed was the tiniest seed in common use among the farmers of those days. The point here is that the apostles’ faith is compared to something so small, that they can cease worrying about whether they have that much faith. That concern is a distraction which is not helping their faith to grow.Faith is not strong when it looks at itself, when it worries about how big it is. So instead of having them continue to ask how big their faith is, he redirects their gaze to himself. When our faith is focused on him, then it really starts to grow. He gives them a remarkable promise, and they will believe it by focusing on him. Who is it that is speaking? Who is giving this wonderful promise? It is Christ who cannot say anything that is not true. How can he be mistaken? How can he deceive? How can he raise expectations only to dash them to the ground? He will never do that; his word never leads to disappointment. He knows the workings of the human heart, and he knows what faith can do. If he says that a small amount of faith can achieve so much, then certainly it can. Their faith must attach itself to the promise, then it will be strong. In particular, it must look at the one giving this promise, the one in whom they already trust. Christ’s promises magnify our faith. We believe he speaks only the truth. For many of us, this has been our longstanding conviction. But then we hear these words from his mouth, and our faith has new heights to climb. Faith is not strong in itself; we do not lift ourselves up by our own shoelaces. Faith is strong when it looks to Christ, because he is strong, and it gets hold of his strength.But why is the promise so hard? Has anyone ever done this? Does anyone therefore possess even the little faith that he speaks of? The believer’s mind may go in two directions when he reads this. He may say, ‘That is impossible, so I cannot have even this small amount of faith and so he is discouraged.’ Or it may say, ‘I will forget about my faith, and just start believing. The Lord has said this. He cannot lie. He can enable me to do many things that I cannot do.’ But why is the example of faith in action something so great, something which all would normally dismiss as impossible? Because he is teaching that faith’s accomplishments have no limit. Does his promise help if no one has ever known this to be done? Evidently, yes, it does help. Faith must grow. The one who does not possess all faith – ‘faith to move mountains’ (1 Corinthians 13:2) – may still say that he has some faith; he does not have no faith. Faith is commended by God even when it is not perfect faith, but what Christ gives here is the accomplishment of great faith, which those with lesser faith should aim at. The disciples did not immediately start trying to pluck up sycamine trees, nor did they try do what he said on another occasion, and command mountains to be cast into the sea.