Matthew 17:14-18 (NIV) When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
“O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
Perhaps the last thing that Jesus wanted to hear this late in the game was that His closest followers could not even cast out a demon. This was the source of His frustrated outcry.
This father had brought his demon-possessed son to where he had heard that Jesus was staying. When he got there, he found that Jesus had gone up on the mountain, and his followers had no idea how long he would be. In response, the man had asked Jesus’ disciples if they could do something for his son. This was not an unreasonable request. The man assumed that Jesus, like any good rabbi, would be teaching his followers how to follow in his footsteps, including how to do what He was doing.
But the description the father gave of the power and stubbornness of the unclean spirit intimidated the disciples. They had cast out demons before, but it had been a while, and they had cast out those demons with the authority that Jesus had given them back then. They hadn’t had to cast out any demons since they had been back traveling with Jesus, and weren’t sure that they still possessed that authority.
So they approached the boy timidly, unsure of themselves. And when the demon exerted his power, and started snarling, and howling, and foaming at the mouth, they drew back in fear and declared that this spirit was too strong for them. The man would have to wait for Jesus to return.
When Jesus appeared, fresh from some extended time spent with His Father, and learned what had happened, He was dismayed at His followers’ failure. (And, yes, His outcry of “perverse and unbelieving generation” was aimed right at the disciples, and they knew it, and watched Jesus work in silence, their cheeks hot with shame.)
Jesus merely rebuked the demon and commanded it to come out. The boy shrieked and fell thrashing to the ground, and then suddenly became motionless, barely breathing. Everyone thought for a moment that the spirit had killed him. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, whole and himself again. (Cf. Mark 9:26-27.) What had seemed so impossible to the disciples was handled by Jesus with a word.
Father, we, as Your people and as disciples of Jesus, still allow ourselves to get intimidated by the tasks You have called us to do. They seem mightier than we are, so we excuse ourselves, hoping that You will someone else stronger than us to do what we just can’t. But that is clearly not acceptable to You, any more than it was to Jesus. If we belong to Him, we have the Holy Spirit living in us (Romans 8:9). That means that we have all the power that we need to do everything You direct us to do, including even greater things than Jesus did (John 14:12-14). So we must never doubt, never give up, and never retreat before the enemy. Help me to receive and assimilate these truths into the deepest part of me, so that I can be confident and powerful every time I act in Your name. Amen.