In Luke 17 Jesus describes the nature of a community of His followers.
In some ways it is a very realistic portrayal of the reality of human society.
- People will cause each other to ‘stumble’, that is, to fall short of the calling of a follower of Jesus, to behave in inappropriate ways.
- People will offend each other and fall out.
None of this is a surprise to anyone who has lived with other people in a tight-knit group.
What does come as a surprise is what Jesus says next.
- That those who cause other people to stumble in their faith are in serious spiritual trouble, akin to mortal danger.
- That offenses committed within the community of Jesus’ followers are to be forgiven in an unlimited way.
The Apostles are staggered at the difficulty of this calling.
As they honestly examine themselves, they are most acutely aware that they are not the kind of people who are capable of either not causing others to stumble, or of being able to forgive offenses in an unlimited way.
Their shocked response to Jesus’ description of the demands of this impossible community, is to ask that they might be given more faith,
‘Increase our faith!’
Jesus turns things around and states that any real faith can accomplish the impossible,
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
The image is significant. The Black Mulberry (Morus Nigra) is a tree that has exceptionally deep roots. The roots under the ground are as thick as the branches above. It is therefore an image of steadfastness, immovability.
This is related to a similar saying of Jesus in Matt 17:20, where Jesus talks about ‘casting mountains into the sea’.
One of the titles of honour given to great Rabbis was ‘Uprooter of Mountains’ i.e. those who can remove great difficulties.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Life Together – a book about the reality of Christian community – about the fact that,
Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize;
it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.
The great difference in Christian community is that whilst human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ’s sake.
Dietrich BONHOEFFER was under no illusions as to the difficulty of living in Christian community. He came up with 7 ministries that he felt were essential if we were to create Christian community approximating to the ideal that Jesus sets out.
You might want to consider these ministries.
The 7 Ministries of Community
The Ministry of Holding one’s Tongue –
Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words.
Thus it must be a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that each individual is prohibited from saying much that occurs to him.
The Ministry of Meekness –
Only he who lives by the forgiveness of his sin in Jesus Christ will rightly think little of himself.
Brotherly love will find any number of extenuations for the sins of others; only for my sin is there no apology whatsoever. Therefore my sin is the worst.
The Ministry of Listening –
The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them.
Just as love for God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them.
The Ministry of Helpfulness –
This means, initially, simple assistance in trifling, external matters.
One who worries about the loss of time that such petty, outward acts of helpfulness entail is usually taking the importance of his own career too solemnly.
The Ministry of Bearing –
The Christian must bear the burden of a brother. He must suffer and endure the brother.
The service of forgiveness is rendered by one to the others daily. It occurs, without words, in the intercessions for one another. And every member of the fellowship, who does not grow weary in this ministry, can depend upon it that this service is also being rendered him by the brethren.
The Ministry of Proclaiming-
Where Christians live together the time must inevitably come when in some crisis one person will have to declare God’s Word and will to another.
The basis upon which Christians can speak to one another is that each knows the other as a sinner, who, with all his human dignity, is lonely and lost if he is not given help.
The Ministry of Authority –
Jesus made authority in the fellowship dependent upon brotherly service.
Genuine spiritual authority is to be found only where the ministry of hearing, helping, bearing, and proclaiming is carried out.
(from Dietrich BONHOEFFER, Life Together, London: SCM Press, 1954)
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