Luke 17:5-6 5The apostles said to the Lord, “Add to us faith!” 6And the Lord said, “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 will obey you.”
Luke shifts the audience from the more general disciples tot the more narrow group of apostles. The response of the apostles in verse 5 can be taken in several ways. If we simply look at the verse by itself, it seems that the apostles want to grow in their faith. This verse could be simply a rough transition to a new and unrelated topic. However, we could also read this verse closely with those that came before. Perhaps the disciples realized that they had a long ways to grow to have an attitude of forgiveness like what Jesus just mentioned in verses 3-4. They were listening carefully but were struggling to know how to have the time of action that Jesus was talking about. They believed but needed more faith. Jesus is always willing to help those who come to him asking for faith. Faith is both something we have but also a gift from God. Faith is our response of trust to the promises and directions from God.
Jesus responds to the request with a short parable with two parts. The first part is in the form of a protasis of a conditional statement about the image of a small mustard seed. The form of the condition assumes that the disciple can and even do have this level of faith. The mustard plant was proverbially known for having the smallest seed in a garden (13:19). It symbolizes having even a small degree of faith. Faith can be measured by our attitude and action of trust.
Even a small amount of faith can do amazing things. The apodosis of the conditional statement gives a different image of a tree being uprooted and thrown into the sea. This image is an overstatement that appeals to the imagination of the readers. The exact type of tree mentioned here is unclear, but it does not matter. The type of faith Jesus mentioned here can do great signs and wonders because it has tapped into God’s power. It would have been beyond imagination for a big tree to be pulled up like a weed and then planted in the ocean. We can picture in our minds Jesus talking to the gathered group and pointing to a large tree nearby them. This is the type of faith needed to restore sinners and accept them back in fellowship. It is the type of faith shown by the father of the prodigal son.
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