In general, we should keep our word. The word is a powerful thing to have given. Remember that it is by the power of the word that the Lord creates the heavens and the earth.

Jesus teaches us to let our yes be yes and our no be no. Anything more, he says, is from the evil one (Matthew 5:37). James teaches us not to swear an oath, any oath at all, either by heaven or by earth (James 5:12). We are to be careful with what we say.

So then, what is to become of us if we have sworn an oath that we should not have? It is not uncommon for us to speak when we should be silent or say what we do not really mean. Is our word to mean nothing in such a case? Yes. Nothing.

Our words have meaning only to the extent they are aligned with the word of the Lord.

Any word we speak which goes against the word of the Lord is utterly empty and void of all meaning and power.

We are not the creators of truth or meaning. We are not creators at all in the true sense of creation out of nothing. We co-create or sub-create to the extent we live in Christ and are one with God by his grace. To that extent, we are instruments of God’s creative energy.

But what folly it is to try to give substance to any thing or purpose that is against God’s will!

This is what Herod does today.

Herod promises Salome anything up to half his kingdom as a reward for her sensual dancing (Mark 6:22-23). The lusts of men cloud their ability to see things as they truly are.

So Herod gives his word, but it is an empty word that ought not to be followed through upon. Especially when Salome reveals her mother’s designs, Herod ought to break his word. Yes, it is better to break our word than to break the word of the Lord.

But, in his cowardly fear of others’ thoughts, and knowing full well the wrongness of it, Herod follows through on his own word and disregards the word of the Lord: “You shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13). He not only kills, but kills the one who speaks the word of the Lord in truth – the prophet of the Most High, the voice crying out in the wilderness, “prepare the way of the Lord” (Luke 1:76; Mark 1:3).

Notice too: Herod only promises up to half his kingdom. All who are there presume this easily includes the life of John, the Baptist and Forerunner of the Lord. But John is the greatest man born of woman (Matt 11:11; Luke 7:28). He is a greater man than Herod and his life is worth more than half of Herod’s kingdom by far. So, in breaking the word of the Lord, Herod even breaks the true meaning of his own words.

This is the way that it always is. Our sin is not only our vain attempt to go against or undo the word of the Lord, as if that were possible. It is also a vain attempt against our own selves. It is not in our true nature as God has created us to foolishly try to defy the Almighty. Yet, we seem to keep on trying….

The way for us to keep our word is for us to live according to the word of the Lord. We exist by the power of his word.

When we speak words in folly that go against the word of the Lord, these words have no authority or power, and we are not to try to follow them. Rather, let us – as soon as possible – spit on the foolish words we spit out in the midst of our anger or our lust. Let us disregard them, as they are without substance or purpose. Let’s repent of them

On the other hand, when we speak words that are in accord with the word of the Lord, they are as already given by the Lord. Let’s obey these with fervor. Our speaking of the words in these cases is a good step toward aligning our will with the will of God. This is how we ought to use our words, which God has given us: to take our place in the chorus of saints, ceaselessly praising the name of the Lord.

If you have faith like a mustard seed, you will move the mountain. And nothing will be impossible for you. (Matt 17:20).

Our faith should be like mustard seed.

A mustard seed is tiny, but its tininess is not the whole story. Remember, the littleness of the disciples’ faith is the reason they cannot move the mountain – that they cannot cast the demon out of the boy and heal him.

This, by the way, is what it means to move a mountain, in my opinion.[i] Most of us have a mountain in our lives that needs moving. It’s found most often deeply rooted in our hearts. And there’s usually a demon or two who planted it there and who try to keep it there.

If we had faith like a mustard seed, we would say to that mountain of passions or addiction; ill-will, resentments, or unforgiveness; selfishness and self-centeredness; gluttony, lust, and wickedness; unkindness, impatience, and failure to love – we would say to that mountain in our hearts, “move.”[ii] And it, with all its attendant demons would “be taken up and cast into the sea” (Matt 21:21), that is, into the abyss of hell,[iii]where all such inclinations and the demons that harbor them belong.

You know as well as I do, it would be easier to move a mountain in the literal sense. Butnothing will be impossible for us if we have faith like a mustard seed.

I do not say that we should have faith “the size” of a mustard seed. Some translations[iv] add a comment here about size, which does not appear in the Greek. Jesus does not say “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed.” He says, “If you have faith like or as (ὡς) a mustard seed.”

The tininess of the mustard seed is an important part of the power of the image, that’s true, and Jesus speaks about that in another place (Matt 13:32), but to overfocus on that attribute alone causes the image to lose its potency. If we think a little faith is enough because we hear our faith should be like mustard seed, we may have missed the point.

