A Grain Of Mustard Seed, Eight Stories Of Faith

By Steve Tyner

The centurion looked at the teacher who sat before him and was struck by the authority that emanated from him. "Rabbi, I have heard many great things about you and I know you are a teacher sent from God. My servant, whom I love, is very sick, almost unto death. I know that you can heal him if you will." Jesus said, "I will come and heal him." "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed! I know, because I am under the authority of my superior officers and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, 'Go,' and they go, or 'Come,' and they come. And if I say to my servants, 'Do this or that,' they do it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd, he said to them, "I tell you the truth, I haven't seen faith like this in all the land of Israel!" Jesus then turned to the centurion and said, "Go on home. What you have believed has happened." Faith. The writer of Hebrews defines it as "the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen." Jesus once told his disciples that the smallest amount of faith could bring about tremendous results, even to move mountains. But what does faith look like? Across the gospels are seven poignant stories of people who demonstrated a faith that dramatically changed not only their lives, but the lives of the people around them. A Grain of Mustard Seed presents these stories in a new expanded version as well as an eighth story that raises the question: What if all of these people met the Savior one last time?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781635754391

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A Grain of Mustard Seed

—Eight Stories of Faith—

Steve Tyner

ISBN 978-1-63575-438-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63575-439-1 (Digital)

Copyright © 2017 by Steve Tyner

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

296 Chestnut Street

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyrighted© 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Preface

Blind Bartimaeus. The woman with the issue of blood. The ten lepers. We know their stories from the gospels of how they had amazing encounters with Jesus that changed their lives. They are stories of faith. People who had nothing left took a step over the edge not knowing for sure their foot would land on anything solid, but believing Jesus would provide whatever security they needed. These are stories that serve as examples to show us what true faith really is.

But what about the back story? What happened in the lives of these people to lead them to Jesus in the first place? The gospel writers were not able to provide us with those details. Their focus was on Jesus’s actions and rightfully so. It is, however, in our nature to be curious about such details and to wonder why these people wound up in the condition they were in when they encountered Jesus. The following collection of stories attempts to provide the backstory for seven such stories of faith found in the gospels. I have followed the various gospel accounts meticulously for the factual details, supplementing them with my imagination to provide what I think may have led up to the events we read of in the Bible and what transpired afterward.

But I didn’t stop there. I have added one story at the end that is almost entirely fictional. As I was in the process of writing the other stories, the thought occurred to me, What if all of these people had been in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion? It did not seem to be out of the realm of possibility. After all, on his way to Jerusalem for that very purpose, Jesus had his encounter with Bartimaeus. Mark tells us in chapter 10, And instantly the blind man could see! Then he followed Jesus on the way. The way was the road to Jerusalem for his appointment with the cross, so it is not beyond reason to imagine that Bartimaeus followed Jesus all the way to Jerusalem and may have been there and even witnessed the terrible events of the Passion Week!

It is my hope that these stories entertain, but more than that, I hope they encourage. I was encouraged as I wrote them and tried to enter the minds of these very courageous people who had remarkable encounters of faith with our Lord.

The Faith of Friends

Several days later Jesus returned to Capernaum, and the news of his arrival spread quickly through the town. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there wasn’t room for one more person, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them. Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t get to Jesus through the crowd, so they dug through the clay roof above his head. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, My son, your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there said to themselves, What? This is blasphemy! Who but God can forgive sins! Jesus knew what they were discussing among themselves, so he said to them, Why do you think this is blasphemy? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? I will prove that I, the Son of Man, have the authority on earth to forgive sins. Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up, take your mat, and go on home, because you are healed! The man jumped up, took the mat, and pushed his way through the stunned onlookers. Then they all praised God. We’ve never seen anything like this before! they exclaimed.

(Mark 2: 1–12, NLT)

Just ignore it, Lucius. He doesn’t understand we’re doing this for his own good. Simeon readjusted his grip on the pallet as they plodded up the hill.

But we’re his friends. Probably the only ones he has. He could be a little grateful, Lucius muttered under his breath.

