The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
The disciples had gradually grown in faith in Jesus, not just in what Jesus could do in himself, but in what he could do through them. This aspect of faith had the same source as trust in the doctrine he taught. Both came down to the power of his person. But faith was not binary, not all or nothing. People expressed different degrees of belief in his doctrine. It was one thing, for instance, to believe that he was the messiah. It was another to trust him, without understanding, when he said he would give he flesh and blood as food and drink. So too was it a matter of degree with his power at work in the disciples. They were able to heal and cast out demons, having seen it done first by Jesus himself. But more difficult things might still require a greater degree of faith. What was more difficult for the mind to accept than such signs and wonders? It seemed that included in that category were the call to radical forgiveness and the humility required for servant leadership.
The request from the apostles to have their faith increased followed a speech by Jesus about avoiding sin and the necessity of repeated forgiveness. Perhaps, knowing their own hearts, the apostles realized that these things were not so easy to see and imitate as miracles. Healing and exorcism did not give the appearance of requiring radical conversion of heart. They appeared, in a word, external. But forgiveness and avoidance of sin, even if someone seemed to demonstrate them, nevertheless touched a place within that any honest man would have to concede was resistant to change. Forgiveness or the lack thereof didn't seem to be entirely within the conscious purview of the individual. Even the new knowledge that one ought to do it, or even that one was required to do it, might only lead to despair. It would, in the end, require great faith. No doubt this is why there have been many historical and recent accounts of Christian forgiveness that appear almost supernatural, both to outsiders, and even to us.
When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, 'We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'
In order to serve without growing in a sense of entitlement faith was necessary. Service that was at all rooted in the ego would automatically lead to people feeling that they had earned and now deserved some kind of reward. The ego was only capable of even attempting acts of service when it could justify it on the basis of predicted benefits. But we are asked to be servants of a God to whom we can offer no true benefit. He created us without consulting us first, and invites us to work in the fields of the Kingdom, not for his sake, but for our own. We are called to learn to become servants like Jesus who came to serve us in spite of the cost to himself and in spite of the fact that our own response of service to him could not provide anything he didn't already possess prior to the incarnation. We are called to be servants who don't need rewards so that we can more completely imitate the love of the one for whom rewards were not a possibility. If we know ourselves at all we recognize that service that is disentangled from ego to this degree is not naturally possible for us. But it is possible when we operate in faith.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
We did not receive merely some generic power, such that we could use to surpass or to dominate others. We received a power and a self-control that enable us to express supernatural love in imitation of Jesus himself. This gift enable us to conquer sin and unforgiveness in ourselves and live and persist in living as people not here to be served, but to serve. It is power to bear our "share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God".
As we can see from the disciples request for faith, it isn't automatic. We need to want it and dispose ourselves to receive it. The degree to which we are not doing so we are probably sliding backward toward complacency. Even Paul's own spiritual son Timothy could not be content to rest on his laurels. Neither, then, can we.
I remind you, to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
The Worship Initiative Featuring Aaron Williams - Heart Abandoned
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