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29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." (John 20:29) 20 He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20 NRS)
Happy Easter, Friend! He is risen! He is risen indeed! This is the most powerful season of the Church. Jesus defeated sin and death and came to show us a better way to live.
As we continue our study of Jesus' teachings for His disciples we reach one that is key; how to live. Jesus is quoted in two passage where he speaks of faith and how key it is for our lives. Two different contexts, but still powerful in what Jesus say about our lives. In the first instance, Jesus is speaking to Thomas after Jesus' resurrection, Jesus speaks of the specialness of us today when we come to faith without having seen anything. In the second Jesus speaks of the power of faith regardless of size comparing a mustard seed to being key to a victorious life moving mountains and finding nothing impossible.
As humans, we are usually the type that we must see something first befoe we believe it. When it comes to making a purchase we must see what it is we are buying before we move forward making payment on whatever we seek to buy. There is something deeply human about needing to see it before we believe it. We want proof. We want evidence. We want the result in our hands before we commit to the process. And in many areas of life, that instinct makes sense.
But the life of faith asks something radically different of us. It asks us to trust before we see, to move before the path is fully visible, to believe the promise before we hold the fulfillment. That is the great tension every follower of Jesus must learn to navigate: the tension between what our eyes report and what God has declared.
Today, we are going to sit with two passages that speak directly into that tension. One comes from a moment of doubt in an upper room. The other comes from a hillside conversation about mountains and mustard seeds. Together, they form a picture of what it truly means to live by faith and not by appearances.
Eight days after the resurrection, the disciples were gathered again behind locked doors. Thomas, who had missed the first appearance of the risen Jesus, had been firm in his position: unless he could see the nail marks and touch the wounds himself, he would not believe.
And then Jesus appeared. He did not rebuke Thomas from a distance. He walked straight to him and said, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side." Jesus met Thomas exactly where he was. Thomas, overcome, responded with one of the most profound confessions in all of Scripture: "My Lord and my God!"
But what Jesus said next is the word that reaches across two thousand years and lands directly in our lives today:
“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” — John 20:29
Jesus was not scolding Thomas for his doubt. He was opening a door. He was declaring that a different kind of faith exists — a faith that does not require physical sight in order to be real, in order to be valid, in order to be blessed.
That word "blessed" in the original Greek is the same word used throughout the Beatitudes. It carries the sense of deep, settled well-being, of flourishing. Jesus is saying: the person who trusts Me without needing to physically see Me first is living in a place of profound spiritual richness.
We are those people. We are the ones Jesus was speaking to when He said those words. We have not walked the roads of Galilee. We have not heard His voice carry across the water. We have not seen the empty tomb with our own eyes. And yet we believe. And Jesus calls that blessed.
But here is the honest question this raises: if we say we believe, why do we so often live as if we must see it first? Why do we panic at the diagnosis, despair at the closed door, lose hope when the answer doesn't come on our timeline? Could it be that our faith in Jesus is genuine, but our faith in His active involvement in our daily circumstances is still developing?
Seeing is not the beginning of faith. For the follower of Jesus, faith is the beginning of seeing.
Thomas saw and then believed. Jesus calls us to believe so that we might see — see His faithfulness, His provision, His sovereign hand working in the details of our lives, often in ways we only recognize in hindsight.
In Matthew 17, the disciples have just failed to cast out a demon from a suffering boy. They come to Jesus privately, frustrated and confused, and ask the question we have all asked in moments of spiritual powerlessness: "Why couldn't we do it?"
Jesus does not give them a complicated theological explanation. He gives them an image so small it seems almost impossible that it could carry the weight of the answer. He points to a mustard seed.
“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 mustard seed. In the ancient world, the mustard seed was proverbially the smallest seed a person could hold between their fingers. Jesus is not saying you need great faith. He is saying you need genuine faith — even if it is small.
There is such mercy in this. We often disqualify ourselves from God's power because we feel our faith is not big enough, not strong enough, not consistent enough. We look at our doubts and assume they have cancelled out whatever faith remains. But Jesus says no — even faith the size of something you can barely see is enough to move a mountain.
