Luke 17:1-10

Jesus calls us to a narrow (difficult) path.  Today’s passage gives us some great help in following Him faithfully.

·     *   Jesus stresses the importance of how His disciples live their lives, 17:1-4.

If we maintain the context, from Luke 16 and throughout this section on discipleship principles from Luke 9-16, Jesus’ words are clear.  Followers of Jesus must take seriously how they live, especially before those who are weak in the faith.  The little ones might refer to children or to those who are young in the faith.  Jesus pronounces a woe on those whose lives offend others so that they do not enter the kingdom (cf. Lk. 11:37-50).

One way we offend is when we allow the offenses of others in this life to get in the way of following Christ.  This is a major issue for Jesus in training His disciples (Matt. 6:14-15; 18:21-35; Mark 11:25-26) and for life in the Body of Christ (2 Cor. 2:10-11; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13).

·        *Jesus explains the attitude by which His disciples can live their lives, 17:5-10.

Jesus insistence in 17:1-4 leads the disciples to an amazing moment of honesty when they cry out, Increase our faith.  The path is too difficult.  

Jesus’ answer is to say that what He calls for is doable.  First He says the need for the disciples is not for more faith.   When Jesus chided His disciples for their little faith (Mt. 8:26) it was because they had faith for some things but not for others.  It wasn’t the amount of faith but the exercise of faith in every situation.  Faith is, by definition, the absence of unbelief.  The man who cried out to Jesus help my unbelief (Mark 9:24) had it right.  Simple faith in the situation is all that is needed.  Jesus is telling His disciples: you just need to walk in the faith you have.  Paul said this in Col. 2:6: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.  The faith that it takes to have our sins forgiven and to be made right with God is the faith by which we live the life of Christ.

For those hung up on another of Jesus’ hyperboles (He also used one in 17:2 about drowning those who offend), the point is not that we should be able at any time to toss a mulberry tree into the sea.  No one, to my knowledge, including Jesus, ever did this.  That is not the point.  We can never have faith for God to do what is not God’s will.  Again, the point is we only need faith as a mustard seed.

Jesus also says that following Him in obedience should be considered our normal life.  This is a matter of attitude.  If we settle the issue of servanthood following Jesus faithfully becomes much easier.  We are the slaves of the one we obey (John 8:34-36; Rom. 6:16).  If we see ourselves as slaves of Christ we will see that the flesh/Spirit struggle is much less of a struggle (Gal. 5:16-18).

Following Jesus is doable IF we walk in faith, trusting our Master to always lead us in the right way.