30 - Matthew 17:20
’Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.’ -Matthew 17:20. The figure called antithesis is one that our Lord frequently used. The least and greatest objects are singled out and placed in contrast, either to indicate an impossible relation (the camel and the eye of the needle), or to intimate that the power is not in the apparent instrumentality (the seed-like faith and the mountain) or to express development (the mustard-seed and the great tree). Another instance is the stumbling of the little one contrasted with the descent of the offender to the very bottom of the sea. Again, pearls and swine. A little before our Lord had expressed the greatness of the work of faith in contrast with the feebleness of the instrument, when Peter, moved by "my Father who is in heaven," had recognised Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God; "Thou art Peter," said Jesus, " and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The disciples had not succeeded in delivering the poor demoniac boy from his enemy. Christ and the three most advanced disciples were away, upon the mount of Transfiguration. The remaining nine were, it may be, beset with troublesome thoughts not favourable to the exercise of faith. ’Why has Jesus left us? Whither has he gone? How long will he remain? Forty days and nights? Why should he have taken Peter and the sons of Zebedee, and not us? Are they being initiated into the mysteries of the kingdom, while we sit here neglected and forgotten? What special merit is there in those three? Did we not leave all to follow him? Is this only the beginning of mysterious withdrawals? Is the Master going to leave us often in this way? Might we not as well be catching fish in the sea of Galilee?’
Very unprofitable thoughts these; not unprofitable merely, but harmful. Has Jesus forgotten you? Is his care only for the three? Far from it. See this company, bringing to you a much afflicted boy to be healed. Christ has provided that you should have work to do in his absence, work of a very exalted character. He is putting great honour upon you; commissioning you to do his own choicest work; to perform in his name a miracle that shall be like life from the dead not only to this poor boy, but to his loving and sorrowing parents. Ah, what a pity that this company should arrive at a juncture when your own minds are invaded by thoughts so unworthy. If they had found you earnestly praying, contending with the adversary at the throne of grace! But if the thoughts that are commending themselves to you are themselves Satanic; how shall you be able to cast out Satan?
They failed: made the attempt and failed: drew forth the name of Christ like a sword from its scabbard, and all the multitude looked to see what the temper of this blade might be, whether it had really the power to cut the cords by which Satan was so defiantly leading this young man captive, and to send the prince of darkness howling, or not. Much better that they had left the sword in its scabbard. They smote with it, but in vain. The enemy only jeered them the more insultingly, for the attempt and the discomfiture. The mighty works wrought by Jesus were all forgotten now. This one defeat was like the turning of the tide of fortune.
’O faithless generation,’ said Christ when he came; ’how how long shall I be with you and suffer you? Are you so little prepared yet for my departure that is shortly to be? The moment I leave you, does the entire superstructure of faith, so slowly and laboriously upreared, topple to the ground? Do you not know that I am to ascend on high one of these days, leaving you to fight the good fight of faith with a world lying in wickedness? Are you still such mere babes that I cannot withdraw for a few hours, but consternation seizes you, and faith and hope spread their wings?’
"Why could not we cast him out?" - Because of your unbelief. He needed to be cast out of you. And this kind goeth not out save by much prayer and fasting. Putting all together, it is evident that much prayer and much self-denial are needed in order that faith may get the ascendency within us, and this ascendency it must have before it can utter itself in noble works for God. Self-indulgence wars against the soul and hinders the up-springing of faith. The deeds of the body must be mortified. There must be faith to begin with, otherwise self-mortification will only tend to intensify our inward complacency; there must be faith that God has great blessings which he is ready to bestow upon us; there must be hungering and thirsting after these blessings. It is prayer, true, earnest, persistent prayer, that shall get us this great increase of faith that we seek; and in order to this prayer there must be great watchfulness against all indulgences that disfavor the growth of a spirit of prayer; fasting is the repudiation of all such indulgences, mental, social, physical, be they what they may.
"As a grain of mustard-seed." The contrast is not between the faith and the unbelief. It is not as though our Lord had said, No matter how much unbelief is in you, if there is a spark of faith in your heart; a drachm of faith will save you though a thousand pounds of unbelief were dragging you down. No; the contrast is between the faith and the vastness of the work which it accomplishes. For what is faith? It is simply giving way to God, and letting his might and majesty have free course through our will and affections. As though a man had piled a great many bags of sand against a door to keep it from being opened; let him take these away, the door will open, light, air, the physician, be free to enter. Their unbelief kept the door closed by which the Divine power would have entered and wrought gloriously.
Faith is cessation from self: from self-reliance, self-interest; it is letting God be true. Think not that there must be in the heart a mighty consciousness of the Divine power, in order that that power may be mightily manifested through us. The word of faith is nigh thee, in thy heart and in thy mouth; a still small voice is the voice of the Spirit. The faith which overcomes is the faith which recognises God as he is, which delights in his will, and seeks above all things the accomplishment of that. "Though I have faith to remove mountains, and have not charity," says Paul, "it would profit nothing." Let our will be coincident with that of God, and then our faith will simply be the opening of a door by which the same glorious power that was in Christ will come into the world, and make the wilderness to blossom as the rose.