"More Faith?"

He is reminding them that they are called to do their work – to lead little ones to faith and forgive habitually – and not expect gold stars, for they are only doing what people of faith do.

Luke 17:5-10

October 5, 2025

Dr. Todd R. Wright

Jesus has just told them that being a follower is more difficult than they had ever imagined. (And they had left behind family and friends and jobs.) It would mean not leading “little ones” to stumble and forgiving other disciples when they sin, even if it is seven times in one day!

It’s a lot … so you can see why they might wish for more faith. They’re feeling a quart low.

And yet, let’s be clear, faith is not really something that can be counted like pairs of shoes in your closet or measured like horsepower under the hood. Instead, it is more like a window through which you can see something. It doesn’t matter if the window is six inches high or six feet; what matters is the God your faith allows you to see.[i]

If it is the creator God who spun mountains out of nothing and painted the butterfly’s wing;

the saving God who brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt and sent his son into our midst;

the mysterious God who blows like the wind, wherever it will, and blesses with abandon;

then even the tiniest peephole will give you access to power greater than your wildest dreams! That is all the help you need!

---

You know this. The disciples probably did too.

After all, they had heard Jesus speak of faith countless times already.

Audrey West lists the variety of ways faith manifests in Luke’s gospel.[ii] It’s stunning!

“Faith is persistence in reaching out to Jesus (like the friends who lower the paralytic through the roof) and trusting in Jesus’ power and authority (like the Centurian asking that his servant be healed).

Faith is responding with love to forgiveness received (like the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears), not letting fear get the upper hand (like when Jesus calmed the storm), and being willing to take risks that challenge the status quo (like the hemorrhaging woman who dared to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment).

Faith is giving praise to God (like the healed leper who returned to thank Jesus), having confidence in God’s desire for justice (like the persistent widow), and being willing to ask Jesus for what we need (like the blind beggar who refused to be silenced).”[iii] Stunning!

But their problem was that they were thinking that more faith, heroic faith, is needed to meet the challenges of this world – like praying for a friend fighting cancer or trying to forgive a spouse who betrayed you; working for justice for the innocent or yearning for peace in a war-torn country.

Jesus says to his disciples (and to us), “Nonsense! You have all you need, because I am all you need. Trust me!”

---

It is a gritty moment of confrontation, or maybe encouragement, or just plain teaching.

Patrick Cabello Hansel nods his head and pens a poem about a barbershop:

“It was a small shop: one barber chair, one barber,

three magazines in front of the plate glass windows

The men who sat [waiting] worked at the plant, drove trucks, drilled a few teeth,

sold quality suits, used cars, and cuts of meat, painted houses … stole.

The sins dripped out of the stories they told like honey.

Transgressions were not erased as much as shaved down

by prayers mumbled in the back pew.

The hairs — like our sins — were not held against us

but swept away at the end of the day, the brown and red. [the] gold [and silver] alike.

We were not saved by the pain of our cutting, but by its graceful release.

All that was needed was faith — simple, humble, kind—like the seed of the mustard,

a blessing that drew the eye only towards the newly made face.”[iv]

Perhaps you know of such places – barbershops and bars, schools and playgrounds, coffee shops and churches – where theological words like faith and forgiveness, gratitude and grace take off their dress clothes and get to work.

---

And yet, Jesus senses his work-primed disciples are in danger of making a key mistake.

One scholar puts it this way: “lurking in the background, like a shadow, is the temptation to think that if I do pull it off, if I do exhibit this bigger, stronger, heroic faith, I will have demonstrated my worth, my heroic status.”[v]

That slippery ground causes Jesus to tell a parable of sorts.

Its point is muddied for our ears since it draws on the uncomfortable class dynamics of masters and servants and treats slavery as simply part of the social structure. We grimace.

His audience would not have blinked. They know they live in a broken world that has a long way to go to reflect the kingdom of God. But Jesus’ point was clear.

He is reminding them that they are called to do their work – to lead little ones to faith and forgive habitually – and not expect gold stars, for they are only doing what people of faith do.

One scholar imagines Jesus fleshing out his point by saying, “What I’m calling you to do doesn’t require an outsized faith. On the contrary, what I’m asking you to do — to share, and to forgive, and to love one another — is something much simpler and more practical. We’re just doing what human beings are born to do, children of God made in the image of God. It’s being who you truly are.”[vi]

So remember that on this special Sunday: all around the world, people from different backgrounds, who speak different languages, are united in this basic act of faith – we serve each other communion – humbly, faithfully, lovingly. We do it, because we have seen God. Amen.

[i] This image is from NT Wright, in Luke for Everyone, page 204

[ii] From his reflections on the text for workingpreacher.org, 10/2/16

[iii] See Luke 5:17-26 and 7:1-10; 7:44-50, 8:22-25, and 8:43-48; 17:11-19, 18:1-8, and 18:35-43

[iv] From his poem, “Cutting Away”

[v] From the SALT projects reflections on the text, 10/1/25

[vi] Ibid