Little Faith and Great Faith

My mom has a lovely habit of quoting from Scripture; I wonder if she got it from her dad who was a priest. There is one thing she will always say anytime I doubt her. Whether she’s getting an impossible pickle jar open or proving that her strange Scrabble word is real, she’ll say, “O ye of little faith!”

Have you ever noticed in reading Matthew’s Gospel that he keeps track of who Jesus says has great faith and who has little? In fact, there are only two people in Matthew’s Gospel who Jesus says have great faith – and both are Gentiles! One is the Roman Centurion with the paralyzed servant (Matthew 8:5-10). The other is the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter is oppressed by a demon (Matthew 15:21-28).

In contrast, there are five places where Jesus says His hearers have little faith and these are consistently Jewish hearers. In fact, it’s mainly His disciples who hear this from Jesus … the ones who are with Him every day:

“Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour of your life … you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:27-30, NIV)

“The disciples went and woke him, saying, ’Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!’ He replied, ’You of little faith, why are you so afraid?’” (Matthew 8:25-26, NIV)

“But when [Peter] saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ’Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ’You of little faith,’ he said, ’Why did you doubt?’” (Matthew 14:30-31, NIV)

“Jesus asked, ’You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?’” (Matthew 16:8-9, NIV)

Just like the disciples, we can know Christ and still live with worry, fear, doubt and even with a lack of spiritual understanding. We, too, can live day to day with little faith instead of great faith. Yet, what is it that Jesus calls us to consider in those moments? When we have little faith, Jesus wants us to cast our eyes upon Him, to consider His works, to consider His great power, His great authority and His great love ... and to trust Him.

Thankfully, Jesus’ last words about having little faith in Matthew’s Gospel are these in chapter 17: “’... you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” (Matthew 17:20, NIV)

O soul are you weary and troubled

No light in the darkness you see

There's light for a look at the Savior

And life more abundant and free

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in his wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of his glory and grace

“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” Helen Lemmel