In this play, we hear more problematic words from Jesus, only this time, instead of highlighting the contradiction or illogic or discrepancy, I try my best to explain it away! Why? Well, I suppose I’ve been getting a little tired of doing the usual thing.
The problem in this reading is not the assertion that with faith just the size of a mustard seed a person could command a tree to be uprooted and cast into the sea (though I do have some fun with that) but the connection between it and the parable of that Jesus follows it up with. I for one can’t figure out what the connection might be. The parable seems totally unrelated to the subject at hand.
Of course, we’re in a section of Luke in which the parables and sayings come one after another without a lot happening in between, so it could be that these are just two genuinely unrelated passages combined erroneously by the organizers of the lectionary. They don’t sound like it, however. The flow of the writing really does suggest they were part of the same conversation. (And there’s usually at least some small narrative bridge separating distinct scenes.) So, I decided to try imagining a context in which they would work naturally together, and boy, was I glad I did, because the connecting idea I ended up stumbling on was the theme of Jesus’ impending death that has run all through these plays.
That theme brings a poignancy to the play. The time for performing wonders is over; it’s time for Jesus to die. And so he tries to pound that lesson home to his disciples by showing that he himself can’t move the tree, and then he tells a parable that emphasizes the need to buckle down to do your duty rather than imagining the grandiose inversions of the social order that the disciples thought the Day would bring.
Well, as imaginatively satisfying as my version of the scene might be, I do think it’s pretty far fetched. I really enjoyed traveling as far as I did to do the fetching, though!