Jesus said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20, NRSV
I know it wasn’t just my Sunday School teachers as a child. I know others from other churches who were given the same impression that I was. With just a miniscule amount of faith, a mountain would move in the “snap of the fingers” or the “blink of an eye.”
I know it’s not just me. I’ve had family, friends, and acquaintances say that their experience matches mine. Many a time in life, I have had obstacles in my way that could easily be defined as the proverbial mountain. I have no doubt that I (and others that I have witnessed in similar situations) have had at least the faith of a mustard seed and yet that mountain didn’t move – at least not quickly.
For many years, this all troubled me. What does God have against me? Am I not righteous enough? What’s the deal?
Then, one day, I saw the story of Abraham’s faith in a new light. In Genesis 15:1-6, God promises Abraham (Abram at this point) in his old age that he will have descendants as many as the stars in the sky. Then I thought about. In Abraham’s lifetime, he only saw two descendants, Ishmael and Isaac. And yet, he still trusted that God would follow through on the promise, so he passed on that promise, that faith, to Isaac (and presumably Ishmael) without ever seeing it fulfilled.
What if Jesus’ point is less about faith bringing immediate change but incremental change. Let’s say Peter decides a particular mountain needs to be moved. So, he starts moving it, one rock at a time. His brother Andrew comes along and asks, “What are you doing?”
“I’m moving this mountain,” he responds. “By doing so, we’ll be better able to care for people on the other side.”
“That makes sense,” says Andrew as he picks up a rock using his God-given strength.
Before you know it, through other similar exchanges, more disciples are there working to move that mountain, rock by rock. Peter and Andrew may never see the mountain moved – and they know that – but they keep plugging away out of faith in the possibility and the call they have heard to move the mountain.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer participated in a plot to bring down the Nazi regime. He and his immediate cohorts failed on multiple occasions, but they still stayed true to trying to end the tyranny in Germany that was spreading beyond.
The civil rights movement was (and is) working against a mountain of racism, but many like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. worked, one rock at a time, to make a difference. King could foresee that he would not see it fully moved, and yet he kept working. Obviously, we have come far and much of that mountain has moved, but there are still rocks in the way. With faith, though, they can still be moved!
In these instances, faith has less to do with immediate gratification and more with commitment to the program, trusting it is possible even if we never see the completion, maybe never reaching the goal in our lifetime.
- What is your mountain?
- Who can you invite to help you move that mountain?
- Are you willing to commit to moving that mountain, no matter the outcome?
- Have you been invited to help move someone else’s mountain?
- How can you use your God-given talents to help them?
