“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. (Luke 17:3-6, NIV)
Some powerful thoughts from NT Wright on this passage:
Perhaps not surprisingly, the disciples realize in verse 5 that all this will require more faith than they think they have. Jesus is quick to respond. It’s not great faith you need; it is faith in a great God. Faith is like a window through which you can see something. What matters is not whether the window is six inches or six feet high; what matters is the God that your faith is looking out on. If it’s the creator God, the God active in Jesus and the Spirit, then the tiniest little peep-hole of a window will give you access to power like you never dreamed of. Of course, this cannot be used for your own whim or pleasure; as soon as you tried, it would show that you’d forgotten, once more, who this God really was.
Wright, T. (2004). Luke for Everyone (p. 204). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
We need the humility to understand it is not our “great faith” that gets anything done. It is our great God who works through us.
Apprentice 2 Jesus 