When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him,
and said, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers
terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, but they
could not cure him. Jesus answered, You faithless and perverse generation, how much
longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him
here to me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it 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 tell 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; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Matthew
17:14-20
Those of us who
are believers in Jesus Christ are in possession of a precious and powerful
commodity—faith. It is not something
that can be measured on a scale. It is
measured by a life. Throughout the
Lenten Season we focus on the profound faith Jesus had in God—to go the distance to the cross to secure eternal life for all who
would believe in Christ. Lent gives
each of us the opportunity to evaluate how and where our faith is active, and
where it is not. Even a very small
amount of faith, the size of a mustard seed, is just enough to make a
difference. Making a difference is your
responsibility and mine.
In the passage
above, Jesus admonishes not only the one person who is asking for healing, but
an entire generation! He includes
everyone around this person as well as the person himself to be blamed for not
doing what is within their power to do.
It seems from this stern admonition that those surrounding this man
could see the need and did not exercise their faith to pray/intercede for
him. Therefore, bystanders are just as
responsible for the non-healing as the man himself. These words are as relevant today as they
were then. Where is our faith?
Our world is changing with greater rapidity. We need look no further than our own havens
and front yards, and beyond to newspapers and international cable networks to
know that American life and the life of world, face many challenges. Christian people everywhere possess an
antidote to today’s problems—faith and prayer.
These are the change agents for good that continue to get God’s attention. They always have. All that is necessary to put them in action
is to exercise the faith we have. If the
faith we possess is only the size of a mustard seed, it is just enough. We can leave the increase of our faith in the
hands of God through Christ, the author and the finisher of our faith.
Lord Jesus, we
often fail to exercise the measure of faith apportioned to us. May this change. Holy Spirit, please move us to words and
deeds that act on faith, however small to begin. In faith in Jesus Christ,
Amen.
Chris Ann Waters