“Increase our faith.” It’s the request disciples made of Jesus (Luke 17). At least that’s what the text says. I wonder if they might have asked something more like, “How can we increase our faith?” Who knows? In either case, what did they mean by faith? Many have come to me with similar questions, often put as “I wish I had more faith, or how can I be more faithful, or even what is faith?
I belong to a weekly discussion group that took up the issue of faith a few months ago and recently became aware of Teresa Morgan’s new book, “The Theology of Trust.” It turned out that a brilliant biblical scholar and a bunch of us retired small town preachers have been going in the same direction. Christians need to be directed more toward faith as trust, and less at faith as believing, especially when believing is dictated by adherence without question to specific teachings and rules. Most who came for Jesus’ advice understood faith to be some kind of believing, although they found it hard to say what believing meant. It didn’t help when others demanded to know if they were believers. Also, it didn’t take long to scan the horizon and wonder what and who they expected every believer to believe in. The demand too often comes with implied qualifiers such as biblical inerrancy, the authority of clergy, or the words of some self appointed prophet. Believing also carries an expectation of a warming experience of God’s presence, a conversion experience, or a declaration of warm fuzzy love for Jesus. I suspect a lot of Christians proclaim it all just to keep their credentials acceptable to others who might judge them harshly if they knew the truth of a different reality.
Greek and Hebrew words translated into English are more strongly aimed at trust than what believing has come to represent in common usage, although believing is not excluded. The point is that the disciples were not sure how much they could trust Jesus to be who he said he was, and that his words bore the authority of God Almighty. And why wouldn’t they be cautious? Who Jesus was and what he said were radical departures from everything they had been taught. He stood alone amidst two thousand years of tradition as an entirely new voice. I can see how their trust could be anything but tentative given the few years they had to learn from him.
How much trust did they need? Not much, as little as a tiny mustard seed; seed that would grow larger in time to become a place of shelter and fearless proclamation of the good news. If you trusted enough could you really cause a mulberry tree to jump into the sea? As it turns out, there is a mulberry tree near our home that grows on the edge of a salt water inlet. Would I be juvenile enough to test it? Let’s say I did and the tree is still in its place. It may be that Jesus whispered in my ear, “Leave that tree alone and quit being an ass.” Or maybe not. I’m not telling. But I digress.
There is a catch to trust. It’s hard to trust in something one doesn’t know or have experienced. It’s equally hard to trust in someone until they’re found to be trustworthy. A few score of others, in addition to the twelve disciples, followed Jesus; it took three years of listening, learning, and experiencing for them to begin trusting what he said and who he was. It was barely enough to survive the crucifixion but cemented for all time through the resurrection. Perhaps it was only then that with all their hearts they could say,”I believe.” Then it took the rest of their lives to comprehend the depth of his words.
Another catch to trusting is that people have an almost childish willingness to trust and believe in imaginary things they wish could be true. It’s not just the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus, it’s the gullibility to fall for hucksters and con artists preying skillfully on peoples’ wishes. Large crowds gathered around Jesus to be amazed by his optimistic words of hope and the magic of miracles. They never got to know Jesus and never understood the deep meaning of his authoritative words. When the entertainment was over, they went on to the next wonder worker. That human weakness of gullibility makes it easy for religious hucksters to combine religious language and promises of wish fulfillment in order to gather big congregations with the capacity to be mined for millions. As the last few decades have demonstrated, the same is true in politics. Parenthetically, it’s also what makes sleazy advertising work so well.
To truly trust Jesus, you have to get to know him, listen carefully to his teaching, and spend years of intentional, prayerful study to comprehend even a bit more of his deep, meaningful words. The fact that God has not stopped speaking adds another level of complexity to the Christian life. The word may be eternal but God keeps adding to it, conditions keep changing, and our ability to understand keeps evolving. Honesty compels us to confess we can only blunder ahead and muddle through with the help of wise teachers and long tradition. Each of us are tested by our own ability to reason. Not everyone can accept the word and learn from wise teachers, yet for those who have put their trust in Jesus, what can be said except,”Lord, to whom shall we turn? You have the words of eternal life.”
© Steven E. Woolley