Christian Art | Faith As A Grain Of Mustard Seed | King James Audio Bible KJV
Luke 17: 1-6 – Week 32 Ordinary Time, Monday (King James Audio Bible KJV, Spoken Word)
1 THEN said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
3 ¶ Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
6 And the Lord said, 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.
To cause scandal is to drive other people away from the path of faith, to cause another person to sin, to withdraw from a life of grace, to cease to believe in redemption in Jesus Christ. This is a terrible sin, and we know that it does not stop there. The evil spreads, and soon it is common practice to denigrate Christianity. We think of the millions upon millions of little ones – and this in ‘Christian countries’ – who have never been introduced to Jesus, and of all the attendant troubles they experience because their spiritual lives have not been fostered. The signs of this spiritual neglect are endemic, while when many people speak against Christianity they do not even know what it is that they are objecting to; they have become in so little time so far removed from what could have been their inheritance, the living faith.
It is not always easy to forgive, especially so abundantly as our Lord commands us. The devil creeps up on us, feeding us angry and vengeful thoughts, perhaps years after the event, and this can be about relatively unimportant things we have somehow fixated on. Most of us, thankfully, can only imagine the extreme suffering others have endured, and the astonishing gift of forgiveness they have been able to bring to the aftermath. We pray for those who continue to find this challenge as yet insurmountable, that they too might be healed.
The apostles recognize the difficulties and also understand how these difficulties can be overcome as they ask for an increase of faith. It is through faith in God, through our giving of ourselves to God, that we transcend our more base inclinations and discover a state of grace, seeing the world, ourselves and others, through the eyes of love rather than hatred. In reply, Jesus speaks of a grain of mustard seed, the faith which is sown by Jesus, and in the person of Jesus, which will flourish and grow through time, in our age ready, should we open our hearts to God, to encompass all of us.
‘I’m not one for miracles. I have told you that in the holy Gospel I can find more than enough to confirm my faith. But I can’t help pitying those Christians – pious people, “apostles” many of them – who smile at the idea of extraordinary ways, of supernatural events. I feel the urge to tell them: Yes, this is still the age of miracles: we too would work them if we had faith!’ St Josemaria Escriva
Concluding Prayer | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
Stay with us, Lord Jesus, as evening falls:
be our companion on our way.
In your mercy inflame our hearts and raise our hope,
so that, in union with our brethren,
we may recognize you in the scriptures,
and in the breaking of Bread.
Who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
King James Audio Bible | Endnotes | Jesus, How Can I Love You More?
Faith As A Grain Of Mustard Seed
Jesus tells his disciples that offenses will come and Jesus warns of the consequences of causing offense. Jesus then instructs his disciples to rebuke and forgive those who trespass against them. The apostles, recognizing the enormity of Jesus’ message, ask Jesus to increase their faith. Jesus responds by saying that faith as small as a mustard seed is enough to move mountains.
The imagery of the mustard seed is significant. The mustard seed was among the smallest seeds known to the people of Jesus’ time, but when it grows, the thought is that it becomes one of the largest of all garden plants. This symbolizes the potential of even the smallest amount of faith to yield great results. It also illustrates the concept of growth in faith – It is suggested that just as the mustard seed grows, so our faith can grow and mature.
Perhaps it adds to the thought that mustard is more a spreading shrub than a tree – in the sense of largeness. And it does spread!
Throughout the Bible, faith is referenced as a critical component of a relationship with God. Hebrews 11:6 states that ‘without faith, it is impossible to please Him [God]’. Faith allows us to trust in God’s promises and to believe in His plan for our lives. It gives us the strength to endure hardships and to persevere through difficult times.
Many Christians have commented on the importance of faith. Saint Augustine wrote: ‘Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.’ Similarly, Protestant Martin Luther emphasized the importance of faith in salvation, saying: ‘Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.’ Protestant John Calvin also stressed the significance of faith, saying: ‘Faith is a knowledge of the divine will toward us, received from his Word, and revealed by the Spirit.’
In contemporary times, Pope Francis has said, ‘Faith is a gift received from God; it is not a product of our own efforts or our own intelligence,’ highlighting the notion that faith is not something that can be achieved through human means alone.
In these Bible verses, Jesus begins his farewell to his disciples, and the chapter closes with the words: ‘Rise, let us go hence.’ The natural continuation would then be the verse which opens chapter 18: ‘When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.’ However, Jesus continues to teach his disciples through chapters 15 to 17. We are aware, then, of the rearrangements which seem to have taken place as John composed his Gospel [ … ]
The two parables make it clear that Christ intended the newly inaugurated phase of the history of our salvation to be the work of ages. His second coming was not to be an apocalyptic end of the world as we know it in weeks, months or just a few years after that first Easter. The world’s faith would grow with time. Christ’s Church would grow, to encompass the whole world. Christ intended the Gospel be preached to everyone the world over and through all subsequent history [ … ]
Saint John of the Cross reflects on the difference between the time before Jesus Christ and the time after Jesus’ coming. He begins by recalling that in the ancient law, prophets and priests needed revelations, visions, and signs. This was not a weakness but a necessity: the foundation of faith had not yet been laid, and the gospel had not yet been spoken in its fullness. God therefore met them in many ways—through images, symbols, and partial glimpses. Everything God revealed then pointed toward something greater that had not yet arrived [ … ]
