14And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."
17Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." 18And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
20So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
This text brought up more questions for me than it answered. Who is Jesus calling the faithless and perverse generation? The father of the epileptic child? His disciples? I know what faithless means, but I thought I should look up the meaning of the word perverse to make sure I understood Jesus' statement correctly. According to my dictionary, perverse means directed away from what is good or right; obstinately persisting in an error or fault.
I can understand Jesus' question of how long shall I be with you for His time with them in flesh is limited. But I think of Jesus as always being with me, in my heart. I felt I could always count on that. Won't he always be with me? And when Jesus asks, "How long shall I bear with you?", I get even more concerned. When I ask someone to bear with me, it is a request that they put up with what I am currently doing for it will be more what they want after a bit. Do we ask Jesus to bear with us as we continue doing what we want, with the hopes that we will do more what Jesus wants after a bit? How long should Jesus put up with me? How long will I wander away from what is good or right? How long will I obstinately persist in an error or fault? Is there a limit to how long Jesus will bear with me? I like to think Jesus has infinite patience. But that doesn't mean I should take advantage of that patience. I should not make Jesus bear with me. I don't want Jesus to give up on me. Jesus may have unlimited patience, but my time on earth is limited.
Why is Jesus calling them faithless and perverse? Why does it seem that Jesus is starting to complain about bearing with them? At first I thought it might be because He is starting to prepare himself for His final days, to make the ultimate sacrifice for them, and they are still only coming to Jesus because of His great healing power. But Jesus is infinite in His compassion. He will heal this epileptic boy. His love and compassion would never be overshadowed by what He is trying to accomplish.
No, I wonder if Jesus is calling them faithless and perverse because He sees that their faith is weak and they persist in their errors. How does He know they are faithless? Because they were unable to heal the boy. Jesus said that if they have faith as a mustard seed, nothing is impossible. At first I thought He was saying faith even as tiny as a mustard seed is all that is required. But maybe He is referring back to the parable of the mustard seed in Matthew 13:31-32:
| 31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches." |
Maybe He is referring to a seed of faith that when planted and allowed to take root and grow, it grows into something great. Maybe He is saying that we need to let our faith grow into something great, through which nothing will be impossible. Maybe Jesus is saying more to the fact that they aren't letting their faith develop into anything greater. And that is why they were unable to heal this boy.
The next troubling part of this verse are the last two lines. First He says that with faith as a mustard seed, nothing is impossible. But then He says this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting. Isn't this a contradiction? So in certain situations is more required than faith alone?
Actually, the conclusion I am starting to draw is that yes, with faith, nothing is impossible. But it should be faith as a mustard seed. It needs to be allowed to grow, to become the strong thing it can be. And to grow that kind of strong faith, it doesn't just happen. You need to pray and fast.
OK, next question: fasting for religious reasons seemed to be quite common in Jesus' time. Why don't we fast anymore. Are we missing a critical part of our faith growth when we don't fast? I think that just as ways of doing things vary across cultures, there are multiple ways of accomplishing the same results. No, our culture does not fast. What was the purpose of fasting? It was to practice self denial, cleanse the body, focus on a closer communication with God. Even though we don't follow Jesus' instruction to the exact word by praying and fasting, we must still pray, practice self denial in other things, cleanse the body, and focus on a closer communication with God. This is needed for our faith to grow, to become that mustard plant of great strength which provides support and shelter.
Note, he talks of prayer and fasting. Praying is an act of doing something. Fasting is an act of not doing something. Strengthening faith does not just happen. It is the result of what we do and don't do.
Some things we face may require stronger faith than others. When our faith does not seem to be enough to get us through that mountain of a problem we face, maybe we need to strengthen our faith. We should never allow our faith to become stagnant. As a mustard seed, we should help it to always continue to grow. It should be our strength, our support, our shelter. And helping it to grow can only be done by taking action, both in what we do and in what we purposely don't do.