Matthew 17:14-17

Matthew 17:14-17

And after coming to the crowd, a man came to Him while kneeling down before Him and while saying, “Lord, have mercy upon my son because he suffers from epileptic seizures and he suffers severely.  For he often falls into the fire and often into the water.  And I brought him to your disciples and they were not being powerful enough to heal him.”  And after answering, Jesus said, “O faithless and perverted generation!  How long will I be with you all?  How long will I bear with you?  Bring him here to me.”

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

The father’s confession really hits home today.  The man brings the child to Jesus’ disciples and they are not powerful enough to do anything about it.  Can I relate to that!  I often feel like I cannot do anything in this life except walk with people through life and listen to them.  But the truth is, that’s actually the way it is meant to be.  Jesus is the power. Jesus is the one who changes lives.  My job isn’t to change people’s lives and fix all of their problems.  My job is simply to walk beside people and point them to Christ.  When Christ says for me to do more and gives me the power and authority to do more, then I can.  But while I want to be the great fixer who puts God’s power on display like Christ, the reality is that I’m way more like Jesus’ disciples here in this passage.  In normal circumstances where God isn’t asking me to do something extraordinary, I’m best at pointing people to Christ and allowing Christ to do all of the powerful things.  Besides, that way He gets all the glory anyways!

Do you ever struggle with your inability to actually affect change in people’s lives?  Why is it good to adopt an attitude of walking with people and allowing God to change their lives?

Second Thought:

At the same time, I really need to commend the father.  Here is a man of great faith.  Here is what a true follower of God looks like.  He knows that the human followers of Christ are flawed.  They don’t have the full power of God because they aren’t God.  But Jesus is God.  Here is a man who seeks out the true power of God.  He is not offended by the weakness of Jesus’ followers; he pushes through the weakness and finds God in spite of human weakness.  Often people in the world accuse the church of being flawed and full of human taint.  Of course it is!  As I speak about in the first thought, we aren’t always able to do things perfectly.  But we should be able to still seek God in spite of the humanity around us.  We shouldn’t allow the flawed nature of the human beings around us to stop us from coming into contact with God and experiencing His grace, love, mercy, and power.

When have you let the failings of the human beings around you influence your pursuit of God?  Why should our faith in God allow us to push past the failings of the human beings that make up Christ’s church?

Third Thought:

Jesus asks a series of questions out of His frustration, but these questions are multi-layered.  On one perspective, Jesus is trying to deliver the point home to His disciples that His time is short.  That’s the overarching context of the last chapter.  Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem and He’s going to die.  His time with them is short.  When He sees their inability, Jesus takes time to quite bluntly point out their failing.  But there is a deeper layer to these questions.  How long will Christ be with us?  Christ will be with us forever!  Jesus never leaves us abandoned.  Jesus sends His Spirit to dwell within us.  The truth is that the only reason I can ever do anything that God asks me to do is because He has given me the power to accomplish His will through His Spirit.  Even faith comes first from Him!

Do you understand why Jesus would be frustrated with His disciples?  Do you also understand the deeper point that Jesus is teaching them?  Why is it important for us to see our weakness and instead focus on our need for Christ’s power?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 17:18-20