When we say to one another, “have a little faith,” I hope we don’t mean it in the sense that Jesus does when he tells his disciples that they fail to cast out the demon because of their “little faith” (Matt 17:20).

Size alone is not the point. It’s important that we’re speaking here of a grain of mustard and not a grain of sand. There’s a world of difference between the two – and the difference is life.

Jesus is not, I think, making a quantitative comparison between the littleness of the disciples’ faith and the size of the mustard seed, as if their faith was even smaller and they only need a bit more of it. Rather, I think he’s making a qualitative comparison between two tiny things. If your faith is so little, let it be little in the way that mustard seed is little – not like a grain of lifeless sand, but like a grain of living seed. It’s alright to have a little faith, as long as it’s little in the way that a mustard seed is little and not in the way that the disciples’ faith was little that day. The difference is life, growth, & potency.

St. Paul speaks of having “all faith so as to move mountains” (1 Cor 13:2). The kind of faith that moves mountains is not “little faith” but “all faith.” Faith that is like a mustard seed is total faith.[v] A mustard seed is tiny, but it contains the whole. It has the total mustard plant within it – a great shrub rather like a tree, “so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches” (Matt 13:32; cf. Luke 13:19).

Jesus also teaches that a mustard seed is like kingdom of heaven. So, let our faith be like the kingdom – small, maybe, but full of life and spirit and capable of growing to greatness.

How can a mustard seed move a mountain? Only because it can do something a mountain cannot do: it can grow. It is alive and not lifeless rock. And life always wins. Patient growth has the power to reshape the whole earth.

If we have a living, growing faith, we can trust that that mountain within us that needs to move will move. We can see it begin to erode, in fact – its stones broken by the growing roots of our faith, weakening to rubble the mountain that seemed immovable and preparing it to be swept away by grace.

In the meantime, if our faith is little in the way that shouldn’t be, how are we to transform our faith into the faith that is like a mustard seed? One way is by the prayer and fasting that today Jesus says is necessary to cast out this kind of demon (Matt 17:21). Such is necessary because, through these means, God transforms our faith from some dry and lifeless assent to propositions into a living seed of the word within us, that grows and grows, like life in a womb.

A mustard seed is an embryonic mustard plant. The kingdom of heaven is like an embryo. An embryo can grow to become a king. Growth is key. Life is that which grows. If we stop growing, we’re dead. Eternal life is eternal growth. Let us grow ever closer to the infinite Lord for all eternity, and let us begin to grow today.

 

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[i] “The mountains here spoken of, in my opin­ion, are the hostile powers that have their being in a flood of great wickedness, such as are set­tled down, so to speak, in some souls of various people.” Origen, com­mentary on matthew 13.7.

[ii] “If they had had this faith within them, they would have been like the grain of mustard seed. By the power of the Word they would have thrown out this burden of sins and the heavy mass of their unbelief. They would have transferred it, like a mountain into the sea.” hilary of poitiers. on matthew 17.8.

[iii] “Then such a man will say to this mountain—I mean in this case the deaf and dumb spirit in him who is said to be epileptic— “Move from here to another place.” It will move. This means it will move from the suffering per­son to the abyss.” Origen, com­mentary on matthew 13.7.

[iv] e.g. NIV and NAB

[v] “When someone has total faith…, then he has all faith like a grain of mus­tard seed” Origen, com­mentary on matthew 13.7.

Jesus was a man among the people. He is God become man and come to save us. And so he dwelt among us – he spent time among us – he was present to us. This is an important model of ministry – but every bit as important is something that he does today.

After much time among the people – teaching, preaching, and feeding the five thousand – Jesus dismisses the crowds (Matt 14:13-22). He dismisses them and goes by himself up the mountain to pray (14:23). He even sends away his closest disciples – telling them to go before him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. There is much to learn from this, I believe.

Some of us like to be always among people – or at least among friends. These extroverts are inspired and energized by the company of others. And they quickly get lonely and long for companionship if left alone. Others of us prefer to be alone. More introverted, these find energy and inspiration in times of solitude. And they are emotionally drained by being too much around people.

But whether we’re introverted or extroverted, and whether we consequently seek God more readily in silence or in our neighbors, I think we must learn from Jesus the need for both of these aspects of our lives. He teaches us that when we pray, we ought to go into our inner chamber, shut the door, and pray in secret so as not to make a show of our prayer (Matt 6:5-6). He also teaches us that whatsoever we do to the least of his brethren that we do unto him (Matt 25:40, 45), which means that serving others, attending to their needs, and spending time with them is also a means of prayer – of communing with Christ our God. And Jesus models both of these behaviors himself – both ministering to the people and taking his leave of them to spend time in undistracted prayer with his father.

