DAVAR :: View topic - Faith of a Mustard Seed

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Originally Posted by: birdfriend

This question was posted on another forum where I am a frequent poster. I couldn't help but think that many of us here have probably pondered the meaning of these scriptures. My reply is below his. Hopefully you can share your reflections on Matt. 17:20-21 here as well.

Hello,

Yesterday, I read the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

There's a part in there talking about having a faith as a mustard seed which will grow bigger than a tree.

That a faith can move mountains.

Can someone explain to me what it means to have faith that moves mountains? What does that concept mean?

It's something I've struggled to understand since I was a small kid who grew up in Oregon surrounded by mountains.

Faith that moves mountains is a very interesting topic.
To me that means the faith of God's divine love in action.
And I do believe it literally too, as I once heard an interesting story from an Egyptian Christian friend:
The story goes that religious Jews, Muslims and a minority of Christians talked about a plot of land near a mountain that got in the way of their living, although some got so upset at the Christians wisdom of the Old Testament that they plotted revenge in the aborted debate. Later the Muslims were informed by the Jews that in the New Testament Jesus promised to Christians who "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 can be impossible for you." (Mat 17.20) "If they can't move a mountain," they pointed out, then "Christianity is false,". The Muslims thought this was a golden opportunity to hold a crucial issue against the Christians, either to move the end of the bare Hill, which congested the Land and spoiled its vicinity, or else? They therefore threatened the Bishop either to move the mountain, or concede it could not be done, and convert to Islam, the only true faith (they claimed), otherwise put all Christians to the sword. The bishop was in distress, and asked for a three days' grace, which he spent praying and fasting. And finally he beheld a vision, assuring him and strenthening his faith, and would receive further instruction to work the miracle. The Bishop together with the Cairene Christian community, at the time, an appreciable minority of the population, held a fast. The Christians, so the story goes, assembled on one side of the mountain and the Muslims and Jews on the other. The Christians prayed fervently and the bishop waved his staff, and as they prayed the earth shook with a powerful earthquake which toppled the hill. There was panic: buildings could be seen falling and some of the Muslims and Jews even begged the bishop to put a stop to the tremor. When calm had returned the Mountain was nowhere to be found.

Notwithstanding, here's the passage from the first English Translation from the original Tongues in modern spelling:

? And when they were come to the people, there came to him a certain man, and kneeled down to him saying: Master have mercy on my son, for he is frantic, and is sore vexed. And ofttimes falleth in to the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not heal him. Iesus answered and said: O generation faithless, and crooked: how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Iesus rebuked the devil, and he came out. And the child was healed even that same hour.
? Then came his disciples secretly and said: Why could not we cast him out? Iesus said unto them: Because of your unbelief. For I say verily unto you, if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye should say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and he should remove: Neither should any thing be unpossible for you to do. But this kind, goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
http://faithofgod.net/WTNT/matthew_17.html

Notice how the original was written in Paragraph form like in a love letter format. Verse numbers came later, and sometimes can cause more confusion than help if not taken as a holy whole.

Well, according to the passage, the disciples gave up too fast, and did not commit in love to help. We tend to want everything fast sometimes, specially today such as fast food, fast love, fast cars, fast healing, fast casting out devil, but what was needed here was just a divine faith commitment, such as with prayer and fasting.

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves to God, and resist the devil, and he will flee <flye> from you.
http://faithofgod.net/TyNT/jas.htm#4:7

Hebrews 11:1 tells us what faith is:
Faith is a sure confidence of things which are hoped for, and a certainty of things which are not seen.
http://faithofgod.net/TyNT/heb.htm#11:1

The Lord also utilized a mustard seed in his expression of a similitude (or parable) in Mark 4:30-33

And he said: whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth, is the least of all seeds that be in the earth:
And <but> after that it is sown it groweth up, and is greatest of all herbs: and beareth great branches so that the fowls of the air may dwell under the shadow of it.
And with many such similitudes he preached the word unto them, after as they might hear it.
http://faithofgod.net/TyNT/mr.htm#4:30

A mustard tree is more like an herb, although it does look like a small tree with branches, it is about only 1 to 2 feet high. Therefore the Lord likely is being humorous and even serious at the same time, utilizing great symbology to express how an insignificant seed of a little herb can do so much, even to give shadow to fowls, or even give birds the small branches to build their nests withal as in Mt. 13:32, and Luke 13:19. What gets me is that if we look at a seed, even a small mustard seed, and notice how much faith it requires (how God designed it to give it's potential) to patiently first develop the eye, then the sprout, then the roots, then to find the minerals from the ground, and lastly to aim high, is faithfully amazing!