Several Sayings of Jesus

81. Several Sayings of Jesus

Have faith in God. All things are possible to him that believeth. If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea; and it would have obeyed you.

“Have faith in God.” What is faith? What is God? These are two huge questions that need to be explored before we can reasonably attempt to understand this saying.

Earlier we discussed faith as looking forward to a positive outcome, based on experience. Should we have faith that we can jump off a cliff and fly like a bird? Of course not. Nothing in our experience would justify such a belief. That is not faith. That is ignorance.

Someone once said that faith is not sitting on a chair that is not there; faith is the nobler of two hypotheses.

And what is God? In our exploration we have used God to mean ultimate Reality. The proposition here is that there is an objective reality (of which we are part) and that it is, at least to some extent, discoverable and knowable.

So is Jesus simply saying, have faith in Reality? Have faith in a process, a set of discoverable laws, that when obeyed can be used to accomplish wondrous things?

Perhaps what Jesus meant would be clearer if he had put it this way:

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto this man, Be thou lifted up, and be thou set down on the surface of the moon; and he would have obeyed you.

And his name would be Neil Armstrong.

A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Even so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father.

This saying seems at odds with earlier teachings about doing things in secret so that our Father, who seeth in secret, can recompense us. One possible explanation is that Jesus is making a slightly different point, one more related to his teaching about not hiding your light under a bushel. If you have discovered something of value, share it, so that others may reap the same benefits.

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. Freely ye received, freely give.

People frequently report that when they do things for others, they invariably get more out of the experience than those who are the recipients of the giving. (Our saying that “it is better to give than to receive” is probably a reflection of this fundamental truth.) Often, the act of giving fills us with a sense of connection and gratitude that we do not get any other way.

Of course, given that all life is one, interconnected whole, this makes perfect sense. When we give to others, we are giving to a whole system that includes ourselves. So we are both the giver and the recipient. It can be no other way.

The condition, however, is that the giving be free – no attachments, no expectations of response, no desire for reciprocity. Freely ye received, freely give.

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.

This teaching is often interpreted as Jesus acknowledging his own Godhood. It stands in stark contrast to his other teachings, which are all remarkably lacking in self-reference. Because of this, Sharman did not believe this teaching was authentic. We each can draw our own conclusion