Millstones and Mustard Seeds (Luke 17:1-10)

In Luke 17 Jesus continues speaking to His disciples, offering them warnings about what they would face in the future. He speaks of stumbling blocks and offers the disciples an image of a millstone being hung around an offending person’s neck for the purpose of drowning him in the sea saying that is more desirable than being one who causes a believer to stumble in his/her faith.

Millstones come in pairs—one stone serves as the base and has grooves in it to channel the milled product away from the center. The second stone sits on top and grinds as it turns using the friction of the bottom stone to grind the grain. A single millstone can weigh as little as a hundred pounds or upwards of three thousand. Jesus telling His disciples that it would be better to put one of these stones around the neck and be drowned rather than being offenders in this case seems hyperbolic, but it does make the point strongly about the seriousness of the magnitude of being in the position of causing any believer to stumble in their walk. This instruction comes as Jesus nears Jerusalem and will soon be leaving His kingdom in His disciples’ hands as they begin the process of evangelizing the world with the Sprit's help, of turning it upside down. This is truly a “heavy” discussion Jesus has with His followers and leaves behind for us. It is worthy of much consideration.

Immediately following the caution about the millstone, Jesus says, “Be on your guard!” (V. 3). Not only should His followers be upright in their own walks, but they also must be careful not to ignore the inevitable sin in their brothers’ lives. Instead Jesus tells them to rebuke the sinner and offer forgiveness if he repents. The catch is that Jesus says to work through this process as many times as it takes, extending grace where there is repentance. The disciples recognize these teachings as difficult instruction and ask for more faith that they might succeed. “This is hard stuff, Lord. Help us!” 

So . . . we are to take from this the same lessons:

1. Walk in an upright manner at all times so that we won’t cause others to stumble who on their way to Christ (or new believers).
2. Understand that offense will come and will grind against us, but we are to trust God with the offenses, even if they crush us as grain because it will produce fruit in us and bring Him glory.
3. Rebuke believers who are sinning against us instead of leaving them to steep in their sins and resenting them for it.
4. Forgive believers who are struggling in their faith and walk as many times as they repent and ask for our forgiveness. 

Jesus immediately responds to His disciples' requests for more faith by presenting them with a picture of a mustard seed. He goes from the heavy weight of responsibility on the necks of the disciples to the smallest seed known to man at the time, which would’ve been about 1.0 mm (now it’s some microscopic jewel orchid seed in the tropical rainforests).  

The mustard seed is super tiny in comparison with the millstone just mentioned. So why the comparison? Jesus tells them if they only had faith the size of a mustard seed, they could tell a tree to uproot itself and go plant itself in the sea and it would obey. Hmmm. The sea again, too. (We will get to that in a minute.)

Then Jesus talks about slaves and them doing what was expected of them instead of absurd alternatives if one had a slave. They, too, being bondslaves of Christ, would naturally do the things Christ commanded of them instead of expecting Him to serve them. He instructs them in obedience and humility instead of giving them more faith.

Maybe there are some lessons we could take from this:

1. We are to exercise the faith we have instead of always longing to have more so that we can then act.
2. We are to expect the impossible to be possible with Christ—think the mountain of forgiveness it takes to extend the kind of grace and forgiveness Jesus has just been speaking of to His disciples. We tend to think literal mountains, but is not forgiveness one of the hardest things people universally struggle with? I hear people speak often of the impossibility of forgiving those who have greatly offended them instead of relying on the faith already given them to do so. 
3. It is His power that moves mountains, not mine.
4. We are expected to be humble when the mountain moves, and move it will when we exercise even the smallest grain of faith in forgiving one another as we have been commanded to do by Christ. “We are just unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done” (v. 10). 

The Anglican poet George Herbert said this about forgiveness: “He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass” (W. Wiersbe, Be Courageous, p. 61). We, too, might need forgiveness from that person at some point in the future, so it is wise to offer the same.

This world, this life, will involve pain inflicted on us by others who have offended, but Christ has already paid the price for that pain; who are we to withhold the forgiveness already paid for by His blood shed for us? We, too, are offenders whom He forgave while we were still sinners. We, too, are offenders He died for to ensure we are able to receive forgiveness from His father. 

Will I exercise mustard seed faith or choose to wear a millstone around my neck? Will the sea be one that extends before the throne or God in heaven eternally or will the sea be one in which I drown because I chose to walk in offense, an enemy of God who causes others to stumble in their faith. Will I walk in pride with a stiff neck refusing to forgive or will I wear the humility of a lowly slave and obey the commands of the One who gave Himself for me even though I wasn’t worthy, for the One who descended to serve His own creation? The choices are mine and yours and everyone who has ever lived or will ever live. All of us have the option to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk in humility before our God (Micah 6:8). The question is, will we?