Have you a problem which seems reluctant to yield to Christian Science treatment? Have you seen fellow students struggling with tenacious error and needing intelligent encouragement? Then think back to the disciples who were unsuccessful in healing the lunatic boy, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel. To them Jesus gave a most heartening and encouraging lesson in faith. And to accentuate the point of his teaching he used a simple and understandable simile that was drawn from daily life as it went on around them. He compared faith that heals to a grain of mustard seed. The most minute of garden seeds became an object lesson to illustrate the limitless power of faith.
This comparison may be considered by the student from one of two viewpoints, quantitative or qualitative. Undoubtedly Jesus' disciples weighed both methods. Perhaps both methods of comparison are worthy of our consideration too. Quantitatively considered, Jesus' simile must have perplexed his disciples, who undoubtedly believed that they had at least such a minute quantity of faith as to equal the dimension of a mustard seed. Jesus knew their thoughts. He knew their supply of human faith. He could have sensed their reliance on this human faith. In such a case to use a literally quantitative interpretation of the simile would have been unfruitful and uneducative.
But using this comparison in its qualitative sense served to direct their thinking toward the true understanding of faith. The mustard seed's growth into a plant many, many times its original size points to the quality of faith that is needed in healing. Such faith can only be the result of growth in the understanding of Mind's unfoldment. The mustard seed becomes a symbol of dynamic faith. This faith is based on spiritual intuition derived from God, the divine animus of all activity.
