27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 17:5-10
One of the more difficult sayings of Jesus is in today’s gospel. “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to the mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted’ and it would obey you.” One would be quite fortunate to actually see a mustard seed. The mustard seed is so small that it is only like a grain of sand. And yet, Jesus said that if you have this faith you can do so many big things.
In the gospel for today, the apostles must have realised how difficult would be to follow the Lord that’s why they are pleading with Jesus, “Increase our faith.” However, Jesus insisted that even if our faith is as small as a mustard seed, it is more than enough. So what can we make in this saying of Jesus? Firstly, we should realise that faith is a gift from God. It is God who gives it to us not by our own merit or request, but it is given freely whether we ask it or not, it is our response that would make the difference. Secondly, if it is given as a gift, why is it as small as a mustard seed, could we do anything to make it bigger? Jesus precisely said that even if it is as small as a mustard seed it is enough, because that is what is needed. It is in the smallness of the mustard seed that we should realise that our faith must also be humble. We should realise that in the greater scheme of things, our contribution is just as small as the mustard seed and the rest is God’s. Our faith even if it is so small what is needed is trust. This is where the First Reading from the prophet Habakkuk becomes very important. The prophet is pleading with the Lord that it seems all his prayers are falling on deaf ears. Wherever Habakkuk turns there’s violence and destruction and even with all his pleas and prayers, it seems God is not intervening. Then the Lord answered him and said that there is an appointed time, even if it seems delayed, God said, “Wait for it.” God assured him that his interventions will come and it will not be late.
Another difficult saying of Jesus is all about being an “unprofitable servants”. Imagine that you’re an office worker going to work daily from 9 to 5. Then when you receive your salary, you’re expecting a bonus because you weren’t absent in a month. However, when you received your salary, you just got exactly what you are supposed to be paid and you become upset. What is the difference between a gift and a salary. A salary is a payment on the work that you have provided. It is justice that any work that was done by an employee to its employer, it is only just that a salary must be paid based on the contract that was agreed. While a gift is something that is given not because of justice but because of the generosity of the benefactor wherein beneficiary is not expected to pay in return. A salary is based on law while a gift is based on love.
The Pharisees believed that eternal life is supposed to be a salary for obeying the Law while you are here on earth. They believed that if you follow the Law of Moses while living, God is supposed to be in debt to you and he must therefore admit you to his kingdom. Jesus on the other hand doesn’t believe that. God can’t in anyway be indebted to us. We are only His creatures, no more and no less. Eternal life is given to us as a gift. Our good works here on earth are our expressions of thanksgiving for the gift that he has given to us. Since as Christians, people who are redeemed by God, we can’t do anything else but to do good because being good is our nature and even though we sometimes fail and commit shortcomings because of our imperfection, yet the expectation is do what God expects of us because it is our nature. We are just doing what we are obliged to do.
While these sayings of Jesus may be hard, but it is not difficult to understand, for it all points to humility. Jesus even though he is the Master, never lorded it over to us. He even made his life as an example of how to serve one another and we should do the same. We also must realise of our dependence on God for our contribution is only but a mustard seed, but with the power of the Lord, he can transform this mustard seed into something that is powerful and uproot the mulberry tree. Just imagine, Christianity started with a group of 11 apostles and a few men and women disciples and now more than a third of the world’s population are now Christian. From a little group of Christians, which we can really say just a mustard seed to more than two billion Christians in the world today, surely the mustard seed have uprooted the mulberry tree! All we need to do is to trust.