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)
Jesus, Peter, James and John had just come off that mountaintop experience of hearing and seeing the glory of God (as well as Moses and Elijah), then total calm and silence, when they are confronted again with the crowd and the cries for help. When Jesus replies to this man's request, it seems at first like He is rebuking the man for his lack of faith. Once again, the disciples ask Jesus to explain when they are alone with Him, and we find out it is their lack of faith He is pointing out. We then have one of those most well-known and greatly abused statements of Jesus about faith. This is not an invitation to "name it and claim it", but to examine ourselves - to realize Jesus is rebuking us for trusting in ourselves and not in Him. It is Him working in us. May we be willing to ask Him "Why", and listen long enough for Him to reveal to us ways we need to trust Him more.
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