Anyone churched in the Scriptures knows the story of the mustard seed. It is the smallest of seeds, yet it grows into a mighty tree, with massive, spreading foliage.
Jesus uses the example of the mustard seed more than once, in each case making a different point. In Matthew 13:31-32 he compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed. It was very small at the time, yet it would grow to encompass the entire world.
However, today let’s start off with Jesus’ example in Matthew 17:20. Here, Jesus speaks to those who struggle with faith. If we have the least bit of faith, we can say to the mountains to move from this place to that, and it will be done. We read the same story in Luke 17:6. Faith, though small at the beginning, can take us anywhere we need to go.
Now we move ahead 7 chapters. Luke 24:9-12 tells the story of Mary Magdalene; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward; Mary, the mother of James and John; and various other unnamed women at the tomb of Jesus. They ran to tell the tale of the resurrection to the disciples.
However, their words of truth were discounted as no more than “silly nonsense.” The passage even tells us that their words were strangled by disbelief. The disciples didn’t even have the faith of a grain of mustard seed.
If we have nothing, it cannot grow into anything, either faith or the greatest religion that has graced the face of the earth.
Yet, we read in Verse 12: Peter held the linen clothes and wondered at that which was to come.
Peter, Jesus’ denier, would one day come to be considered the Rock upon which the church was built. He alone, of all the disciples, had the faith of a mustard seed. It was small, and it was still unformed, but all the possibilities of the great apostle were there, contained in that one man and in that one situation.
Which leads us to Jesus’ other example of the mustard seed. From Peter grew the greatest mustard tree of all time. Its branches reach across the world, and they reach unto you and me.
It’s called Christianity.
When we give God a chance, he will grow us into a mighty warrior for him.
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