Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Luke’s Gospel, the 17th chapter:
And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
You know what the problem is? The problem is that we look at the mustard seed and we say, “My goodness, I must have faith SMALLER than a mustard seed. I haven’t moved any trees lately. I haven’t done anything great. I guess I really don’t believe all that much in Jesus if I can’t do incredible things.” But that’s not what Jesus is talking about. Because we rip these few words out of context, we start to focus so hard on the ability to do incredible things with our faith, that we miss what Jesus is ACTUALLY talking about.
When the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, does anyone notice what Jesus does? He doesn’t say, okay. He doesn’t do it. He doesn’t actually answer them in any way that they were expecting. Instead of increasing their faith, it becomes clear from this passage that Jesus is saying they already have everything they need. In fact, Jesus is saying that THEY’VE MISSED THE POINT of everything He’s been saying. And so, too, have we.
Let’s go back to the beginning, shall we? Temptations, Jesus says, are sure to come. But woe to the one through whom they come. When someone causes us to be tempted, when someone causes us to sin, Jesus is saying here that it would be better for them if someone would just tie a millstone, or for our day, let’s say a F-250, it’d be better to tie a F-250 around someone’s neck, push them off a boat in the middle of Lake Superior and let them go down to the bottom and drown. THAT'S how serious a thing sin is. It’s huge. It’s massive. And when it gets into our life, as it does daily, it has awful effects and consequences.
And Jesus says that when someone leads us into sin, when someone brings sin to our doorstep, woe to that person. But this is also true in our lives, for our own selves. I’m not saying that when we sin against ourselves and God that we should tie a F-250 around our own necks, but we should recognize the gravity of what it is we just did.
When we sin, we truly and actually deserve to die. This should be our attitude toward sin. No wonder we go before God, groveling on our knees, asking His forgiveness! When we sin, we are sinning ALWAYS against God. And to do THAT is to take the perfect gift of love and salvation that the Father gifted us in His Son Jesus on the cross and toss it away like so much garbage. We toss Jesus away just as we would toss the millstone into the sea. It’s really not that hard, you just push Him overboard until you slowly see Him sink away.
But, do you see what a big deal sin is? When we sin, we’re telling our Savior to shove it. Sin is huge, and the magnitude of what it is and does separates us out from our Lord. But, Jesus doesn’t leave us there. He never leaves us just bouncing along in the waves after a sinner is shoved overboard. No, he tells us that we have the power to forgive sins, which means that we have the ability to be forgiven. We have the ability to never have the waves in the first place. We can avoid the sea altogether.
When we sin, or when we cause another person to sin, and when we repent, others have the ability to come to us and say, “You are forgiven.” That’s what we practice each and every Sunday. You say, “I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended you…” And I, speaking on behalf, in the stead, and by the command of Jesus, announce to you that I, indeed, I, forgive all your sins in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Your big deal of sin is forgiven by very tiny words. Your huge sin is forgiven by a very simple and small man. And you have that ability, too. When your brother in Christ sins, rebuke them, Jesus says. Tell them that they are sinning and that they need to stop. By the Spirit’s power, they should turn away from that sin. And you know what you do? You forgive them. You speak words of Christ to them; you ARE as Christ to them! You forgive them. Your little words, I forgive you, stack up big time against the huge pile of cow dung we each heap upon the cross on a daily basis. It’s an incredible gift. It’s small, but it can topple empires, move mountains, and even forgive a sinner like you.
And that’s why Jesus is NOT talking about you trying to get your faith to the size of a mustard seed. Jesus is drawing a comparison here, not accusing you of not believing enough. He’s comparing the mustard seed to a mulberry tree, a tall and luscious tree, fully-developed and producing fruit that sticks to you better than jam on a 18-month-old’s mouth. Jesus is comparing something delicious in mustard, to something that seems to stick to you forever, the mulberry. Jesus is comparing something very, very tiny, to something huge. Just as he does through this whole passage.
