Matthew 17:14 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the miraculous healing of a child who was afflicted with a demon and suffering from seizures. Notice first the sad picture the father gives to Christ. This happens right after Jesus comes down from the mountain where he was transfigured. Christ’s glory did not make him forget people or their needs and suffering. After speaking with Moses and Elijah, he came down with the same openness as before, ready to welcome poor, needy people and the crowd around him.

The father comes with urgency. He kneels before Jesus, and that shows how deeply he feels his need. Real pain often drives people to their knees. Those who know they need Christ will come to him earnestly, and he welcomes that kind of pleading. The father says two things about his son. First, he describes the child’s misery: “Lord, have mercy on my son” (Matthew 17:15). A parent cannot help but feel the pain of a suffering child, because children are, in a sense, part of us. So the troubles of children should be brought to God in faithful and heartfelt prayer. If the child cannot pray for himself, as may well have been the case here, then the parents must pray all the more. Parents should feel this duty strongly for children who are weak and cannot pray, and even more for children who are sinful and refuse to pray.

The boy’s condition was very sad. He was epileptic, and he suffered greatly. That word means a disorder that affects the brain and often comes in repeated attacks. By God’s permission, the devil either caused this sickness or used it to make the suffering worse. The child likely had seizures, and Satan’s hand was in it, making the illness far more painful than it normally would be. When Satan gains control, he often uses bodily sicknesses that trouble the mind, because his real target is the soul. The father speaks of the effect and says the child is epileptic, but Christ will deal with the cause by rebuking the demon. That is how he works in spiritual healing too.

The effects were terrible. The child often fell into the fire and into the water. If the sickness made him fall, the devil’s malice made him fall into dangerous places. This is the evil of Satan wherever he gains power over a soul. He seeks to destroy, as (1 Peter 5:8) says.

The father also says he was disappointed by the disciples. “I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him” (Matthew 17:16). Jesus had given his disciples power to cast out demons (Matthew 10:1, Matthew 10:8), and they had succeeded before (Luke 10:17). Yet here they failed, even though nine of them were present and a great crowd was watching. Christ allowed this for wise reasons. It humbled the disciples and showed them they depended on him. It also gave Christ the honor of helping when all human help had failed. Elisha’s staff in Gehazi’s hand could not raise the child, so Elisha had to come himself. In the same way, Christ sometimes keeps human helpers from succeeding so that people will turn to him, the source of life and help. The failure of the instruments did not stop the work of his grace. If he does not work through them, he can still work without them.

Then Jesus rebukes the people first, and after that the demon. He says, “O faithless and perverse generation” (Matthew 17:17). This was not aimed at the disciples alone, but at the crowd, and likely especially at the scribes mentioned in (Mark 9:14). They seem to have mocked the disciples because they had met a case beyond their power. Christ himself could not do many miracles among people ruled by unbelief. Here, the people’s lack of faith kept them from receiving blessings they might otherwise have had. In the same way, the disciples’ weak faith kept them from doing what they otherwise might have done for God. Faithless people soon become crooked in their ways, and that crookedness is sin in its worst form. Faith agrees with God, while unbelief resists and argues against him. Israel was stubborn because it lacked faith (Psalm 95:9), and (Deuteronomy 32:20) says there was no faith in them.

Christ then speaks of two things that grieved him. First, he speaks of how long he had been with them. “How long shall I be with you?” It is as if he asks whether they will always need his bodily presence and never grow to the point where they can be led by the disciples, then by the Spirit, and by the authority of their mission. Must the child always be carried and never learn to walk alone? Second, he speaks of how long he had put up with them. “How long shall I bear with you?” The unbelief and crookedness of people who enjoy the means of grace deeply grieve the Lord Jesus. He had endured Israel in this way long ago (Acts 13:18). The longer Christ bears with a stubborn and unbelieving people, the more serious their sin becomes in his sight. He is God, not man, so he would not endure so much or so long if he were only human.

