When Jesus spoke about mustard-seed-sized-faith that moved mountains, He wasn't making a quantitative statement as much as a qualitative one.
A number of years ago, I took a karate class with my kids for fun.
One day my class was sparring, and the sensei walked onto the mat in between matches. Since we were on a break, one of the instructors shouted jokingly, "Who wants to spar sensei?" I volunteered. I figured it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to attempt to land a punch on a black belt who was morally obligated not to kill me. I thought it would be a great experience.
Well, it was an experience alright.
I threw a punch, and before my fist was even close to making contact, he spun around and kicked me. It was like being kicked by a horse. I've never been kicked by a horse, but I imagine that if a horse ever did a roundhouse to my hip, it would have been exactly like that. Needless to say, I bowed (awkwardly) and walked off the mat.
There was a 20-year competency gap between my white belt and his black belt. For most of my life, I subscribed to the idea that Christians went from "white belt faith" to "black belt faith" by exercising spiritual disciplines like prayer, scripture reading, fasting, etc.
When Jesus rebuked His disciples for having "little faith," He consistently drew their attention to their lack of dependence. But we often interpret those rebukes as being about a lack of competence. Jesus once said that a Roman Centurion had such "great faith", He hadn't seen anything like it in Israel. The soldier was not more competent than the rulers of the Synagogue - he was more dependent.
If the criteria for great faith was diligence in spiritual disciplines, the Pharisee's would have been deemed the greatest - but Jesus had other words to describe them.
Faith in Christ is dependent and therefore, competent. Faith in our faith is independent and therefore, incompetent." The pursuit of spiritual competence always drew a different response from Jesus than the pursuit of spiritual of dependence.
A prime example of this distinction plays out in Matthew 17.
Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain when God the Father chooses to reveal God the Son as the apex of redemptive history. Jesus appears with Moses and Elijah, showcasing that He will fulfill the law for us and is the fulfillment of God's prophetic promises toward us.
Jesus returns down the mountain to find the other nine disciples unsuccessfully exorcising a demon. Jesus rebuked them and described them as "faithless and twisted". Why?
Jesus had given them specific authority and specific instructions to do that specific thing. Healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead are impossible tasks. The problem was that the disciples' faith had turned inward not upward, and this exorcism had become about will power, not God's power. (hence "faithless")
Good news ...
When Jesus spoke about mustard-seed-sized-faith that moved mountains, He wasn't making a quantitative statement as much as a qualitative one. Apparently, mustard-seed-sized faith in Him was more than enough.
Mountain-moving-faith is not bending God to our will in prayer.
Mountain-moving-faith is bending our will to God's in prayer.
While Jesus told the disciples to "speak to the mountain" in prayer to remove obstacles, He also told the apostle Paul that His grace was sufficient for him and in His sovereignty, chose not to remove Paul's obstacle. God is faithful to both remove mountains from our lives and give us His grace for the mountains that remain in our lives."
Mountain-free living is not an option on this side of eternity. Therefore, spiritual disciplines are not a means to achieve spiritual competency before God, but gifts that increase our restful dependence in God.
Breathe little grasshopper; we are all white belts.
