LUKE 17:1-10
LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH.
In
the name + of Jesus.
In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul
addressed the congregation in regard to their reception of the Lord’s
Supper. He wrote, “Whoever eats the
bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of
sinning against the Lord’s body and blood.
Instead, let a person examine himself and after doing so, let him eat of
the bread and drink from the cup. For if
anyone eats and drinks in an unworthy way because he does not
recognize the Lord’s body, he eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1
Corinthians 11:27-29). Our Lord does
not want us to treat the holy things lightly.
We have nothing more sacred in our services than the body and blood of
Jesus Christ. That is why we are careful
about who receives it. We do not want
anyone to receive it to his detriment, particularly those who insist that it is
not, but merely represents, the body of Christ.
This is the historic Christian practice, and it is followed by almost
every church that confesses Jesus’ body and blood are truly present in the
sacrament.
Taking care of the holy things also refers
to ourselves. You are the Lord’s holy
ones. You have been purified by the
blood of Jesus in your baptism and declared to be the saints of God. As his holy ones, you and I are to examine
ourselves. We are to assess our
thoughts, words, and actions to ensure that they align with God’s holy
word.
Our Catechism has taught us to do
this. “Consider your place in life
according to the Ten Commandments. Are
you a father, mother, son, daughter, employer, or employee? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or
lazy? Have you hurt anyone by word or
deed? Have you been dishonest, careless,
wasteful, or done other wrong?” (Luther’s Small Catechism: Confession). We should recognize our sins, repent of them,
and confess them. After we are absolved
for them, we strive to amend our lives so that we do not continue in them. Such assessment is done so that sin does not
fester in our hearts and destroy faith.
Our Gospel reading, however, may lead you
to assess yourself wrongly. Jesus said, “If you had faith like a mustard
seed, you could tell this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’
and it would obey you” (Luke 17:6).
Who of us, when we hear this, does not try to figure out just how big
our faith is? Is it the size of a
mustard seed? Is it as big as a
pear? Perhaps a watermelon? Since we are not uprooting trees, we might
wonder if we have faith at all.
Trying to determine the size of one’s
faith is a useless exercise. It will
result in one of two things. You will
either despair, thinking that you have no faith at all, or you will become
proud and boast about how great your faith is.
People who focus on the size of their faith end up saying things like,
“I don’t know if my faith is strong enough for me to be saved.” Your salvation does not rest on how great or
big or strong your faith is. Your faith
does not rest in yourself. Jesus taught
us, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a
wise man who built his house on bedrock.
The rain came down, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat against
that house. But it did not fall, because
it was founded on bedrock” (Matthew 7:24-25).
Jesus did not talk about the size of the house, because the point
was not how big the house was. The point
is that it rested on the rock. Faith
rests on Jesus Christ.
The apostles said to the Lord,
“Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). What
prompted that request? It is what Jesus
had just told them. “Temptations to
sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for that person if a
millstone would be hung around his neck and he would be thrown into the sea
than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Watch yourselves” (Luke 17:1-3). More literally, Jesus said it is impossible
that temptations not come. And it is
actually stronger than “temptations.”
The word is skandalon (you can hear the word scandal in there),
which usually means something that either would prevent a person from coming to
faith in Jesus or would drive a person from the Christian faith. There will always be people or teachings or
temptations to lure us away from Jesus Christ and his Church. In order to stand firm, in order to not be
deceived, we pray, “Lord, increase our faith!”
The Lord goes on to say, “If your
brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents,
forgive him. Even if he sins against you
seven times in a day, and seven times returns to you and says, ‘I repent,’
forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4). Forgiveness
is hard, especially when it is a repeat offender. If someone sins against you three
times in a day, you’ve probably had it with him. You might respond with threats, not mercy.
Therefore, we pray, “Lord, increase our
faith!” If we are disciples of Jesus, we
want to be like Jesus. Our Lord Jesus
Christ continues to forgive us, day after day.
We come to God’s house week after week and confess our sins. Forgiveness has never been withheld. If you came to Private Confession, and time
after time ended up confessing, “It’s me, Lord.
Again. For the same thing,” the
Lord does not say, “You’ve reached your quota.
