Matthew 17:20 & Luke 17:6: Mustard Seed Faith
Hover over the references to see the Biblical text
When we read Jesus' words to his disciples about mustard seed faith moving mountains (and/or mulberry bushes), we typically understand that as saying tiny faith has great power, but that may be a misinterpretation.
In Matthew 17:20, there's an ordering to the tenses around the mustard seed faith. He has, "If you have faith as a mustard seed" in the present tense (side note: I say "as a mustard seed" because any reference to size is inferred, not explicit, and the smallness of the seed may be less important than its potential to grow). The addressing of the mountain with the command to move is in the future tense as is the mountain's moving. So, we could understand Jesus as saying. "If you currently have faith like a tiny little seed, in the future you will be able to tell a mountain to move, and it will." That seems to me to be supported by Matthew's text, and it can really change the tone of Jesus' response. Translated that way, Jesus isn't berating them for not having enough faith, he's encouraging them about the future. He's telling them that small faith grows bigger. The growth potential and the end state of a mustard seed are the point in Matthew 13:31-32, Mark 4:30-32, and Luke 13:18-21, where the discussion is around the growth of the Kingdom. It seems odd that the same imagery would be used here to emphasize smallness.
That's great in Matthew, but Luke doesn't follow that pattern. In Luke 17:6 the tenses are less linear. "If you have faith..." is still present tense, the speaking to the Mulberry bush is in the imperfect, and the moving of the bush is in the aorist. My Greek is not great—despite three semesters of it in seminary—but my understanding of the aorist is that it is commonly understood to have no time component. In other words, it tells us nothing about when something happens or how long it takes, only that it happens. That means the weight is on the first two parts of the discussion. Present tense is pretty straight forward (although their mindset was that the present was the continuous now, not the momentary now we think of it as). The imperfect (which I just Googled because, as afore mentioned, my Greek is not that great) is also past tense, but has the continuous aspect. Mounce gives the example of Jesus saying "Father, forgive them." The imperfect tense implies he said it repeatedly, not just once. So, in the context of Marks text, Jesus says, "If you have (in the continuous now sense) faith you would have repeatedly told the Mulberry bush to move and the moving of the Mulberry bush would result" (or maybe would have resulted [aorist is difficult]). Despite imperfect putting the speaking in the past, its aspect (continuous) could be understood to emphasize persisting. So we could read this as an encouragement to persist because faith works (or a rebuke for giving up).
In both cases, there's the potential to understand Jesus' response as being positive rather than negative. Combining these, we could understand Jesus as saying, "Yes, your faith didn't match up to the task at hand, but don't give up. Persist in faith, because faith grows. You'll get there."
In Matthew 17:20, there's an ordering to the tenses around the mustard seed faith. He has, "If you have faith as a mustard seed" in the present tense (side note: I say "as a mustard seed" because any reference to size is inferred, not explicit, and the smallness of the seed may be less important than its potential to grow). The addressing of the mountain with the command to move is in the future tense as is the mountain's moving. So, we could understand Jesus as saying. "If you currently have faith like a tiny little seed, in the future you will be able to tell a mountain to move, and it will." That seems to me to be supported by Matthew's text, and it can really change the tone of Jesus' response. Translated that way, Jesus isn't berating them for not having enough faith, he's encouraging them about the future. He's telling them that small faith grows bigger. The growth potential and the end state of a mustard seed are the point in Matthew 13:31-32, Mark 4:30-32, and Luke 13:18-21, where the discussion is around the growth of the Kingdom. It seems odd that the same imagery would be used here to emphasize smallness.
That's great in Matthew, but Luke doesn't follow that pattern. In Luke 17:6 the tenses are less linear. "If you have faith..." is still present tense, the speaking to the Mulberry bush is in the imperfect, and the moving of the bush is in the aorist. My Greek is not great—despite three semesters of it in seminary—but my understanding of the aorist is that it is commonly understood to have no time component. In other words, it tells us nothing about when something happens or how long it takes, only that it happens. That means the weight is on the first two parts of the discussion. Present tense is pretty straight forward (although their mindset was that the present was the continuous now, not the momentary now we think of it as). The imperfect (which I just Googled because, as afore mentioned, my Greek is not that great) is also past tense, but has the continuous aspect. Mounce gives the example of Jesus saying "Father, forgive them." The imperfect tense implies he said it repeatedly, not just once. So, in the context of Marks text, Jesus says, "If you have (in the continuous now sense) faith you would have repeatedly told the Mulberry bush to move and the moving of the Mulberry bush would result" (or maybe would have resulted [aorist is difficult]). Despite imperfect putting the speaking in the past, its aspect (continuous) could be understood to emphasize persisting. So we could read this as an encouragement to persist because faith works (or a rebuke for giving up).
In both cases, there's the potential to understand Jesus' response as being positive rather than negative. Combining these, we could understand Jesus as saying, "Yes, your faith didn't match up to the task at hand, but don't give up. Persist in faith, because faith grows. You'll get there."
I love this. It makes so much sense. Thank you!
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