(Audio)
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.
We ourselves are sometimes in the role of the disciples. The world has heard rumors of the Good News. They have heard something about who Jesus is and that we purport to be his representatives, his hands and his feet in the world. But when they come to us we often disappoint them. We are often unable to offer anything to this who suffer severely. We can't help them quench the fire of sin or keep them stable on their path and out of dangerous waters.
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me.”
Fortunately Jesus does not let our own failings limit his offer of grace and mercy. If Jesus calls us to make him known and we lack the faith he will try another means. He will even bypass all intermediaries and go to work directly on the heart of those who need him.
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Jesus does want to work through us and through our faith. The boy could have been cured sooner and suffered less if we had enough faith. As disciples, the role of that faith is to bring those who suffer to Jesus by our prayer. True faith does not attempt a healing through our own spiritual ability or because it is in some way deserved that our prayers be answered. It is a faith, not in some vague sense of believing in ourselves, but which is rather absolute trust in the fact that Jesus can heal and desires to do so.
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.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Genuine faith in Jesus does not command mountains for the sake of pride. They won't go anywhere if our purposes are selfish and disconnected from the one in whom our faith rests. Because we do often ask for the wrong reasons, and don't often ask for the right ones, we become accustomed to disappointment. We fear to make another request only to fail again. But Jesus will continue to present us with opportunities to grow in faith because it is precisely faith that is meant to be the whole basis of our life as Christians.
The rash man has no integrity;
but the just man, because of his faith, shall live.
We still spend much of our lives living as though what really matters is how good, skilled, productive or popular we are. We can't quite shake the feeling that we have to earn our worth, that we need to make God love us by our works. This is not a condition from which we can exercise faith. If we can just get beyond this we will see mountains move around us. The suffering will no longer have their healing put off into the indeterminate future. We will be able to bring them Jesus because we ourselves our living from the assurance of his love.
Jesus knows that faith is not simply an on switch that just needs to be flipped once. It is rather a grace given to respond to each moment. It is something in which we can grow. And since he has begun this good work in us we need not despair over our failings. We can be confident that he will bring it to completion (see Philippians 1:6).
Clearly upon the tablets,
so that one can read it readily.
For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
If it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
Danny Gokey - Give Me Jesus
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