At that time, a man came up to Jesus and kneeling before him said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move hence to yonder place,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Matthew 17:14-23
This past Thursday, August 6th, we celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord on Mount Tabor. In the Transfiguration, we see the profound revelation of Christ’s full radiance, inspiring awe and reverence as Peter, James, and John glimpse His divine nature, which will be fully revealed in His Resurrection on the third day.
The Transfiguration is a further revelation to us that Christ is God. As God, He bears within Him the fullness of all authority over the creation He has made. Today’s Gospel reading picks up in the aftermath of the Transfiguration, presenting us with a tangible example of the authority Christ possesses over all evil and infirmity, a gift of authority He shares with us as He works in our lives.
Looking at the Gospel, we see that after Jesus descends from Tabor with Peter, James, and John, they are met by a father who approaches Jesus with humility, kneeling before Him. His initial actions serve as a powerful example of faith in action, inviting us to trust in God’s authority with humility.
The father’s humility in approaching Jesus teaches us that acknowledging our dependence on God’s authority is essential for spiritual growth and for trusting in the salvation He offers us.
As the father kneels before Jesus, we hear him state:
“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic, and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him.”
In describing the state of his son, we hear that he is beset by infirmity and suffering terribly. Yet the father’s first request to Jesus is for mercy, not healing. This highlights that true faith involves trusting in God’s mercy and recognizing His authority to free us from suffering, which is a consequence of sin.
It is important, once again, to make a quick note on how sin operates in our world before moving on, for this relates directly to how the mercy of God can free this boy.
Sin, or a missing of the mark, is a deviation from God, our only true target in life. When we choose to flee from God, our source of life, we also cast off all the gifts offered to us in His presence. The reason for this is that we cannot receive what we are running from.
As we run from God, we not only distort our own lives, but we also distort the broader world around us. This distortion is a result of the authority we possess over the creation God has entrusted to us. God calls us to be good stewards of creation, yet when we reject this calling, our actions distort what has been entrusted to us.
We hold collective responsibility for our actions, for we acknowledge that through Christ we are a unified body as His people. In this unification of humanity, we also see that sin and its effects upon our lives cannot always be directly quantified.
Looking at today’s Gospel, there is no satisfying correlation between the actions of this father or his son and the effects of sin that the son finds himself bound by, leading to the distortion of his epilepsy.
We all sin, and the results of our actions twist and distort the world around us. It is through this collective distortion that we experience the unfortunate consequences of sickness and sin in our lives.
Yet here lies the mercy of our Lord, for as we hear in the Lord’s Prayer, He forgives us our debts as we are called to forgive those who are indebted to us. What this tells us is that the actions of God, centered in His mercy, free us from the consequences of sin, for, as we stated earlier, He, as God, possesses all authority over His creation.
We are also reminded that, as unified members of His Body, when we allow Him to carry out His goodness through us, this goodness also extends to our brothers and sisters. We are connected in sin, yet Christ has come to show us that we are freed from sin through our connection with Him.
Christ possesses all authority as God, and as we have discussed for the past several weeks, He offers that same power and authority to His followers, for His presence is made known through His people.
Yet the father tells us that he brought his son to Jesus’ disciples while He was being transfigured, and they were unable to heal the boy.
Once again, the faith of the disciples is lacking, and Christ uses this as an opportunity to teach and reorient them all. Hearing of the lack of faith found in His followers, Christ exclaims:
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”
In referring to the generation in which He finds Himself as faithless and perverse, we see articulated what happens when we do not have a desire for life in God’s presence as our central guiding star.
The further we move away from God, who is our source of life, the more we pervert and distort the creation He has provided for us. As we focus upon this distortion, faith wanes, for we forget the saving authority of God that is offered to us all.
Yet Christ, in His love for us, continues to offer us all we need to be freed from sin and reoriented toward the Kingdom of our Father through repentance. He also warns the disciples that there will be a time when He is not with us in the same way we see Him in the Gospel, and this proclamation pains Him, for He loves us so.
Yet after He has shaken them awake with this proclamation of their faithlessness, Christ takes action and calls for the boy.
We hear simply that the boy came to Him and:
“Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.”
There is nothing more to be done, for the authority of Christ is seen in His swift action. His word alone, as seen in the rebuke, is enough to free the boy from his possession.
Thus, just as in the beginning He brought all things into creation through His Word, now we see Him freeing that same creation from the consequences of sin through His authoritative word.
After these events, we hear the Apostles come to Jesus apart from the crowd and ask:
“Why could we not cast it out?”
The Apostles have already heard of their lack of faith, and this was a major contributing factor in their inability to cast out the spirit of infirmity in the boy.
Yet in response to their further questioning, Jesus goes deeper in His answer, stating:
“Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move hence to yonder place,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.”
Here Christ drives the point home.
The Apostles lacked faith, and so the authority of God could not fully be at work through them. Because of our free will, God does not force us to participate in the saving gifts offered to us all.
Simply put, these gifts are offered, not forced upon us.
God loves us, so He offers us His gifts of salvation, and it becomes our role to receive Him fully so that His gifts may be at work within us.
If the Apostles had faith even as small as a mustard seed—a very tiny seed—then they could accomplish something as great as moving a mountain.
Practically speaking, this can mean living with confidence that God is truly at work within us. We are called to live this way because God continually reassures us throughout Scripture that He is active in our lives.
When we search for Him in our lives, faithfully pursuing His promise with confidence in the life we live, we begin to see that He is here, offering us everything we need for a perfect life in Him.
Here, the Apostles lack confidence that God is at work through them, yet we also know that a day will come when great healing will be accomplished through them all.
At this point, they struggle to see that God, through His Christ, is working within them. Yet later, they will center their lives fully in the light of our Lord’s Resurrection.
This is a reminder for us as well that we will have moments when we struggle with faith. Yet it is in continuing through the struggle that we allow God to continue His work in our lives.
Christ then concludes this reading by reminding the Apostles of what is to come in order to make the saving acts of God possible, stating:
“The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.”
All faith in God is sealed in the covenant of what God has done for us in offering us His life.
In the Old Covenant, God calls His people to put some skin in the game of their covenant with Him through circumcision.
(Yes, pun intended.)
Yet through the New Covenant, we see that God offers us His Body and Blood, literally allowing God to dwell within us.
In allowing God to dwell within us through receiving His Body and Blood when we are in full communion with Him as Orthodox Christians, we center our lives in action upon the promise that God is at work within us.
He offers Himself to us and dwells within us, and we, in like manner, are called to offer ourselves to Him.
God promises that He will offer us everything we need for life in Him. He provides everything we need by offering us the fullness of Himself, and all we are called to do is receive Him faithfully.
God is no liar; rather, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life Himself.
Through Christ, we find our way to our true home in the Kingdom of our Father, and as we live in this age beset by sin, when we center our lives on Him, we discover that He is at work within us.
So let us ask ourselves today: How can we truly believe that God is at work in our lives and examine ourselves to ensure that we are searching for Him in all we do?
How can we model the humility and faith of the father who comes to Christ, fall down before Him ourselves, and place all our hope in Him, trusting that He will continue to provide for our every need?
Truly, to our Lord and God be all glory, honor, and worship, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
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