5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 So the Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

7 “Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’? 8 Won’t the master instead say to him, ‘Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink’? 9 He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he? 10 So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”

REFLECTIONS

Written by Tina Bogg

When the apostles ask the Lord to increase their faith, it’s closely related to what we read yesterday. Jesus has just taught them to forgive their brother or sister over and over again, whether it’s once a day or seven times a day. This does sound very hard. If someone was doing wrong against you – saying unkind words, cheating you of something you deserve, lying to your face, or hurting you physically – Jesus is saying that if they repent and say sorry, you must forgive them. As we saw, you would wonder how sorry they really are if they keep doing it on repeat – but Jesus doesn’t worry about that, he just says to forgive.

No wonder the apostles are asking for help and for Jesus to increase their faith! I love how Jesus initially reassures them that they don’t need to have a lot of faith, only faith as small as a mustard seed. Even tiny faith can do the seemingly impossible. I guess it’s because it’s not our faith that works, it’s who we have faith in – our sovereign, mighty and merciful God.

Jesus then tells a short story about a servant and his master. The point of the story is to help us see that the issue isn’t really about growing our faith, it’s about our posture towards our brothers and sisters. Jesus asks us to see ourselves as the ‘unworthy servant’ in the story, humbling ourselves in obedience to our heavenly Father, just as Jesus humbled himself. As Paul says in Philippians 2:6-7, Jesus, “… being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”

When we see ourselves as servants of one another with our Creator in charge, this helps us to see why forgiving one another over and over again is what we should do, not just when we want to or if it suits us. Pray with me that we can humble ourselves and keep following our servant King, forgiving each other for harsh words, selfish intentions and all the big and small offenses we do to one another daily.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tina is a member of our Bossley Park Morning congregation.