Matthew 17:20 Meaning

Jesus talks about the importance of faith repeatedly in the Gospel and the theme is echoed throughout the rest of the New Testament. According to the meaning of Matthew 17:20, very little faith is required to accomplish great things.

1) Who Wrote the Book of Matthew ?

The author of the book of Matthew is not identified in the book itself. Indeed, the name Matthew only appears six times in the NIV with the last appearance of the being in the book of Acts. Other Gospels term him “Levi”, with such multiple names being common at the time, sometimes nicknames, other times names earned for past actions.

Matthew may have had multiple names because, as a tax collector, he was an unpopular man in Jewish society. Alternatively, the other Gospels, likely written after Matthew, may have termed him “Levi” because of the extensive references to the Old Testament in his Gospel. While modern apostate scholars reject the attribution to Matthew, the early church universally accepted him as the author.

Such well-known fathers as Irenaeus and Origin both accept Matthew as the author of the book of Matthew.

Matthew the tax collector reveals in his Gospel that he is well acquainted with both Jewish society and the Law of God. He regularly cites both the Old Testament Law and the prophets to demonstrate that Jesus is the long-awaited King of the Jews. Further, he draws heavily on Jewish culture and tradition to relate to his audience.

The original audience for the book would likely have been Jewish, meaning it was likely the first Gospel written, probably before the initial outreach to the Gentiles that starts in Acts 10. One estimate is that Matthew was completed by AD 35 and Peter’s visit to Cornelius in Acts 10 occurred in AD 38.

Before that time, as is obvious by Peter’s interactions with Cornelius, the Church had primarily focused on the Jews, and Matthew’s Gospel is symptomatic of that.

2) What Does Matthew 17:20 Mean ?

"Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Matthew 17:20

To understand this passage, it is important to bring it into context :

The book of Matthew is written to a Jewish audience that is suffering under the weight of Roman tyranny. They are longing for a deliverer king, one who would crush the Romans, and give the Jews their freedom once more. Matthew’s work is intended to explain to the Jews that their king had indeed come, but they had rejected him.

In Matthew 17, Jesus ascends the mount of transfiguration and takes only three disciples with Him, Peter, James, and John. The others are left with the multitude at the foot of the mountain. While they await Christ, they are approached by a man with a demon-possessed child. The disciples try and fail to heal the child. The desperate father appeals to Jesus directly.

Jesus, frustrated, chides the people for their lack of faith. He then heals the child and sends the multitude on their way.  The disciples do not understand why they were unable to heal the child and ask Jesus about it.

Jesus then responds with the words of Matthew 17:20.

"Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Matthew 17:20

A. Have faith as small as a mustard seed meaning

Jesus reproves the disciples for their lack of faith. He says they have faith as small as a mustard seed.

Mustard seeds would have been commonly known to the Jews and are quite small, being proverbially used at the time to refer to the smallest of things.

Thus, Jesus is saying that the disciples lacked even the most basic amount of faith. This is incredibly important given that the book of Hebrews tells us it is impossible to please God without faith.

Faith is a crucial element here as well. We know this because, in Matthew 10 and 11, Jesus sends His disciples out to preach. In parallel accounts in Mark 6 and Luke 9, we know that the disciples were able to cast out demons during these trips (Mark 6:13).

However, here, the disciples fail to do so. Jesus specifically says in the following verse that this particular type of demon required prayer and fasting for the disciples to expel. Both of those things entail a willingness to spend time with and put faith in God for answers.

This additional requirement hints that the disciples were attempting to cast out the demon using their own strength. It was not that they had lost faith in Christ, merely forgotten it in the heat of the moment. They had cast out demons before, there was no reason they could not do it again. What they forgot was that the power to cast out the demons did not come from them, it came from Christ.

It was Christ that had commissioned them to preach, and it was Christ’s name to which the devils were subject (Luke 10:17). Thus, in this section, Christ is reminding His disciples where their power over the devils came from: Him.

For the followers of Christ today, this reminder is still potent. Christ still has the power to grant His followers victory over the trials of this world. We are told that all that live Godly lives shall be persecuted in one form or another (2 Timothy 3:12).

Even Paul was afflicted with a thorn in the flesh, which many scholars believe was poor eyesight. Yet when Paul asked for it to be removed, he was told.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”
2 Corinthians 12:19

Christ provides the strength to deal with the battles we face, be they physical, or spiritual.

B. Faith can move mountains meaning

This section of the verse, along with the “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) are among the most common passages ripped from their context to make poor Scriptural arguments.

Jesus does not mean we can pick up a mountain and move it, nor did the disciples ever use the passage in such a way. Jesus is instead using familiar elements of nature, the mountain they stood next to and the mustard seed they knew well, to illustrate how small their faith needed to be to accomplish things that seemed impossible.

And in the book of Acts, we see the disciples do things that ought to be impossible. Paul raises a young man from the dead, Peter heals a man at the temple, and other similar examples.

It is important to note here that the power to do the things that the disciples did, was not their own. The power flowed from Christ, through the Holy Spirit. It was not something that could be obtained from men as we see in Acts 8 when Simon sought to purchase the ability to lay hands on a man and impart the Holy Spirit. 

Simon had mistaken the power of God, for the power of Peter and thus thought Peter could bestow it. Peter berates the man sharply for this, chastising him for the wickedness of his heart.  

What this means is that, because this power attached to faith only comes from God, it will only be granted when it glorifies God. Assuming that, because you are a believer, and you command something to happen that it will happen is foolish. Paul never lost his thorn in the flesh, despite praying for its removal.

It was more to God’s glory that Paul continued to appear weak to the world around him so that when God worked through Paul, it was obvious it was God, not Paul. That may be the case with whatever thorn you desire to have removed as well. If that is the case remember what God told Paul.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

3) Conclusions

The message of Matthew 17:20, like most of the rest of the New Testament, is simple: faith is key. If you want to successfully serve Christ, it cannot be done on your strength alone. It must be reliant on the strength of Christ, through faith in Him.

Faith in Christ allows us to stand against whatever comes against us in His power alone. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing, something the disciples learned in Matthew 17:20, and a lesson we would do well to remember as we go throughout our lives.

Read next: What does Exodus 14:14 mean ? The Bible repeatedly talks about the Lord fighting for Israel, starting in Exodus 14:14, but what does that mean for the modern Christian ?"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still"