O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
Coming down from the mountain after his transfiguration Jesus found a parallel experience to that of Moses after he received the commandments from God. He was gone only briefly, but the faith those followers of his that did not accompany him already began to waver.
"Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him."
This man was frustrated when the disciples where not able to cure his son. But was his own lack of faith a part of the problem? Did he really believe that there was a power at work in them, the power of Jesus himself, that could effect the result he desired? It is hard to say. But by the time Jesus returned and he approached him he did not seem to be coming from a good place spiritually. He brought his disappointment as a provocation and held the failure of the disciples against the master himself. It was as though he thought Jesus was now obligated to prove himself because his disciples had failed.
Disappointment tends to cloud our judgment. It can cause faith that already tenuous to further weaken. And yet the humans who represent Jesus by bringing his healing to us ought never cause us to impugn the master himself, even if at times we see in them great failures of faith. The failure of a disciple can be a temptation against our faith in the master but it should not be so since even those disciples that followed Jesus the closest sometimes fought, failed, and otherwise made embarrassments of themselves. When we do encounter disappointment in the human mediators of divine grace we should not hold these against Jesus as though we are then owed something. Instead we should approach the master directly with faith undiminished either by his absence or by his disciples' failure.
Why could we not drive it out?"
He said to them, "Because of your little faith.
The disciples had some faith, had demonstrated some ability to do mighty deeds in Jesus' name. But here they encountered the need for greater perfection. The faith they already possessed was apparently insufficient in light of some aspect of the scenario that was not described. Maybe the problem stemmed from a competitive spirit among the nine. This would be especially plausible as those not chosen to go up Mount Tabor with Jesus might have felt the need to feel validated. Maybe they had already begun to take for granted their ability to work such healings and thus proceeded without the faith that made them rely on the power of Jesus and instead attempted the work as though it was through their own power.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
'Move from here to there,' and it will move.
Perhaps they felt they were not up to the task, and that their own faith was too little to effect the healing. What Jesus wanted them to recognize was that it did not necessarily take immense faith to work wonders. It instead required that they put the little faith they had to use. It might remind us of Star Wars, where Luke tried to lift the X-Wing out of the swamp but failed because of the size of the ship. The problem was a matter of perspective, proven when Yoda was able to do it easily. As opposed to this fantasy story how much ought a mustard seed of faith in Jesus to be efficacious, moving not merely X-Wings, but even mountains? The lesson: don't judge this mustard seed by its size.
We see in this story that there are potential ways in which a faith that is not yet fully mature can go astray. But this helps us to recognize that faith is not an on/off binary type attribute. Rather it is something in which we grow as we experience life together with Jesus. Even failures in this regard become lessons that help us learn to increase our trust in Jesus and our hope in what is possible in him. We see in the Gospel of Mark that the father of this child did in fact grow from this encounter.
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (see Mark 9:23-24).
The enemy is intimidated by faith because he knows how powerful it is against his strongholds in the world. Hence he will do all in his power to steal, disorder, or destroy it. This is why we must learn to hold fast to it and treasure it similar to the way that Israel was called to rehearse and drill their monotheistic creed.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.
Drill them into your children.
Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign
and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
We have a greater revelation than they. But this requires more care, more meditation, more treasuring it in our hearts, and not less. Then, when healing is needed, we will believe that with God all things are indeed possible. And it is in believing this that miracles happen.
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim!
And I am safe from my enemies.
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