Jesus compared your ability to forgive and be forgiven, which is small, to your sin, which is huge. Jesus is comparing a mustard seed, which is small, to a mulberry tree, which is huge. And Jesus says that our faith, which is the ability to grasp hold of the forgiveness that Jesus has to offer to you, is the small thing. Faith is a small thing in comparison to the magnitude of sin. And yet, it topples empires, move mountains, and even forgives a sinner like you.
Faith is small, but it is perfect. When the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith, Jesus doesn’t answer them. He doesn’t say okay. He doesn’t do it. He doesn’t actually answer them in any way that they were expecting. Instead, He tells them that their faith, the gift granted to them by the Holy Spirit, the faith that is granted to you and to I in our baptisms, that faith is perfect and whole already. And He shows us how it is perfect through His analogy.
See, faith, if it were imperfect, if it were not enough, it could not forgive sins. It could not receive forgiveness either. If that were the case, if your faith was too small, if your faith was not big enough, if your faith needed to grow in its size and quality and shape and dimensions, then how could you ever know that you had received the forgiveness of Christ? You’d always be looking to more, for more. You could never be sure. You could never have confidence that the forgiveness you hear from me, from others, or the forgiveness you receive in your mouth at this Altar, or the forgiveness you received in your baptisms, you could never have confidence that it was for you.
But I have news for you. God doesn’t ever give imperfect gifts. God gives you perfect things. And He has given you a faith that is perfect. Sure, you may do things that make it seem like faith isn’t perfect. You may have doubts. You may uncertainties. You will definitely sin. And that makes it appear as if were faith that’s not perfect. But faith IS perfect. You are not. And it’s this sinful quality that we will retain until the day that we die that makes us doubt this gift of faith. Faith cannot sin, but you can.
But despite your great sin, we have a greater Savior who has given us this small gift that can grasp hold of greater things. This same Savior came to tie the F-250 around His own neck, and He willingly leaped into the sea of death for us. He took the punishment that would bring us death. He brought us faith.
And this faith, this small gift is able to get rid of sin. It cancels it out, it voids it, it shreds it better than a shredder because of the one whose flesh was shredded for us. Your faith, given to you by God Himself, is a faith that can do great things. And it does these great things, not by your own power, not by your own will, but by the power and will of Jesus Christ, who by His own will came down from heaven and went to the cross for you, in order to win that forgiveness for you.
Jesus says that if you had faith the size of a mustard seed... dot dot dot. He’s not saying you don’t. He’s not saying you won’t. He’s only saying that THIS is what faith, which seems so small, does. It casts off weighty sin and throws it into the sea so that you don’t have to be. Sin gets thrown into the water so that you are not. Sin gets drowned in the waters of baptism, so that you come up free of its weight and its burden. A small thing, with huge consequences.
Jesus says these things to give us hope, and our sinful hearts tear these passages out of context and use them to say, “Your faith is small, oh, how you need to make it bigger. Well, you better surround yourself only with holy people, and with holy things. You better only read holy books. Maybe you should make a few declarations like that nice preacher down in Texas told us. Okay, I declare that I believe in Jesus. My faith is big. Today is my best life now. Oh, I should avoid stinkin’ thinkin’, too. I can’t think negative things. If I do that my faith will shrivel up and die. I better always remain holy and get stronger. God won't love me if I don't.”
I don’t know if this word has ever been said from this pulpit but, bullhockey. Your faith is what God gives you in order that it might receive grace from the Lord so that you would be saved. By grace you have been saved, through faith, and THIS IS NOT YOUR OWN DOING, but it is the gift of God. God gives the gift of faith to you. How could He do it imperfectly? Faith is not a result of works, but instead faith working in us makes us God’s workmanship. Faith is immeasurable riches, yet seems to our eye smaller than a mustard seed.
God uses small things to conquer great sins. He gives us faith, He gives us small pieces of bread and a few drops of wine, He uses just a little bit of water, He gives us just a few words spoken in the lectern and the pulpit and out of the Word of God, but these small things can conquer even the greatest sin. How can we ask for more than what God gives us here? These small things, these will sustain and preserve you unto everlasting life with Jesus, your sins forgiven, your sins given up to the one who desires to take them all from you, and so He has. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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