The Power of Faith
And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. (Matthew 17:14-21)
Here is a story about a father who brings his demon-possessed son to the disciples, pleading with them to deliver his child from oppression. However, the disciples apparently could do nothing for him and instead the son eventually finds healing from Jesus. In the gospels, we find that Jesus is typically seen doing the healing, however before moving on to the next story, Jesus actually ends up rebuking his disciples and teaching them a valuable lesson. The problem in this story is not only about a lunatic son, but a faithless set of disciples. These men (the disciples) were the future leaders of the church and yet they had failed to help a struggling soul when duty called for it. In the eyes of Jesus, this was unacceptable, because to be faithless is to be powerless. And quite frankly, a powerless church is a useless church. This is why Jesus uses the strong words, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?”
Please understand, Jesus knew these disciples. He was not speaking to new believers, or people who did not know the concept of faith. In fact, these were men who have been with Jesus, they walked and talked with Jesus. They lived with Him. These were men that listened to Jesus teach, and were personally trained by him. These were men who witnessed faith in action by watching Jesus depend on the Father in Heaven to perform a vast array of miracles. This is why he can speak the way he did to his disciples. Jesus loved them, and he knew that this was an opportunity that he could not pass. They needed to understand that there will come a time where he will no longer be with them. That there will be a time where they cannot just simply pass someone over to him for healing just like they did the demon possessed son. Therefore, he knew they had to learn to the power of faith.
Jesus took advantage of this failed moment to teach to his disciples the power of faith. He explains that faith even as small as a grain of a mustard seed can move mountains. Essentially saying that with faith you can do that which may seem impossible, in other words Jesus was communicating to his disciples that with faith you could do what I did with that lunatic son. And this faith can only come by “prayer” and “fasting” – both representing spiritual exercises that help mankind learn to depend upon God.
I wonder, are we a faithless and perverse generation still? Do we not have the faith that gives us power? Do we not possess power to restore, heal, and cast out demons? Are we a church that is essentially useless? If the answer to these questions is yes. Than may we with humility pray to God today, Lord, help our unbelief. Help us to pray for your power to work through us. For if we as a church fail to depend on God, then the sad reality is that when we do “church” we are depending on something else other than God; but to depend on anything other than God means that we are as powerless as a church building to the sick, heavy burdened, and the spiritually oppressed that need help.
Pastor Kurt Osena is the English Ministries Pastor at Collegedale SDA Korean Church and Content Director at AudioVerse.org