14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “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. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And 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.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He 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.” Matthew 17: 14-20 ESV
Matthew 17: 14-20 Lunatic
And when they came to the crowd - So Jesus and the three that were on the mount at His transfiguration are coming down from the mount, returning to the other disciples, and this is the setting of the scene. I think it is important to have Mark's account with it, and this will provide more context for what they are walking into. Mark tells us that the other disciples were surrounded by a crowd and also that scribes were arguing with the disciples. The scribes have not done well in their debates with Jesus, so they were probably happy that the teacher was away, and that His students were struggling.
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” Mark 9: 14-29
A man came up to Him - This man and his son were part of the argument between the crowd, the disciples and the scribes.
Kneeling before Him, said, "Lord have mercy on my son" - His son has epilepsy, and it appears to be complicated even more by a demonic presence that would use it to take the boy's life. The scriptures tell us that the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and this boy's condition leaves him in a helpless state. I have epilepsy myself, and sometimes there is not enough warning or I ignored the aura preceding it in order to attend to something else. I have woken up in the water, gone some rounds with a cast iron wood stove, which didn't give, but my face, nose and a tooth did. This boy has had to be pulled from the water where he could drown and the fire where he would be burned. This father must be at his whit's end with concern, and so he is kneeling, a sign of worship, something that would make the scribes there cringe, before the Son of God. This was called the lunatic's disease back then relating it to the moon (Luna), whose movement they thought triggered the attacks, like werewolves and the full moon. The father had probably seen physicians, sought answers for a long time, yet his boy still suffered, and was at the mercy of whatever place in which he fell. In Mark's gospel we find out that he was also mute.
I brought him to your disciples - Was this a good idea? Yes, because the apostles had been commissioned earlier to do this sort of thing.
1And calling His twelve disciples to Him, Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they could drive them out and heal every disease and sickness. 2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;… Matthew 10: 1-2
…7As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Matthew 10: 7-8
They could not heal him - Probably much to the joy of the scribes, who were constant antagonists to Jesus and His disciples. They would enjoy this because they did not want to see Jesus for Who He was and is, the Messiah. Now this is an interesting episode to record, the failure of the disciples, two of which, Matthew and Mark, are giving the accounts we are studying here. We also see here that the power to do this does not come from themselves, but rather from God. Christ, being God, had sent them out before, commissioned them to do these things, and whoever Christ commanded to do this had success in doing so. What is the problem here?
16Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.” 17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name.” Luke 10: 16-17
O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you - You can hear the frustration, they had seen Christ do great things, and He had done marvelous things through them as well, but he was gone up on the mount this time. While he was gone they had hit a mountain of their own, a situation that was proving more difficult. It's like when Peter stepped out of the boat to walk to Jesus, he didn't start sinking until he took his eyes off the object of his faith, and looked at the surrounding circumstances, relating them to his own inadequacy. He became afraid and would have drowned except for the hand that caught him. To be faithless is to be unbelieving, and that in the presence of much proof. To be twisted is to be perverted, bent, a condition that needs to be repented of, and this was the call of John the Baptist. Repent of believing in yourself, in your traditions, in your own power and autonomy, stop being crooked and perverse.
…2As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way.” 3“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’” 4John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.… Mark 1: 2-4
Bring him here to Me - This is where we want to take men, even when Christ was elsewhere physically the disciples could have still brought the boy and all else to Him. We do not want to draw men to ourselves, those that do such give up the gospel, and they are false teachers, elevating themselves, seeking worldly gain, human honor, vain glory. In Mark's gospel we see that the boy went into a seizure as he was being brought to Christ. Jesus asked, and the boy's father said this had been going on since he was a child, and the father prayed, because we will all find this is a key, and by prayer look at it: He is on his knees, he ask for help and compassion. God, look on me and have mercy.
In Mark's account in Mark 9: 23 and 24 Jesus tells the man, "all things are possible for one who believes" and the father answers, "I believe, help my unbelief." This is epic prayer, brilliant petitioning, like the faith of the gentile woman. I believe because I have heard or seen that you have healed others, and though I went to your disciples and they failed, yet they are not you, so I press on. You are telling me to believe, and yet if there is an inkling of doubt in me then I still come to you, for if you can heal the sick then you can also heal my unbelief. This prayer doesn't give up, it doesn't fail to confess doubt. This is very different than the wicked prosperity teachers who cannot heal and throw the result of their vain stomping and stage strutting, the unhealed multitudes, back in the face of those who came believing. They believed, but these idiots base it upon a "twisted" idea of faith, one that rest in the sinner and not upon the giver of faith. These false teachers think faith is something they energize from inside themselves, the strutting, the smack talk, they are psyching themselves up for something, thinking that they can invoke faith just like the pagans who cut themselves trying to get Baal to send down fire. All Elijah did was pray to God. Listen, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. These prosperity teachers treat God's word as a book of spells, know nothing of sound doctrine, and God has not ordained them or anointed them in this blasphemy. The disciples were commissioned by God to go out and do these things, but these ridiculous people you see on tv today, have not heard from God. They aren't pedaling actual faith; it's just a bad pyramid scheme that takes advantage of the poor and naïve. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, turn your eyes to Jesus.
…26But Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27“Yes, Lord,” she said, “ even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” 28“O woman,” Jesus answered, “your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.… Matthew 15: 26-28
…23Now the words “it was credited to him” were written not only for Abraham, 24but also for us, to whom righteousness will be credited— for us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.… Romans 4: 23-25
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;… Romans 5: 1-3
Why could we not cast it out - They were perplexed, they had been in similar situations with much different results, and now they were being rebuked with this generation for lack of faith. I think it is important that before this he had also rebuked Peter recently for not wanting Him to fulfill His mission to the cross. He is about to bring this up again, and I think it is a stumbling block even for them, but one that Judas will ultimately fall into destruction over. We believe Jesus when things are going well, and this is the premise of the prosperity gospel, the error of Job's companions, that faith and godliness are measured by health and wealth. It takes much more faith, a mature faith to see God's hand in trials, petition Him, yet like Paul, accept His answer even when it is not the play you would like to see called. Real faith trust God through trials and afflictions, it never ceases in prayer, never stops believing.
…8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. 10That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.… 2 Corinthians 12: 8-10
Because of your little faith - What is the root of the problem? Your faith is small. They, like us, need to quit looking at circumstances that are beyond us, and stop believing in ourselves and our efforts. Watch this, what's the next line?
If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed - Talk about little right? Keep looking, remember the parable of the mustard seed? It is the smallest of seeds that they were familiar with, but what happens, the seed is planted in the ground, it dies, and then what? It grows. The disciples have been walking with Jesus, seeing Him perform miracles, kind of listening to Him, but what He gave them easily before is now a struggle, why? They were growing very slowly. In Mark's account we get more about this, what would help them grow? We are given a couple of very important things throughout Scripture, these are the means towards our growth in faith and spiritual maturity. Remember the mustard seed went from something very small to something that housed the birds of the air, something large.
…16But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. 18But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”… Romans 10: 16-18
So first of all, we need to read the word, and we need to read it looking for the Author's intent, not trying to force our own will upon it, and where do I get that? From Scripture. Paul sought the Lord in prayer about His thorn in the flesh, and it is in God's word and through prayer that we come to understand His will. The caveat is His will. He is not going to go against that, and when I was young I even asked God for things that I not only didn't need but would have been to my detriment.
13I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.… 1 John 5: 13-15
…2You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. 4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.… James 4: 2-4
This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer - This we learn from Mark's gospel account, so we see the means we are given, the word, believing what the Word says, praying in accordance with God's will, and we are told to pray without ceasing. Our faith should not rest on who we are, but on Who God is. It should not be conditional to our trials, bank account levels, but rest upon His word and obedience to His commands.
…15And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power to prevail. 17Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.… James 5: 15-17
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