And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. (Luke 17: 6)
“…Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20)
I’ve always been a little confused by the idea that having faith like a grain of a mustard seed can pluck up trees or move mountains. I’ve never felt like I had the ability to ask something so profound of God’s creation and for them to obey me. And yet, I’ve always thought that I had faith, certainly enough to compare to the size of a mustard seed, right? I mean, mustard seeds are tiny. When they are described as grains of mustard seeds, that’s very accurate. They are barely bigger than a grain of salt or a grain of sand. That’s tiny. Surely I have at least that amount of faith. So then, where is my ability to tell a mountain to move and have it be done?
Then I realized something. These verses don’t talk about having faith the size of a mustard seed. They talk of having faith as a mustard seed. Wait, seeds have faith? That took some pondering. So, let’s think it through.
What does a seed want to do? It wants to sprout.
What are the conditions in which it needs to sprout? It is buried in the wet earth, in the dark.
How long can a sprout survive without sunlight? Not long.
So, if you are a seed—not just a seed, but a tiny mustard seed—and you are planted in the ground, with only a finite amount of energy inside of you, would it be intimidating to sprout? How much faith would it take to break out of your shell (essentially destroying yourself), knowing that you would be surrounded by darkness. How much faith would be required for you to reach upwards in the hopes that the tiny amount of energy contained inside of you would allow you to break through the surface and find sunlight? Because if you run out of energy and stop growing before you reach the surface, you will perish. It is imperative that you reach the light.
Makes a little more sense, doesn’t it? Having faith the size of a mustard seed isn’t going to endow us with the power to move mountains. What we need is faith like a mustard seed—the faith that if we do everything within our power to reach upwards toward the light, that we will be received into that light and empowered by it.
“And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” ( Alma 32:21 )
When a seed sprouts, it must have a hope that the sunlight required to nourish it is there, even though it cannot see it, because the truth is that it is there. We have been planted here on this earth, separated from the light of God. We have been given the tools that we need to sprout and reach upwards to reconnect with God, but it will take everything within us.
“Let us here observe that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.” (Lectures on Faith. Lecture Fifth, paragraph 6)
We can’t stay safe and warm inside our shell if we hope to return to our Lord. We must have the faith to seek God’s face. Even if we have to give up everything—our time, our talents, our job, our social standing, our good name—and give our will over to the Lord.
If we are willing to do that, then the Lord will embrace us in light and glory. And that is worth everything.