Jonathan Stephen investigates how Jesus addresses our lack of faith from the story of the stilling of the storm in Matthew 8
If you look closely at verse 26 in Matthew 8, you may discover something you have never noticed or thought about before.
To tell you the truth, I had missed it completely myself, even though I must have read the passage scores of times over the years.
More difficult problem
Without thinking about it, I had always imagined that having been rudely awakened from his deep sleep, the first thing Jesus did was to leap up and sort out the violent storm raging around them. But that isn’t what Matthew records. He specifically states that it is only after Jesus has addressed his disciples – ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ – that he famously stills the storm: ‘Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm’ (my italics). Note that as the parallel accounts of Mark and Luke have no indicators of timing at this point, they in no way contradict Matthew. The celebrated 19th-century preacher, C. H. Spurgeon, explained it like this: ‘He spoke to the men first because they were the more difficult problem to deal with!’ We might smile at that but it is surely true. When have the blind forces of nature ever failed to obey the will of their Creator? Yet, ever since the Fall, it has been instinctive for human beings to do exactly that. Of course we are the greater problem to God! Our natural tendency is to rebel and to imagine we can live without any reference to him. That is the very essence of our sin, which first severed our connection from the only source of life and love, and then triggered the dreadful and infinitely costly rescue plan we call the gospel. Of course the winds and the waves would obey Jesus – but would this lowly group of fishermen?
Faith – but small
Let’s try to analyse what they were thinking, to assess the state of their hearts. Had they possessed absolutely no faith in Jesus at all, they would scarcely have bothered to wake him in the first place. If, as experienced sailors upon those treacherous waters, they were at the end of their tether, what would be the point of seeking the advice and assistance of a mere carpenter’s son?
On the other hand, as we have already seen, had their faith been strong they would also have let him sleep on. In other words, the way they went to Jesus, roused him and complained to him, shows us that they had a faith that was genuine but far too small. It was a true faith but one that was nevertheless much too weak and ineffective to overcome the fear which filled their hearts and paralysed them – a faith that fully merited Jesus’s rebuke: ‘You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’ Don’t get me wrong, a little faith in Jesus is a lot better than none! A weak and timid faith placed in Jesus because it has grasped something of who he is and what he achieved on the cross is a very precious thing. It means the difference between salvation and judgment, between heaven and hell.
Content with little faith?
The problem arises, however, when a believer is content to remain in such a state. I have often heard Christians of many years’ standing almost boasting of the weakness of their faith. Some will say: ‘Oh, I am just a simple believer; don’t bother me with complex doctrine and difficult questions.’ Others will protest that it’s not the strength of faith that matters, but where it is placed – and make that a lifelong excuse not to grow their faith. Still others appear not to have realised that there is such a thing as a scale of faith from weak to strong, and are therefore totally ignorant of its implications, as I will explain. To those who would say a simple, undeveloped faith in Jesus is enough, we must ask: ‘Enough for what?’ Is it enough for personal salvation? Perhaps. But is it enough for a God-honouring, joyful, fulfilling, fruitful and fear-free Christian life? That I very much doubt. And what kind of Christian is one who is simply satisfied with securing their own passage to glory without showing any serious concern for the spiritual destiny of those around them?
Jesus desires growth
A careful reading of Matthew’s Gospel will show that the author deliberately highlights Jesus’s efforts to grow the faith of his disciples. Matthew shows that this lay at the very heart of the three-year training course in New Testament church planting that he himself had undertaken. For example, though the original name-calling is somewhat softened in our English translations, in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus repeatedly addresses his disciples as ‘little faiths’ (6.30; 8.26; 14.31; 16.8; 17.20). He is not insulting them, but is simply frustrated that they seem to be taking so long to possess and exercise the strong faith they are eventually going to require.
The mustard seed
Remember that Jesus was preparing his disciples to change the world and for that their faith needed to be strong! The same is true for us if we are ever to have the courage and expectation to attempt great things for the Lord.
But didn’t Jesus say that faith ‘as small as a mustard seed’ (Matthew 17.20) was enough? To understand Jesus’s exact meaning here, let’s look at the miracle where, following the disciples’ inability to do so, Jesus heals a demon-possessed boy. (You may want to pause to read it in Matthew 17.14–20, along with the parallel account in Mark 9.14–29.)
The story is all about faith: no faith, new faith, little faith and ‘mustard seed’ faith. First, Jesus laments that the whole generation of Jews he lived among was ‘unbelieving and perverse’ (Matthew 17.17). Then, when the unfortunate boy’s father says to Jesus, ‘if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us’ (Mark 9.22), Jesus is astonished and infuriated. ‘“If you can”?’ says Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for him who believes’ (Mark 9.23). At this point the man famously exclaims, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’ (Mark 9.24) and Jesus heals his son.
When the disciples later ask him why they couldn’t drive out the demon, Jesus typically tells them it is because of their ‘little faith’ (Matthew 17.20). And, he adds, what they need instead is ‘faith like a mustard seed’. Jesus had used this same image earlier when describing the explosive power of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13.31–32). Like the mustard seed, the kingdom of heaven starts small but grows exponentially.
Similarly, what the disciples needed was not their totally inadequate ‘little faith’ but ‘faith like a mustard seed’, which would grow until it could accomplish the seemingly impossible. (When some translations, including the NIV, add the interpretation ‘as small as a mustard seed’ in Matthew 17.20, my italics, they render its meaning impenetrable. Jesus is self-evidently not saying that his disciples needed to replace their ‘little’ faith with a faith that was ‘small’ ...)
If ‘little faith’ were enough to overcome the fear that paralyses our Christian life and service, then Jesus would not have constantly told the apostles in no uncertain terms that it was not. Nor would they have asked him on at least one occasion to increase their faith. (See if you can guess Jesus’s answer to that request before looking it up in Luke 17.5–6!)
Nurture and exercise faith
So, let us not be content with the crippling results of a fearful, little faith. The living faith we first received when Christ saved us was, like a seed, designed to grow and bear fruit. Though God alone gives the growth, we are called to nurture and exercise this precious gift. That way he is glorified and we are blessed: ‘For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (2 Peter 1.5–8).
