The seed that changes the world

One thing that we should note before looking into today's passage is that the mustard seed is not a large or impressive seed. In fact it is quite the opposite, they are tiny, typically just 1 or 2 millimetres (or 3/100 of an inch) in diameter. You could argue that this in itself is pretty important to this passage. There is however even more to the mustard seed, it grows into one of the largest trees known to the people at the time. Not bad for an insignificant looking seed!

So what is Jesus trying to tell us in our passage today? He is telling us that you only need a tiny amount of faith in God for him to start doing amazing things in your life. Just think about this he is promising that a mustard seed serving of faith is all that is required to uproot an entire hill, (or in some translations mountain) and fling it into a new location. When humans in their own strength attempt to simply tunnel under a hill it can take years and millions of pounds, so relocating a mountain in human terms is unthinkable. Especially when you consider that at the time of this passage there were no diggers or heavy machinery.

This is exactly the point of today's passage. It tells us that a tiny amount of faith, achievable by everyone is enough for God to do great things. A point that we should note here is that faith is not passive. It is not quietly thinking "it would be nice for that mountain to move five paces to the left" or "it would be nice if our church was full on Sundays" or "it would be great if I could do that amazing thing".

All of these things are examples of wishful thinking not faith. Faith is action. Getting up off your bum and doing the stuff that you believe God wants you to do, not just thinking about them.

This week be active in your faith. If God wants you to move a mountain a good first step might be to fetch your coat and wellies. Have a great week.

Header image by: Jabb via Flickr