The issue is not the size of your faith. The issue is the object of your faith. A tiny seed of genuine trust in the living God carries more weight than a mountain of self-confidence. It is not the intensity of your belief that moves the mountain. It is the God in whom you believe.
What is your mountain?
Every one of us is standing at the base of something that looks immovable. Maybe it is a relationship that seems beyond repair. A habit that has had its grip on you for years. A financial situation that looks permanent. A grief that seems like it will never lift. A calling you have felt in your spirit but cannot see any path to fulfilling.
Jesus is not asking you to pretend the mountain is not there. He saw the mountain. He acknowledged the problem. What He is asking is: will you speak to it in faith, or will you be silenced by its size?
Appearances say: the mountain is too big. Faith says: my God is bigger than the mountain. Appearances say: nothing is going to change. Faith says: I serve the God who specializes in the impossible.
The mountain does not move because of how loudly you speak to it. It moves because of who you are speaking in the name of.
These two passages illuminate each other beautifully. John 20:29 tells us who we are called to be — people who believe without needing to see first. Matthew 17:20 tells us what that kind of believing actually does — it moves mountains.
Living by faith and not by appearances is not passive. It is not sitting back and waiting for circumstances to change while you hope for the best. It is an active, intentional, daily choice to orient your inner life around what God has said rather than what your situation seems to be saying.
The disciples in Matthew 17 had seen Jesus. They had walked with Him, heard His teaching, witnessed miracles firsthand. And still their faith faltered when the moment of crisis came. Why? Because proximity to Jesus is not the same as dependence on Jesus. You can know the right words, attend the right services, be surrounded by the right people — and still, in the critical moment, walk by sight instead of faith.
Faith is a practice. It is a muscle that must be exercised consistently in the small things so that it is strong enough to hold you in the large things. Every time you choose gratitude over anxiety, you are exercising faith. Every time you speak a promise over a problem instead of rehearsing the problem, you are exercising faith. Every time you take the next obedient step even though you cannot see the outcome, you are exercising faith.
How faith grows
Faith grows through the Word. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of God. You cannot sustain a life of faith if you are not regularly saturating yourself in the promises of God. The Word recalibrates your vision. It reminds you of what is actually true when appearances are shouting something different.
Faith grows through remembrance. The Psalms are full of this pattern — the writer in distress crying out, then deliberately calling himself back to what God has already done. Your history with God is evidence for your future with God. When you cannot see the way forward, look back at every Red Sea He has already parted in your life.
Faith grows through community. Jesus sent the disciples out two by two. He did not design the life of faith to be lived in isolation. When your faith is wavering, someone else's faith can carry you. When you are standing firm, your faith becomes an anchor for someone who is struggling. We were not meant to walk this road alone.
Jesus said you are blessed — not because your circumstances are easy, not because the mountain has already moved, not because you have all the answers. You are blessed because you believe in One you have not physically seen, and that belief is not weakness. It is the most courageous posture a human being can take in a world that demands proof before commitment.
You have a mountain in front of you today. And you have a faith — even if it feels as small as a mustard seed right now — that is connected to the God who spoke galaxies into existence. That is enough. That has always been enough.
Do not let appearances write the final word over your life. Let faith speak instead.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. That is you. Walk like it.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank You that You call us blessed, not because our faith is perfect, but because it is real and it is Yours. Forgive us for the times we have lived by appearances and forgotten Your promises. Strengthen our faith today — even if it is only the size of a mustard seed. Speak to the mountains in our lives that we have been too afraid to address. Help us to walk by faith, not by sight — one step, one day, one trust at a time. In Your name, Amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: Name one mountain you have been staring at in silence. Write it down, then write a specific promise from God’s Word directly beside it. Speak that promise aloud over your situation every morning this week — not as a magic formula, but as an act of faith in the God who moves mountains.
I love you and I thank God for you! You matter to God and you matter to me. I ask prayers for me as I now under the weather and thus no audio or video of this devotional. Also, next Sunday I will be preaching in Pilgrim Church; pray the Lord give me a word and the health to deliver it! Blessings to you all!
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
