Millstones and Mulberries

Luke 17-1-10

            Ever wish the Bible were longer? I certainly do. I feel that way especially when I read Luke and Acts. Luke is a great reporter, but sometimes I just wish I had more than the bare bones. Such is the nature of the first ten verses of Luke 17. There are four separate pieces of instruction here, each apparently independent of one another. Luke shoots them out to us rapid fire. Bang, bang! Do this. Do that. Beware this. Beware that. Then, just like that, Jesus is on to other things. Together, these instructions constitute what could be called Jesus’ expectations of his followers about faith and faithfulness. But it’s all meat with no garnishment. Pay attention or you’ll miss it. Beware, first of your example and last, of your pride. Learn how to forgive and find your faith in God’s power. Those are Jesus’ instructions.

          Ever been a teacher or a coach? Almost everyone here has. Even if you don’t know it, you are teaching. If you have children or grandchildren, you’re teaching. If you go through a grocery checkout line, you’re a teacher. If you’re a softball or baseball coach, you’re a teacher. Sometimes, you even get to teach the game, but often, that’s not what your students are learning. They’re watching to see if you will remain patient. They’re waiting for you to curse. They’re wondering if you know their name. They’re guessing who your favorites are. Everything you say, everything you express with your body language, teaches them who you are, whether you care and whether they care to learn from you.

          Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem and a date with the Cross. He knows it but his disciples don’t. I can almost see him walking up the road and as he walks, he starts teaching, not so much with long lessons, but with bullets. A coach says to a base runner: get a good lead. Jesus says just as cryptically to his disciples: don’t be the cause of someone’s sin! Don’t lead someone the wrong way. It would be better for you to hang a boulder on a chain around your neck and throw you overboard than it would to misguide a little one. Little ones are not just children. They are also those who are new and tender in the faith. Don’t lead them astray. Don’t be an offending brother.

          Jesus walks on up the road. He turns again and says: “Pay attention to yourselves.” Instruction number two. What if your brother offends you?  How far must you forgive as a Christian? If you were a Rabbi and forgave someone three times, it was said that you were a perfect man. What does Jesus say? Seven times, not three and if I read it correctly, Jesus is really saying to forgive as long as your brother repents. Forgive as much as it takes for as long as it takes, no matter how much that is.

          That woke the apostles up. They say to Jesus: “Increase our faith!” In other words, they don’t have that measure of faith. They don’t have a well of forgiveness that deep. And in this third instruction, Jesus answers not about how to find more faith, but rather how to understand what faith really is. His illustration is in the extreme. If you had enough faith as might be found in the smallest seed around, that would be enough to successfully root a mulberry tree in the ocean. Jesus is saying that it’s not the degree of faith that moves mountains; it’s the power of God that does it and faith is the key to unleashing that mighty power. A little faith goes a long way.

          Jesus resumes walking up the road. He’s probably walking “up” the road as opposed to “down” the road because the road from Galilee to Jerusalem is an ascent to higher ground. As he walks, he has one more lesson for his disciples. He warns them to beware of pride. He talks about servants who put in a good day’s work on the job, but who know better than to quit just because they have come in from the fields. There is always work to do. Jesus warns us not to sit on our assets. We can’t outwork God. We can’t earn God’s grace. The song doesn’t read “How Great I Art,” does it? 

Dean Smith, the hall of fame basketball coach at North Carolina for thirty six years, will be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year. You have to do more than be a great coach to receive such an honor. Smith coached young men to be better human beings and used the game of basketball as his venue. Once, when he was still an assistant coach and before the restaurants at Chapel Hill were integrated, Smith was asked to join his pastor and a black student at lunch in a local eatery. Smith accepted and the trio was seated without incident, though that was far from a foregone conclusion when he accepted his pastor’s invitation. Actions such as this have earned suggestions that Smith was a civil rights pioneer. Smith never would have any of it. His response when questioned along these lines was as pointed as that of Jesus in Luke 17. “You should never be proud of doing the right thing. You should just do it,” said Smith.

          Jesus warns us to be aware of seeking praise for that which we were bound to do in the first place. Why should we get puffed up over doing the job we were sent to do? When we serve God, are we not doing that which we are supposed to do? We are given the gift of being able to serve he who has made us. There is no room for pride in that equation.

When you step back and look at what Jesus asks of us as his disciples, these four apparently disconnected instructions are actually steps to discipleship. Beware of wrong teaching and tempting. Forgive until it hurts, then forgive some more. Unleash the faith you have and watch it grow. And beware of the power of pride or you will find yourself an unworthy servant in God’s army. Just a few nuggets from the Master on the way to the Cross. Imagine what else was on his mind that day! Imagine how many other things were running through his mind to tell his disciples while there was still time. But Jesus knew that they could absorb only so much at a time, and so he gave them just enough to chew on for a while. Have you ever noticed that he does that to you and me in our walk with him? He never gives us more than we can handle. We may sometimes feel overcome or overwhelmed, but when we think it through, it’s never a result of the demands of Christianity. Those demands, difficult as they sometimes are, release us rather than restrict us, to do God’s work. As Jesus’ disciples were to learn at Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit can release ordinary men and women to great things. That is still as true today as it was on the road to Jerusalem with Jesus.

          The next story in Luke will find Jesus encountering ten lepers on the border territory between Samaria and Galilee. This will be a new lesson for the disciples. Ten believe. Ten are cleansed, but only one is made whole and he is a Samaritan, a half breed. Jesus is planting the mulberry tree in the ocean, and it WILL grow.

          “The Apostles said to the Lord: Increase our faith.” And he said to them: you don’t need more faith. You need to use what God has already given you. He will do the rest.