Where are you taking me! You have no right to do this! Take me back to the well! The raspy voice from the figure on the pallet was filled with bitterness and rightly so. His daily routine had been suddenly interrupted by the four people he had come to trust. Instead of placing him in the shade beside the town’s well where he could spend his day begging for the few coins from those who might have pity on his broken body, they had continued on down the road with some ridiculous story of finding him help that would change his life. Some friends they were! It just proved what he had always believed. You couldn’t trust anybody in this life.

Though early in the day, the sun was already hot on the four men as they carried the man’s pallet through the narrow streets of Capernaum. Their task was made that much harder as they tried to dodge the occasional groups of little children who ran by them chasing one another and the laborer carrying his bundles of farm produce to the market. They moved with a sense of urgency, hoping they would not be too late to get the help for their friend that they sought. The man they had heard so much about was back, and they knew he was the only hope for the twisted body that lay upon the pallet they carried. Only Simeon had actually heard the man speak and seen him do some of the wonderful acts that so many people were talking about. But the others had heard about him from people they trusted, and they believed what they heard. Based on all of this, they all agreed that they had to bring their friend Agabus to see the Teacher.

They had known Agabus for a long time. Nathan and Jesse were his cousins and had known him since they were small children. They knew of the tragic accident that had broken his body, leaving it twisted and confining Agabus to an invalid’s life since the age of twelve. Simeon and Lucius had met him a few years later before he had turned into the bitter person he was today. They had met him through their rabbi who would bring some of the young men of the synagogue by to visit Agabus and encourage him as he taught him in his home. However, as the years progressed, he became more and more bitter toward God, believing he was being punished for something that was not his fault. Eventually the rabbi stopped coming, but the four friends did not. At sixteen, they began to carry him down to the town’s well each day early in the morning where he would lay on his pallet and beg from those who came for their daily portions of water. The few coins he collected helped his family meet their needs, and the friends hoped the activity would give Agabus a sense of meaning for his life. Instead it only added to the bitterness he felt as he saw only pity in the faces of those who dropped their coins in his cup. He did not want their pity; he wanted a body that was whole like theirs. So instead of expressing thanks for what they gave him, he exchanged words of derision and spite for their coins and over the years the number of coins grew to be fewer and fewer. Now it was usually only visitors to the town who would drop anything into his cup, and those who lived in Capernaum would time their visits to the well when they knew Agabus would not be there.

The four friends had not given up on him, however. There had come a time when it had seemed as if even they would no longer be able to endure his biting words. On several occasions, they met together and discussed whether they too should shun him since he did not seem to care about their efforts to help him.

Does God expect us to continue in this way when the man treats us as he does? Nathan asked one day. He is of my own family, but one can only take so much.

I agree with Nathan, Lucius said. It just isn’t worth it to be denigrated like this every day when all we are trying to do is help him. Never does he say a kind word to us. Never a ‘thank you’ for anything we do for him. Surely there is a limit to what we are to endure. I seem to remember Rabbi Bartholomew saying as much, didn’t he?

But surely we cannot abandon him, replied Simeon. Who would he have then? His parents cannot take him down to the well every day. Then what would he do? What would they do? Can you imagine him at home all day long? At least what we do gets him out of the house and gives him some purpose in life.

Simeon is right. We cannot just abandon him, said Jesse. I don’t like listening to his abusive language any more than the rest of you, but it’s just words. What if we were in his place?

And so they continued to help their friend, but it became more and more difficult as time progressed until such discussions became more frequent. Lucius and Nathan decided they had finally had enough and agreed together that they would meet with the others and bring an end to the whole affair. They sent word to Simeon and Jesse to join them for supper at a local inn one evening where they would share their decision. When Jesse arrived, they engaged in small talk, not wanting to say anything until they were all together. Finally Simeon came in highly agitated.

You will not believe what I have just seen! he said. I hardly believe it myself, and I was there!

The others looked at one another for a moment and then at Simeon. Rarely had they ever seen him so excited. Among the four of them, he was