Luke 17:5 records a remarkable and comforting request from the apostles. They say, Lord, increase our faith. Consider the ones asking for an increase in their faith - the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. These were men who were with the eternal Son of the Father made flesh, and yet there is something in their experience that still leaves them wanting more. They are with the Lord and yet still face the struggles that exist between the world they live in and the promise of the world that is coming, a world that they now anticipate with new longing because they have beheld the glory of the Son. They ask to have their faith increased, and Jesus then tells them what kind of faith they should expect.
First, he tells them to expect mountain-moving faith, or in the context of Luke, we should call it mulberry tree uprooting faith. Faith in God exercised in a small amount can change horizons. We would be wrong to suggest that faith is a power of itself. Faith should not be mystified or something we seek externally of God himself. Power does not rest in faith, power rest in God. Our confidence in God’s power is called faith. Faith has no power. God has power. We should strive in all that we do to turn our affections towards seeking God. When we do, we exercise faith not in what we see but in what he says.
Take the mulberry tree for example. If we were to come upon a mulberry tree and see it sitting in the soil; its roots deep, its branches reaching up and out. We have no shovel; we have no tools; no heavy equipment to move what is securely planted in the earth. But God has said, if we have faith it will move. The question confronting us at this moment: "Do we believe what we see or what he has said?" The answer is in how we live.
Jesus didn’t tell his followers this so we would go uprooting mulberry trees or mountains, faith is not magic, magic isn’t real, faith in God is not for manipulating our circumstances but for seeing the purpose of God come upon the earth, faith is longing for his kingdom come not an excuse to build our kingdom.
The faith Jesus wants for his followers is made more clear as we look to the rest of the passage to see the word "faith" used two other times. I believe both uses should be seen in the context of the apostles ask for an increase of their faith. First, after Jesus cleanses ten lepers and only one returns to give praise to God, Jesus says, Rise up, go your way, your faith has made you well. Second, as Jesus highlights the persistence of the widow who kept asking the judge to give her justice, he says, When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
Between these three references to faith (the apostle's ask, the Lord’s reply to the one leper who returned, and Jesus’ commendation of the widow’s faith), we learn the kind of faith we should ask for. The kind of faith we should seek is first not faith in faith but faith in the Son. We don’t want to ask for faith outside of our devotion to the Son. In the immediate context of the apostles, Jesus says something startling. He says,
Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.” ( Luke 17:7–10)
Unworthy servants? Is this our response when we think about God increasing our faith? It should be. God gives us faith so that he can perform in us all that he desires on the earth. As the one leper who came back, our devotion is to him; as the persistent widow who asks for justice, our hope is in the God of the earth to do what is right; and as the apostles our ask for faith should be first in light of beholding the glory of the only Son from the Father. We persist with unwavering devotion as unworthy servants who do our duty in the service of King Jesus. This is what we are asking for when we say, "Lord increase our faith.” The ask is not for a solitary moment but is asking him to instill in us something that will bring honor to him and cause the world to wonder as they see us allowing what he has said shaping our lives.
So what kind of faith should we ask for?
1 - Faith in the Son, not faith in faith.
2 - Faith to be devoted to him as we perform what he desires.
3 - Faith to endure the hardship associated with the present world filled with injustice and the world we know is coming. We know that world is coming because Christ has come conquering sin and death.
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash