March 13, 2026
(Matt Koerber)
Matthew 17:14-21 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20He said to them, “Because of your little faith. 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.”
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When we last read about Jesus, he was on top of the mountain with his three closest disciples. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the true identity of Jesus was revealed. For once, the radiant outward appearance matched the inward reality of his divine nature. In fellowship with two of the greatest heroes of the Old Testament (Moses and Elijah), the voice of God the Father confirmed his identity as the true Son of God. And yet, Jesus could not remain on the mountain. As he descended back down from the mountain, the darkness of the human condition confronted him. Like Moses and Elijah before him, Jesus came down from a mountaintop experience and landed face to face with discouraging circumstances. Moses, after receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, came down to the gold calf rebellion of his fellow countrymen (Exodus 32). Elijah, after defeating the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, came down to the reality of continued opposition and inner despair (1 Kings 18-19). So perhaps we should not be surprised that Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration to encounter a desperate father, a sick and demon oppressed boy, and helpless disciples.
So, why couldn’t the disciples help this man? His son had been controlled by seizures and oppressed by a demon. It is not possible for us to know how these things worked together, but we do see that Jesus had sufficient power to help him, both rebuking the demon and healing him. Apparently, the disciples should have been able to handle this on their own. Jesus seems exasperated by their lack of faith. I find it comforting to know that Jesus could express frustration without sinning.
But the correction Jesus offers can be misinterpreted and misdirected. When Jesus grounds their inability to help this man in their lack of faith (v. 36), we are tempted to turn our gaze inward and start measuring our faith. We are also tempted to picture faith as something that we can generate on our own or something that we can use to solve problems. In the history of the church, so called “faith healers” have misused these ideas to portray faith as something we can use to control our circumstances. But in the Bible, faith is never directed inward. It is not a measure of our ability or something we possess independent of God. Instead, faith always looks outward. Faith directs our attention to God and locks onto his promises and his power. Why does faith as small as a mustard seed move mountains (metaphorically speaking)? Because all faith looks to God and attaches to his power. Apparently, the disciples were trying to battle this problem on their own. But instead, faith looks outward to our heavenly Father. For him, nothing is impossible.
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