Humble Faith (Luke 17)
Journey with Jesus to the Cross (Monday, March 23)
Read Luke 17
These words best summarize our response to the teaching of Luke 17, a chapter which includes such topics as forgiveness, servanthood, thankfulness and God’s kingdom. Let’s take a look at each one.
Humility
It takes humility to forgive those who have harmed us (1-4). It takes humility to serve without recognition (7-10). It takes humility to realize we don’t know everything we’d like to know about Jesus’ return (20-37). All of these —forgiveness, service, and the recognition that we don’t know everything – require tremendous humility.
The last portion of this text has many things to say about the coming kingdom (20-37), but there are also enough obscurities in it to encourage us to hold our beliefs humbly. That Jesus will return is clear; when and how he will return is not. Jesus himself hints at this when he says, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’”
We can learn from the mistakes of the Pharisees. They eagerly longed for the Messiah, but when he came they mostly missed him. Why? Because they were more committed to their opinions about Scripture than to the Scripture itself. They were more attached to their ideas about God than they were to God himself. Their mistakes about Jesus’ first advent serve as a warning for us regarding his second advent. Let us avoid their self-assured hubris; let us embrace humble faith.
Gratitude
Jesus healed ten lepers. Only one returned to thank him. No doubt the other nine were grateful. But only one took the time to to express his thankfulness to Jesus — and this man was a “foreigner.”
Jesus was impressed. Learning to express gratitude is an important spiritual practice. Thankfulness is listed right next to teaching God’s Word and singing God’s praise the Bible (Colossians 3:15-17). We may not be able to sing or preach, but we can certainly be thankful!
Faith
Faith is mentioned three times. When Jesus stressed the importance of forgiveness, the disciples exclaimed, “Increase our faith” (5). Jesus replied, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed….” Later, when Jesus received the thanksgiving of the Samaritan leper, he said, “Your faith has made you well” (19).
Often we think about the strength of our faith. Is it strong enough? But what is important is not the strength of our faith; it is rather the object of our faith. Jesus said small faith can uproot trees. So size is not the issue. The issue is this: we must have our faith in the right thing. What is the object of our faith? Jesus. Pure and simple. Great faith in the wrong object is futile; small faith in the right object is fruitful.
In fact, faith in Jesus is at the root of this whole chapter. The leper’s faith was in Jesus; consequently, he returned to thank him. If we have faith in Jesus himself – not simply in our ideas about Jesus – we will be ready for him when he returns, whenever and however it is that he returns. And if we have fully responded in faith to Jesus and his unfathomable forgiveness, we will have no problem offering forgiveness to those who offend us, even to seven times daily and more.
In a word, then, faith in Jesus is the soil out of which humility and gratitude grow. So now (with apologies to 1 Corinthians 13), faith, humility and gratitude abide, these three; but the greatest of these is faith.
“Lord give me a faith in you that will teach me to forgive others fully and freely, and may my faith in you be the soil out of which grows genuine humility and heartfelt gratitude.”
Faith
Faith is mentioned three times. When Jesus stressed the importance of forgiveness, the disciples exclaimed, “Increase our faith” (5). Jesus replied, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed….” Later, when Jesus received the thanksgiving of the Samaritan leper, he said, “Your faith has made you well” (19).
Often we think about the strength of our faith. Is it strong enough? But what is important is not the strength of our faith; it is rather the object of our faith. Jesus said small faith can uproot trees. So size is not the issue. The issue is this: we must have our faith in the right thing. What is the object of our faith? Jesus. Pure and simple. Great faith in the wrong object is futile; small faith in the right object is fruitful.
In fact, faith in Jesus is at the root of this whole chapter. The leper’s faith was in Jesus; consequently, he returned to thank him. If we have faith in Jesus himself – not simply in our ideas about Jesus – we will be ready for him when he returns, whenever and however it is that he returns. And if we have fully responded in faith to Jesus and his unfathomable forgiveness, we will have no problem offering forgiveness to those who offend us, even to seven times daily and more.
In a word, then, faith in Jesus is the soil out of which humility and gratitude grow. So now (with apologies to 1 Corinthians 13), faith, humility and gratitude abide, these three; but the greatest of these is faith.
“Lord give me a faith in you that will teach me to forgive others fully and freely, and may my faith in you be the soil out of which grows genuine humility and heartfelt gratitude.”