Occasionally the Bible presents us with a puzzle. Matthew tells us the disciples couldn’t cast a demon out because of their “little faith” (Matt. 17:20). Then he adds something which appears to be a contradiction: “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed… nothing will be impossible for you.” But Jesus himself told us that the mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds on the earth. So first he says their problem was their small faith. Then he says you only need small faith to do the impossible.
The solution comes by interpreting the Greek word in Jesus’ answer. Their failure, he said, was due to their oligopistian. The last part of this word (pistian) means “faith” and the first part (oligo) usually means “little” or “small,” which is why it is often translated “on account of your small faith.” Could it be that “small” has another meaning than “small”? When we look at the Greek dictionaries, we find that it does! According to one dictionary, it can also mean “weak.” In another dictionary, we find a parallel phrase “to be of small soul,” where the meaning is to be of a weak or poor quality of soul. And that is exactly what it means here. Jesus is not criticizing their small quantity of faith, but rather their poor quality of faith. You can do anything with a small quantity of faith, but you can do little with a poor quality of faith. The father of the demonized boy involved in this situation had a small quantity (help my unbelief!) but a great quality (I believe).
So what did Jesus mean by “poor faith”? In the story, he tells the disciples they could not cast the demon out because “this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer” (Mk. 9:29). They had just come back from a phenomenally successful ministry trip. If faith is defined as mental certainty, they probably had it (along with a little pride). Yet they could do nothing about the demon. They had forgotten that Jesus’ success lay not in his ability to conduct miracles through some kind of mind over matter. His success came from one place only — the time he spent with his Father.
Real faith draws us back to our relationship with the Lord. That relationship, not what we’re thinking in our mind or how we’re feeling, defines our faith. Think about Peter. In the midst of the storm, he ventured out of the boat. Why? Not because he felt confident, but because he heard Jesus’ voice. But then he began to take his eyes off the Lord and look at the waves instead. And if Jesus had not reached out and grabbed him by the hand, he would have sunk.
All we need is a small amount of faith. But as long as our faith is rooted in a relationship with Jesus, any of us can do the impossible.
And that includes you.
