Carlton Elkins
Text: Matthew 17:14-21
“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 'O 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 from that moment. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, Why couldn't we drive it out? 20-21 He replied, 'Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, 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.' ”
The interesting point in this story is not that Jesus could heal this boy with epilepsy, nor that the disciples could not. The disciples asked Jesus, after he had healed the lad, "Why could we not cast out the demon?" Jesus' answer that they had insufficient faith is not surprising.
However, Jesus continues, "If you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Be moved from here,' and it will move." Jesus surely did not intend that His disciples take this statement literally, but symbolically, the right kind of faith can do the impossible. In fact, He adds, "Nothing shall be impossible for you."
In Luke 17:1-4,5-6, a similar conversation is recorded. Jesus says to His disciples, "If you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this fig tree, 'Be plucked up and planted in the sea,' and it will happen." I do not know by what unit faith is measured, but I think it is not determined by the size of faith --however size of faith may be determined. I think that more than the size of faith, it is the kind of faith that counts.
Dealing with the kind of faith, James addressed the Jews, "You believe that God is One; you do well. The devils also believe and tremble." (James 2:19). This is exactly the wrong kind of faith. Just believing something true about God does not give you the power of God. Perhaps their problem was a lack of FAITH WITH POWER. Perhaps with us we lack both the amount of faith and faith of power.
In order for us to accomplish the work of God, we need enough of the right kind of faith. In Matthew 17 the disciples could not heal the lad, because their faith was insufficient. In Luke 17 the disciples lacked faith to forgive a man who sins against them seven times in a day and repents seven times. I don't know how to measure faith. Jesus said if a man sin against you seven times in a day, and seven times says, "I repent," you must forgive him. But you might find your faith a bit weak for such duty. I think that more than the volume of faith, it is faith based on thinking like Jesus thinks that is important.
If perhaps the case was simply that the disciples' faith was so small and so weak, what about ourselves?
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