how long? (mt 17:14-20)

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Psalm 129; Matthew 17:14-20


There is good news and bad news in this passage about the epileptic boy whom the disciples cannot heal. The good news is that Jesus heals him! And that "mountain-moving" faith is available to his disciples. The bad news is, well, bad.

"O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you?
How long am I to bear with you?" (v. 17)

When the disciples come to Jesus privately (because they just don't get it, not an uncommon theme in Matthew) and ask why they couldn't cast out the demon, Jesus says "Because of your little faith." And he doesn't stop there... "For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you" (v. 20).

So they're faithless, twisted, have little faith, indeed not even faith like a grain of mustard seed. Jesus clearly indicates that they couldn't heal the boy because of their little faith. Ouch.

If there's a grain of good new in this rebuke, perhaps it's in that phrase "how long am I to be with you... to bear with you?" Thankfully, we are still with Jesus and he is still with us; thankfully, he is also still bearing with us... in fact, he is still bearing us up. And in this context Jesus may be saying that faith grows when we're with him and he with us. They were (we are) slow learners, or slow receivers, or slow absorbers - their trust and vision and understanding would not permit them to be God's agents of healing (something Jesus had already given them authority and power to do).

I'm not sure Jesus has called all of us (as individuals) to make mountains move, or even to cast out demons and heal epileptics... but certainly he has called us as a community to his healing and deliverance mission - as long as there's one diseased and suffering boy left our mission continues, doesn't it? And the Lord calls every one of us to things that are beyond our power or vision to even conceive, let alone accomplish. But he is with us and can accomplish his purposes in us and through us.

Again, I'm reminded of Paul's prayer that many of us have been praying a lot from Ephesians 3:14-21 (and remember this was for a church, "you" here is plural):

... that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith -
that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

One other encouragement from Paul:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful --
for he cannot deny himself.
(2 Timothy 2:11-13)