A Feast of Faith

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5, NKJV).

Jesus answered his disciples’ request for faith in this way: “And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat?’ But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink?’... So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do’” (Luke 17:7-8, 10).

Christ is speaking here of us, his servants, and of God, our master. He is telling us we are to feed God. Now, you may wonder, “What kind of food are we supposed to bring to the Lord? What satisfies his hunger? How can we do this?”

The Bible tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). Simply put, God’s most delectable dish is faith. That’s the food that pleases him.

We see this illustrated throughout Scripture. When a centurion asked Jesus to heal his sick servant by merely speaking a word, Christ feasted on the man’s vibrant faith. He replied, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Matthew 8:10). 

Jesus was saying, “Here’s a Gentile, an outsider, who’s feeding my spirit. What a nourishing meal this man’s faith is giving me.”

When the woman with the issue of blood (see Luke 8:43-48) pressed through the crowd and touched Jesus’s garment in faith, he immediately recognized her faith, and she was healed. Her faith pleased him.

I notice in Jesus’s words in Luke 17:8 a blunt statement: “Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink?” In essence, he is saying, “You don’t eat first, I do.” In other words, we are not to consume our faith in our own interests and needs. Rather, our faith is meant to satisfy our Lord’s hunger.