Matthew 17: 14-20 Jesus heals boy
14 When they came to
the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord,
have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He
often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him
to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”17 “You
unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay
with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus
rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that
moment.19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and
asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”20 He replied, “Because
you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it
will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Time and time again
Jesus proclaims that someone has little faith or great faith. Yet in this passage he calls them out on
little faith and then says but all you need is faith the size of a mustard seed
– so what kind of faith is “little” a speck of sand?
There is a difference
between so little faith and having little faith – the difference is in
doubt. If you have little faith but
great doubt then things won’t work out; but if you have little assured faith
you can move a mountain. The bottom line
in Jesus’ lessons is don’t put ANYTHING between you and your relationship with
God, whatever it may be. Here it is
doubt. With assurance all things are
possible, the impossible becomes possible!
Reflect on yourself are you someone with little faith and big doubt or
are you someone with little assured faith?
