Why 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

Up to this point in Matthew, Jesus has admonished the disciples for their lack of faith several times.  He has been surprised by people's faith, and he has been surprised by people's lack of faith.  But what is faith? Is it measurable? Why does God put so much value on it?

It's no accident that Jesus uses a mustard seed as a metaphor for faith.  A seed, no matter the size, contains all the nutrients and DNA it needs to become a tree.  It is activated by sunlight, warmth and moisture.  With that activation the seed exerts the energy it needs to break open, push above the soil and sprout.  But without the exertion from within, there can be no tree.  In the same way, His presence and love are the activation.  And the faith that we exert within us is a deliberate act of demonstrating trust in, even pulling on the Father. The two forces act together in a miraculous transformation, and fruit is born in and through us.  Without faith, then, there is simply no fruit.

It's a foundational principal of the way things have been designed in the fabric of the Kingdom.  As fundamental as gravity, our faith is integral to overcoming the soil of this presence reality.  Ever since the first mortal disobedience, we have heaped upon ourselves countless lies.  And these lives have propagated perversion, internal wounding and disease.  But now the Kingdom of the Son has dawned on the world.  Our faith must breach through this darkness to manifest His life-giving power on a desert of death.

is Faith, then, the undoing of all these lies
spun through ages by time’s tragic toil
and our own vain deception?

be then, my vision, to breach that wicked wall
and lay waste, stone by stone
with each strike of that fell hammer!

His blood is precious and all too powerful
to let it flow to forgotten trenches
lean on this mighty river
and let the truth in!

From Father to Sons

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

Matthew 17:5

Why did the Father repeat Himself? He had already said it after Jesus was baptized in Matthew 3:15. Why did this event happen at all?  This appearing of Moses and Elijah. This bright cloud that covered them all.  This amazing event that dropped these three to their faces.  Was it about Jesus? Was it to demonstrate that He was in good company with the greatest of prophets, even Moses and Elijah?

Ultimately, as with any other being-stretching event, it always does wind up to be about the Son of God.  It all points to Him in the end.  Which is likely why Moses and Elijah were present and not Abraham or Jacob.  For they were the ones who pointed directly to Jesus, even from the Old Testament.  Moses, who stated that one would come who was greater than he (Deuteronomy 18:15-22).  And Elijah, whom Micah stated would be the one who would come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (Micah 4:5-6)

But in all these things, the Father also has an agenda of intentions toward us.  In this case, His intention was to baptize them in His glory and thereby to unveil to them - for a brief moment - the full reality of who Jesus is.  Much as Jesus was baptized in a commissioning of sorts in Matthew 3, this was a commissioning of these disciples.  A commissioning and a charge to listen to Jesus and to take this revelation (in due time) to the people.

There are times when fathers will take their children to a special place and reveal to them amazing things - from father to daughter or son - so that the secret will be infused into them and carried on to the next generation.  Such is the case when Jesus was transfigured on the high place.

When was this commission unveiled to you?  Is it still as real to you now as it was that day?  Maybe it has yet to occur.  Wait for it, and savor every minute!