It is striking, but not surprising, how high spiritual moments are followed by challenging ones.
Jesus and his three disciples enter a difficult scene. A distraught father, a suffering son, and frustrated disciples.
Jesus’ reaction is strong. “Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me.”
Part of how you “enter this text” has a bit to do with your experience. Have you:
· Prayed for someone, praying Jesus would heal, and they were not healed? If you have, have you wondered if it is your lack of faith?
· Never prayed for someone to be healed and wondered about “how this all works”?
· Prayed for people, and sometimes those prayers were answered and sometimes they were not—and you wondered—you wondered if it was you and your faith?
· Perhaps you are wondering if Jesus is making this awfully hard, after all aren’t his disciples trying?
Part of engaging God’s Word is to ask these questions. Let me just ask that we be careful. If we ask these questions in an effort to sort out God, then we may be “barking up the wrong tree”. Notice I said, “may be”. It is not wrong to ask these questions, but they can all too often lead to us standing in judgment of God—we must never assume that position, so we must tread lightly.
If we ask these questions to sort out ourselves, our lives of faith, then good, but similar caution is needed. Consider the scene.
The disciples are earnest. They are trying. They are not having the desired success. Too often Jesus’ followers blame themselves for a lack of faith. And yes, we need to be seeking to be faithful. Jesus, when asked, makes the point that much prayer and fasting is needed.
What does he mean by that? My thought is that Jesus is making a point that we not think we, because we know Jesus, can somehow control the outcome. We must always be grounded in Jesus. We must be people who are praying to Jesus, fasting, and more—so that Jesus is at the center.
My thought is that it is not the amount of faith—after all—even a mustard seed will do.
No, it is not the amount—it is the location.