<p>17:20&nbsp;<em>And he said to them: Because of your little faith-&nbsp;</em>See on :19&nbsp;<em>Why could we not</em>. &ldquo;Ye of little faith&rdquo; (Lk. 12:22,28); they had &ldquo;no faith&rdquo; (Mk. 4:40). &ldquo;Where is your faith?&rdquo; (Lk. 8:25). They asked for their faith to be increased (Lk. 17:5). Luke records that the Centurion had more faith than the disciples (Lk. 7:9). The Gospel writers were very self-critical regarding their own faith in the message they were now preaching. They openly admit that they didn&rsquo;t have enough faith to cure the sick boy. Jesus told them this: it was &ldquo;because of your little faith&hellip;if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove&hellip;&rdquo; (Mt. 17:20 RV). Think carefully what is going on here. They had not even faith as a tiny grain of mustard seed; they didn&rsquo;t have the faith to cure the boy. But Jesus says they did have &ldquo;little faith&rdquo;. He recognized what insignificant faith they did have. He was so sensitive to the amount of faith in someone, even if it was insignificant in the final analysis. We likewise need to be able to positively and eagerly discern faith in those we preach to and seek to spiritually develop. In a similar kind of way, God was disappointed that His people had not only been disobedient to&nbsp;<em>Him,</em> but they had not even been obedient to their conquerors (Ez. 5:7). He so values obedience, and had an attitude that sought to see if they would show it to at least someone, even if they had rejected&nbsp;<em>Him</em>.</p>
<p><em>&nbsp;For truly I say to you: If you have faith as small as a mustard seed</em>- This calls for obvious connection to the Lord's earlier likening of the Gospel of the Kingdom to a grain of mustard seed which then grows into a great tree (13:31; Lk. 13:19). The Lord then had been explaining that although the disciples' faith was small, and His plans for the Kingdom had tiny, almost invisible beginnings in that group of disciples, yet they would grow into the Kingdom. But now, in the heat of this disappointed moment, the Lord feels that the disciples don't even have such beginnings. In this frustration and deep disappointment we have yet another window into the Lord's utter humanity.</p>
<p><em>You shall say to this mountain-&nbsp;</em>Just a very small amount of real faith during this life will enable us to move &quot;this mountain&quot;, perhaps referring to Mount Zion. The idea of Mount Zion being moved sends the mind to Zech. 14:4,5, describing how Mount Zion will be moved at the Lord's return; and also to Ps. 125:1, which speaks of how they who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be removed; and yet Christ said we&nbsp;<em>will</em> remove it by prayer. The point of these allusions is surely to show that real faith will bring about the coming of the Kingdom, which is a totally super-human achievement; the unshakeableness of Mount Zion is likened to the solidity of true faith. The Lord's point seems to be that if we truly believe, then the coming of the Kingdom will be brought about by our faith; the outcome of our faith in this life will be seen in the Kingdom. But what our faith will achieve in the Kingdom will be hugely out of proportion to what it really is now. But there is another way to read Mt. 17:20:&nbsp; &quot;If ye have (now) faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall (in the Kingdom) say to this mountain (of Zion), Remove hence...&quot;; as if in the Kingdom we will be control of the physical world as the Lord was even in His mortality. In this case, His commanding of the sea and waves will be shared by us in the Kingdom; not just sea and waves, but mountains too (Mt. 8:27).</p>
<p>But the Lord spoke these words at the foot of the mount of transfiguration, and the more comfortable interpretation would be to think of Him saying these words with a nod towards the mountain from which He had just come down. Real faith would enable that Kingdom experience to be replicated anywhere. The vision of the Kingdom which had been seen there could be moved anywhere- by faith. There was maybe another gentle encouragement for them to think in terms of God&rsquo;s Kingdom as not being geographically limited, but capable of removal to the Gentiles, if they had faith. The Lord uses similar words after cursing the fig tree, symbolic of Israel and God&rsquo;s ultimate destruction of her: &ldquo;If you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if you shall say to this mountain: Be taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done&rdquo; (Mt. 21:21). In that passage, the mountain is almost certainly a reference to Mount Zion. The sea was symbolic of the Gentile world, and so the Lord would be developing His teaching which began here at the mount of transfiguration- the things of the Kingdom, centred as they then were in the mountains of Israel, could be moved to the Gentile world by faith.</p>
<p><em>Move from here to there, and it will move</em>- Ps. 46:2 was perhaps in the Lord&rsquo;s mind: &ldquo;Therefore we won&rsquo;t be afraid though the earth shakes, though the mountains are moved into the heart of the seas&rdquo;. In this case, the Lord would be suggesting that if we have real faith, we will not fear the results of that faith. We will not fear mountains being cast into the sea; and it is fear which holds us back from faith, we unconsciously fear the answer we apparently seek in prayer.</p>
<p><em>Nothing shall be impossible for you-&nbsp;</em>With&nbsp;<em>God</em>&nbsp;nothing is impossible (Lk. 1:37- the only other occurrence of the word in the NT), but here nothing is impossible&nbsp;<em>unto us</em>. God&rsquo;s possibility is our possibility; and this is what the Lord was teaching the man who thought that it all depended upon the Lord&rsquo;s possibility alone. There are other instances where the extent and nature of the Lord's healing seems to have been limited by the faith of the recipient (Mt. 8:13 &quot;as... so&quot;; 9:29 &quot;according to&quot;; 12:22 &quot;inasmuch&quot;).</p>