You’re done for a while.” Even if
you came before the Lord seven times in one day in repentance, he forgives your
sins. The Lord is eager to forgive the
penitent, as the Psalms remind us, “A broken and crushed heart, O God, you
will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
This is the kind of mercy we strive to demonstrate. “If your brother … sins against you seven
times in a day, and seven times returns to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive
him” (Luke 17:3-4). This is hard to live
up to. So, we continue to pray, “Lord,
increase our faith!”
Our prayer intensifies as Jesus continues
to instruct his apostles what discipleship means. We are servants of the Lord, which means that
we submit our will to God’s will and do what he has given us to do. Nowhere has the Lord commanded you to invoke
his name to uproot trees and to cast them into the sea, so don’t worry about
that. But the Lord has given you the Ten
Commandments to follow. That is enough
to keep all of us busy.
Now, you are a disciple of Jesus; he calls
you to a higher place. He calls on you
to follow him and his word—to exercise patience, to love your neighbor and even
your enemies, to be compassionate to the needy and the suffering, to be
merciful, and to bless even when you are cursed. But who is up to the task? It is enough for a servant to be like his
master, but who is? We all struggle with
godly living. We get tired. We get distracted. We fear being taken advantage of, and maybe
we are. Some people make it very hard to
love them. It is all the more reason to
pray, “Lord, increase our faith!”
On the other hand, maybe you feel like you
are doing pretty well. Maybe you even
feel this is worthy of recognition or reward.
Jesus would have you ponder this: “[The master] does not thank the
servant because he did what he was commanded to do, does he? So also you, when you have done all that you
were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have only done what we were supposed to
do’” (Luke 17:9-10). Even if we
could be holy, we have not gone above and beyond the call. We have only done what was expected of
us.
Maybe you think that you are getting
short-changed if you are not getting any special reward for faithfulness to the
Lord. Perhaps there should be a bonus of
some sort for being godly in a godless world.
If you are seeking this reward, then understand that you would rather be
saved by your merits than by faith. And
even if your good deeds manage to be more prominent than your sins (which is
unlikely), your sins still stand against you.
Just consider what your initial reaction to Jesus’ words were. Even if someone “sins against you seven
times in a day, and seven times returns to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive
him” (Luke 17:4)?! Did you think,
“Gladly!” or, “Unlikely!”? When Jesus
said that keeping all of God’s commands should be followed with, “We are
unworthy servants. We have only done
what we were supposed to do’” (Luke 17:10), did you think, “That sounds
right”? Our obedience is less than
willing, which merits God’s judgment.
Jesus Christ was sent into the world by
his Father to do what no one else has ever been asked to do. Jesus Christ was sent to pay for sins he
never committed. He was sent to rescue us
from a fiery future that we had brought upon ourselves and from endless torment
that we have earned. The Bible states, “Cursed
is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the
law” (Galatians 3:10)? We have
earned the curse. So, what did
the Father send his Son to do? “Christ
Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”
(Galatians 3:13). This is something
Jesus should never have had to do. But
the Father sent Jesus to do it in order to serve and to save sinners. Jesus willingly submitted to it, doing what
he was supposed to do. This is what
saves you. This is what faith rests
upon.
What’s more, Jesus still serves you! Having risen and ascended to his Father,
Jesus prepares a place for you in the heavenly kingdom. Jesus lives and reigns over all things for
the good of his Church. Jesus lives and
reigns to forgive you of all your sins—seven times in a day if he must. Jesus feeds you with the sacred meal of his
body and blood to strengthen you in your weakness and to encourage you in a
life of service. Jesus speaks to you in
his word because he knows that it is impossible that temptations, deceptions,
and enticements will not come. He exposes
the lies so that you will not be deceived.
He directs you to godly living so you do not become entangled in sin and
lose the salvation he gives you. He
strengthens you to do what is good, and he comforts you when you suffer what is
bad.
We pray, “Lord, increase our faith! Help us to do what you have called us to do
with joy. Help us to commit ourselves to
faithful service, not for the sake of fanfare, but for the honor of your name
and for the good of our neighbor. Teach
us to be merciful, to be eager to forgive, and to be dedicated to your
word. Lord, increase our faith!” This is a prayer to which our Lord will
always say, “Yes.” But he will not have
you focus on how big or how strong or how sincere your faith is. He will show you the fullness of his
mercy. He will declare the depth of his
compassion. He will apply the benefits
of Jesus’ sacrifice to you. For, it is
not the size of one’s faith that saves; it is the immeasurable love and mercy
of our Lord. “Lord, increase our faith
in that.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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