One bright day in March a young man awoke at 4:30 a.m. Crystal clear sunlight poured into Jack's room, like a great river leading him to a new day. He was too high up for any river to flow -- springs or small streams, yes, but no rivers. Kurseong, not far from Darjeeling, stood 8,000 feet above sea level, in the foothills of the Himalayas. As he rubbed his eyes in that radiant dawn, he looked out his window to the highest spot on the face of the earth. There, far in the distance, sparkling like a diamond in the sky, shone Mount Everest, The highest mountain in all the world. What a glorious feeling to see that peak in that clear morning light.
Jack was in India for his cousin Marty's ordination. Years before, when Marty had volunteered for the missions, he had been sent to Nepal, where he served as headmaster of the high school. Now he was in Kurseong for his ordination and Jack was with him. Marty liked carpentry much more than anything else. In his days as a seminary student he had set up a carpentry shop in the village where he taught those skills to the village children.
The same morning, as the two cousins walked to the village through the woods, they noticed strange objects hanging from the trees -- small blue rectangular frames, criss-crossed with blue, red, green and orange threads. The criss-crossing was so meticulousand so closely wound that even a fly could not pass through. Jack asked his cousin, "What are those things?" "Spirit traps," he said.
"Spirit traps?"
"Yes, the people in Kurseong believe in spirits. Their village has its spirit, as does our seminary. They don't want the seminary spirits getting into their village, so they set traps all through the woods to make sure our spirits keep to themselves!"
"Spirit traps." When Jesus said to his disciples, "Temptations must come," he was talking about traps. The word we translate as "temptation" comes from the Greek word that means "trap" or "stumbling block." Why did Jesus speak of temptations as "traps" at this point in the gospel? He knew his disciples were like little rabbits, about to run into snares, and he had to warn them to be on their guard.
Who was setting the traps? First of all, the high priests and the Sadducees set one for Judas. The bait was 30 pieces of silver, and they knew he would go for it. Once they gave that silver to Judas they began to feel the millstone around their necks. Their power and influence was over. A few years later the Roman legions wiped them out. Traps we set for other people always have a way of coming back home, like chickens to their roost. Once Judas snared Jesus in the kiss of betrayal, the millstone wrapped itself around his neck, too. He went out and hanged himself. "Temptation -- 'traps' -- must come," said Jesus, "But woe to him by whom they come!"
Who else was setting traps?
The woman in the high priest's courtyard, warming herself by the fire, set one for Peter. "You were with him," she said. "Why, your speech betrays you. You, too, are a Galilean!" Peter snared in the trap of denial cried out, "I know not the man!" Jesus looked at him and Peter wept bitterly. Legend has it that the furrows from those tears remained on his face the rest of his life. Peter felt a millstone around his neck as he realized he had denied his friend, but those hot tears streaming down his face dissolved it and washed it away. Tears have a way of doing that.
Hearing this, the disciples were afraid. "Increase our faith!" they said. "We can't believe this. We cannot believe that such things will happen." They knew that faith had power. They had seen the woman with the 12-year flow of blood touch the hem of his garment, and immediately be healed. "Your faith has made you well," he said. "Go in peace." To the sinful woman who had bathed his feet with her tears he had said, "Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
With the traps of betrayal and denial set clearly on the road ahead, no wonder the disciples wanted more faith. They wanted to be healed of their propensities to fall into traps. They wanted to go in peace.
Sometimes the snares in our lives are like those around that seminary in Kurseong -- little wire webs to keep us from moving into villages where it would be helpful for us to go.
Only faith -- the disciples were right -- can save us from such snares. Traps will be set. We will be encouraged to betray our loyalties and deny those whom we love. Someone is setting the traps now. It is part of human nature to set the traps, and it is part of human nature to step into them.
Enter the mustard seed. In India people have been known to chew on narcotic seeds all day long. It is a great concern to the missionaries, for these seeds dull all feeling. The mustard seed is not like that. If you chew on a mustard seed, you don't have a decrease of feeling, you have an increase. If you put enough mustard seed into a soup, you won't taste anything else!
"Have faith like a mustard seed," said Jesus. "Leave behind your fondness for the dull tastes of betrayal and denial. Rather, let the hot, stinging taste of faith be on your tongue, and let that be what directs you in your life -- fidelity not betrayal, loyalty not denial -- and you will begin to see the symcimine trees in your life jump from the land and plant themselves in the sea ... such is the marvel of God's gift of faith.
The traps are out there. We can't live as human beings without them. They will be set and we will fall into them --betrayal traps and denial traps. We all feel these things in our lives. Faith puts the taste of God on our tongues so that, with the Lord as our ship's captain, we can be spirited to sail through these traps to the brighter land."