Luke 17:3-6, 9-10 NIV “So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “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….. Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’  https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.17.3-10.NIV

Everyone struggles with having mountain-moving faith. Most of us leave it to the false teachers on television who claim to have such power while their wealthy lifestyles serve as proof. Perhaps Jesus was being sarcastic, not promising us the power to uproot trees and cast them into the sea. What would be the purpose of that for the kingdom of God anyway? Jesus commands us to forgive as God forgives us. God forgives all our sins every day, all of them. They are more than seven times seven. It is human nature not to forgive, to harbor bitterness and revenge against others who we deem to have wronged us. The Apostles, like us, lived this way. God is now here to forgive all of the sins of all humanity who repent. The people of God whose sins have all been forgiven are to forgive as God has forgiven us. This does not require great faith, like moving a mulberry tree into the ocean, but obedience to God’s will, like a servant simply doing their duty. We can forgive others, and we must forgive others. Not to be determined by our faith but by our love for God and our gratefulness for His forgiveness of us. We can treat people as though they have never sinned against us if we choose to do so because God treats us as though we have never sinned against Him through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus is not challenging us to have mountain-moving faith. He is rebuking us for thinking such faith is necessary for obeying God’s simple and clear command to forgive as we have been forgiven. We are servants of God here to reveal the ways of God and share the will of God through the proclamation of the word of God. To please God, we need faith in Him and His work accomplished for us, certainly. However, what God is really requiring of us is obedience as servants of God, not Herculean faith to do the unnecessary or irrelevant.