What's Faith Got to Do With It?

I must admit that today's reading in Luke 17:1-10 took me by surprise just a little bit. When I first read, "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" - my first thought was - WOW - that is the first major translation difference that I have seen in the English Standard Version (ESV). But when I went to the NLT and the NIV - the both read practically the same wam.

It's not that I hadn't read this before - but that sometimes scripture gets so ingrained in our minds that we completely skim over things thinking that we know what it says.

I think that most people are more familiar with a similar passage in Matthew 17 where Jesus says "if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." So why the difference? Is this a contradiction in the Gospels?

I doubt it. It is much more likely that the authors were relaying two separate instances where Jesus happened to teach on similar things. Remember that Jesus went from place to place teaching. I am sure that he adapted his teachings to fit his audience and his surroundings. Don't public speakers that travel around the Country do that today? Sure they do - that is what makes them such great speakers.

Besides that - whether it was a mountain, a mulberry tree, or a sycamore tree as some translations read - does it really matter. If any of the three got up and obeyed my command - wouldn't it be a mighty miracle regardless of what it was? Of course.

The point that Jesus was making has nothing to do with what kind of tree it was. It has to do with faith. Now I want to point out that Jesus was not accusing his disciples of having NO faith. They asked Jesus to increase their faith (notice they already had faith) - but Jesus responded by essentially saying - the size of your Faith doesn't matter - what matters is what is that Faith placed upon or in?

The disciples thought that they needed a bigger faith to do more faith to do bigger miracles - but our faith doesn't perform the miracles - it is the one that we place that Faith in that truly matters.

All the faith in the world that is misplaced will not accomplish anything - but the tiniest amount of Faith - placed in the right place - can accomplish anything.