The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" 6 And the
Lord said, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to
this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and it
would obey you. 7 "Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending
sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come
immediately and sit down to eat'? 8 "But will he not say to him,
'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and
serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and
drink'? 9 "He does not thank the slave because he did the things
which were commanded, does he? 10 "So you too, when you do all the
things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we
have done only that which we ought to have done.'"

In Luke 17:5 the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith. How
does Jesus help them? In two ways, both of which are by telling
them truth. So even in the way he responds he shows us
that faith comes by hearing. Knowing certain things should increase
our faith.

First, he strengthens our faith by telling us in verse 6 that
the crucial issue in accomplishing great things to advance the
kingdom of God is not the quantity of our faith, but the power of
God. He says, "If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say
to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea'; and
it would obey you." By referring to the tiny mustard seed after
being asked about increased faith, he deflects attention away from
the quantity of faith to the object of faith. God moves
mulberry trees. And it does not depend decisively on the quantity
of our faith, but on his power and wisdom and love. In knowing this
we are helped not to worry about our faith and are inspired to
trust God's free initiative and power.

Second, he helps their faith grow by telling them in verses
7-10 that when they have done all they are commanded to do, they
are still radically dependent on grace. Jesus gives an
illustration. You might want to read it again in verses 7-10. The
gist of it is that the owner of a slave does not become a debtor to
the slave no matter how much work the slave does. The meaning is
that God is never our debtor. Verse 10 sums it up: "So you too,
when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are
unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have
done.'" We are always his debtor. And we will never be able to pay
this debt, nor are we ever meant to. We will always be dependent on
grace. We will never work our way up out of debt to a place where
God is in our debt. "Who has ever given a gift to him that
he should be repaid?" (Romans 11:35).

When it says in verse 9 that the owner does not "thank" the
slave, the idiom for "thank" is provocative. I think the idea is
that "thanks" is a response to grace. The reason the owner does not
thank the slave is that the servant is not giving the owner more
than what the owner deserves. He is not treating the owner with
grace. Grace is being treated better than you deserve. So
it is with us in relation to God. We never treat God with
grace. We never give him more than he deserves. Which means that he
never owes us thanks. God never says "Thank you" to us. Instead he
is always giving us more than what we deserve and we are always
owing him thanks.

So the lesson for us is that when we have done all we should do
– when we have solved all our pastoral care problems and
fixed the attitudes of all our people and mobilized the most
missions and loved the poor and saved marriages and reared godly
children and boldly proclaimed Christ – God owes us no
thanks. Instead we will at that moment relate to him as debtors to
grace just as we do now.

This is a great encouragement to faith. Why? Because it means
that God is just as free to bless us before we get our act
together as he is after. Since we are "unworthy" slaves
before we have done what we should, and "unworthy" slaves
afterwards as well, it is only grace that would prompt God to help
us. Therefore he is free to help us before and after. This is a
great incentive to trust him for help when we feel like our act is
not together.

So two things increase our faith: 1) that God himself and not
the quantity of our faith is the decisive factor in flinging
mulberry trees out of the way; and 2) free grace is decisive in how
God treats us before and after we have done all we ought to do. We
never move beyond the need for grace. Therefore let us trust God
for great things in our little faith, and let us not be paralyzed
by what is left to be done in our lives and in our church.

Pastor John