I believe it is important for us to imitate Christ in both of these ways.

Even if we prefer to be alone, we should also devote some of our time to working out God’s mercies among his people – feeding the hungry, consoling those who grieve, visiting the sick, defending the faith, and in all those countless ways God has given us to love one another – face to face and heart to heart with one another – with the image of God in each other person.

And, on the other hand, times of solitude with God are also essential, even if we prefer the company of the crowd or our friends and even if we get uneasy when we’re alone – when anxieties soar & restless thoughts and passions disturb us – even waking us up in the middle of the night.

My mother used to say that, if you wake up in the middle of the night, it is because the Lord wants you to pray. The middle of the night can be a good time to be alone with God. My father therefore, who woke in the middle of most nights with anxiety, would pray, “What are you doing, Lord, waking me up in the middle of the night?”

The Lord’s purposes are not always discernable to us and it is good, I believe, to be frank with him.

Sometimes, he just wants to be with us.

I once heard a story of a young man who, after some time away, returned to his father’s house to borrow some money. His father greeted him joyfully and quickly agreed to give him the desired sum. ‘But first,” he said, “come in and sit with me and talk for a while.” And so the son came in and they went to the sitting room and sat and spoke with each other for a while. After some time had passed, the son again brought up the question of the money. The father said, “Yes, yes, of course, but now it’s time for dinner. First, let us eat together.” And so the son agrees and they go into dinner together and they eat and drink and talk. And after dinner, the father suggests that it is getting late and that perhaps the son would like to stay for the night. At this point, the son becomes irritated with his father and says, “why do you keep delaying? Why don’t you give me the money as you agreed?” The father answers, “My son, of course I will give you the money and whatever else you desire, but I love you and it has been so good to see you and to be with you, and I don’t want you to go.”

Sometimes God just wants to be with us. Don’t go to the Lord our Father only when you need something, but make time every day simply to be with him – to dwell consciously in his loving presence.

There is nothing more intimate than this time alone with God. You will never see an icon of Jesus praying alone on the mountain. There are many modern paintings of this theme, but no icons, as far as I have seen. How can we depict Jesus alone with his father? It is a scene of unutterable intimacy, not to be looked at. The same is true of your time alone with God.

Even if it is difficult for us, we must devote some time daily, I believe, to being alone with God. We must find some moment of silence in which the still small voice of the Lord may be heard over the din of the thousands and millions and billions of distractions that vie for our attention, especially in our ever noisier technological world with the endless beeping of our “distraction machines”[i] which call for attention and away from attending to the one thing that matters – to the voice of God, which, came to Elias upon the mountain not in the wind, and not in the earthquake, and not in the fire, but as a still small voice (1Kings 19:11-12).

To hear this voice, both Elias and Jesus went up the mountain alone to pray. The Lord wishes to speak to each of us also and we too must seek a quiet place if we are to hear him. I assure you, if Jesus and Elias need to do this, we need to do this as well. None of us are above this need.

“For what purpose does [Jesus] go up … the mountain?” St. John Chrysostom asks. “To teach us that solitude and seclusion are good, when we are to pray to God.… We find [Jesus] continually withdrawing into the wilderness. There he often spends the whole night in prayer. This teaches us earnestly to seek such quietness in our prayers as the time and place may afford. For the wilderness is the mother of silence; it is a calm and a harbor, delivering us from all turmoil.”[ii]

Speaking of turmoil, what is happening while Jesus is alone praying on the mountain? All night, his disciples row against the wind in toil and turmoil in the sea (Matt 14:24). Then, in the fourth watch of the night – that is, just before dawn – Christ returns from his time alone with his father and he walks on the stormy water to his disciples (14:25).

I don’t think his walking on water is unrelated to his time alone with his father on the mountain. The mountain is like heaven and the sea is like the world. We must spend some time on the mountain if we are to weather the storms of the sea – if we are to be able to rise above the waters of this life forever threatening to drown our faith, our hope, our love for God and one another in so much evil and emptiness. Only by going occasionally to the mountain to pray alone can we keep the faith needed to walk on water.

If Jesus needs periodically to pray alone, so much more do we need to do the same. To maintain connection to God in the midst of this sea of distraction and turmoil, to know inner peace even as strife rages all about us, seems impossible. It is like walking on the windswept water of the sea.

In Christ, all things are possible (cf. Matt 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37; Phil 4:13).

 

 

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[i] Tim Wu, “How Today’s Computers Weaken Our Brain,” The New Yorker

[ii] John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 50.1.”