“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” -Matthew 17:20
Jesus speaks this shocking declaration to His disciples. When I read this scripture I had questions. Does this mean that if we have enough faith, we can do anything we want? If we believe hard enough, can we accomplish miraculous things?
I’ve heard many people say this is the case. It’s just hard to believe, that we will get whatever we want. However, if we look at the context of the passage, or even the Bible as a whole, we begin to see that using faith in done sort of magical power is not what I think Jesus was advocating.
Faith is not a mustering of will or a power to wield. Faith comes from trusting in God and His will.
If we go back to the context of this verse we can begin to understand what Jesus is saying. In Matthew 17, Jesus had just come down from the mountain where He was transfigured into His divine nature. From my reading, this signified a moment where Jesus’s true identity as the Son of God is made evident.
Then the following occurs in Matthew 17:14-20:
In context, the problem being addressed is that the disciples could not drive out the demon because they had too little faith.
Here the mountain Jesus is alluding to is the demon-possessed boy. Jesus is making a point that even the tiniest bit of faith -the size of a mustard seed, could accomplish great things. If the disciples had even the smallest bit of faith, they could do great mountain-sized things.
From Pity to Praise 