A Seed Is Enough

"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." — Luke 17:6 (KJV)

The apostles ask for something that sounds humble and holy. "Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5). Give us more. And if we are honest, we pray the same thing most days. More faith, and I could finally beat this. More faith, and I would not be so afraid of the test results, the empty account, the conversation I keep putting off. We treat faith like a tank we are trying to fill, and we assume the reason we are struggling is that the gauge is low.

Jesus does not fill the tank. He corrects the question. You do not need more, he says. Faith the size of a mustard seed, the smallest thing in the garden, is enough to pull a tree up by the roots and plant it in the sea. He is not scolding them for having too little. He is telling them the amount was never the point. A seed's worth of faith, aimed at God, is already enough, because the power was never in the size of your believing. It was in the size of the One you believe in.

So the problem is rarely that you have too little faith. It is that you keep measuring it instead of using it. You already have a seed. Stop weighing it in your hand and plant it.

Then Jesus tells a plain, almost blunt little story to go with it. A servant comes in from plowing in the field all day. Does the master meet him at the door, take his coat, and sit him down to supper? No. He says, get mine ready first, then you can eat. And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? "I trow not" (Luke 17:9). I think not.

That sounds harsh until you see what it sets you free from.

"So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do." — Luke 17:10 (KJV)

Unprofitable servants. Not worthless. Unprofitable the way an account is unprofitable: you have not put God in your debt. You did your duty. That is all it was. And hidden inside that hard little phrase is a quiet mercy. If your obedience never builds up a credit that God owes you, then you can finally stop keeping the ledger. You can stop doing the right thing in order to be owed something for it, and just do the next thing he asked because he asked.

See how the two halves are really one message. The disciples wanted more faith, a bigger number on the gauge. Jesus says the number was never the point. Left to themselves they would soon want more credit for their service too, a bigger tally of all they had done for God. He says there is no tally. It is the same sickness both times, the scorekeeping that quietly turns a beloved child into an employee negotiating a raise. Put the ledger down.

Paul, near the end of his life and with every reason to add up what he was owed, did not say "look how much I believed." He said, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able" (2 Timothy 1:12). Not how much. Whom. A seed's worth of trust in a Master who is able to keep what you hand him. That is the whole secret, and you are already holding the seed.

So quit waiting for a bigger faith to show up before you obey. Take the small one in your hand and plant it in the next hard thing in front of you. Do your plain duty today without once checking the scoreboard. You are a servant who did his job, and that is not an insult. It is the end of the negotiation, and the beginning of trust. A seed is enough.

Amen.