Still, he heals the child and restores him. He says, “Bring him here to me.” Even though the people were stubborn and Christ was provoked, he still cared for the child. Christ may be angry, but he is never cruel. Even in his displeasure, he does not shut his compassion away from the miserable. “Bring him to me.” When every other help fails, we are still welcome to come to Christ, trusting his power and goodness. This also pictures Christ’s work as our Redeemer.

He breaks Satan’s power. Jesus rebuked the demon with authority, and his word carried force (Matthew 17:18). Christ defeats Satan by the power of his word, the sword that comes from his mouth (Revelation 19:21). Satan cannot stand against Christ’s rebuke, even if he has held someone for a long time. This comforts those wrestling with spiritual enemies, because Christ has already stripped those powers of their strength (Colossians 2:15). The Lion of the tribe of Judah will overpower the roaring lion who seeks to devour. He also heals human suffering. The child was healed at once, and completely. That encourages parents to bring their children to Christ, especially when their souls are under Satan’s power. He is able to heal them, and just as willing as he is able. They should not only bring their children to him in prayer, but also bring them to his word, the ordinary means by which Satan’s strongholds in the soul are torn down. Christ’s rebukes, when they reach the heart, destroy Satan’s power there.

Christ’s conversation with his disciples here gives us a useful lesson. First, they asked why they had not been able to cast out the demon at that time (Matthew 17:19). They came to Jesus privately. Ministers, who serve Christ in public, also need private fellowship with him. There, in secret, they can confess their weakness, their failings, and their mistakes in public work, and ask what went wrong.

We should make good use of the open access we have to Jesus in private. We should speak freely and carefully with him. We should also ask ourselves the same kind of questions the disciples asked: Why were we so dull and careless at that time? Why did we fall so far short in that duty? When what is wrong is found out, it can be corrected.

Second, Christ gave them two reasons for their failure. The first was unbelief (Matthew 17:20). When he spoke to the father of the boy and to the crowd, he blamed unbelief. When he spoke to his disciples, he blamed theirs. The truth was that both sides had faults, but we should be more concerned to hear about our own faults than other people’s. We should blame ourselves before we blame others.

When the preaching of the word seems less effective than it once was, people often blame the ministers, and ministers blame the people. But it is more fitting for each person to own his or her own fault and say, “It is because of me.” Ministers, when they correct others, must learn to give each person the right portion of the word. They should also keep people from judging others by teaching all to judge themselves, “It is because of your unbelief.”

The disciples did have faith, but it was weak and did little. When faith falls short of its proper strength, energy, and action, it can rightly be called unbelief. Many people are guilty of unbelief, even though they are not outright unbelievers. It is because of our unbelief that we do so little in religion and so often fail in what is good.

Our Lord Jesus used this moment to show them the power of faith, so they would not fail in the same way again. “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you will do wonders” (Matthew 17:20). Some think he was speaking of the quality of mustard seed, because when it is crushed it is sharp and strong. If your faith is active and growing, not dead, dull, or flat, you will not be defeated like this. But it is more likely he was speaking of size. If you had only a tiny bit of true faith, like the smallest seed, you would do wonders.

Faith, in general, is a firm trust in, a willing acceptance of, and a confident reliance on all that God has revealed. Here, the faith in view is faith in a special promise, the one by which Christ gave his disciples power to work miracles in his name to confirm the teaching they preached. They were lacking trust in that promise. Perhaps they doubted whether their commission was still valid, or feared it had ended with their first mission and would not continue now that they were returning to their Master. Or perhaps they thought they had somehow lost it or been deprived of it.

Maybe Christ’s absence with the three chief disciples, and his command that the rest not follow, made them wonder whether they still had power to do this, or whether the Lord’s power was still with them. In any case, they were not then depending on Christ’s promise of presence as strongly as they should have been. It is good to distrust ourselves and our own strength, but Christ is displeased when we distrust any power that comes from him or is given by him.

If you have even a little of this faith in sincerity, if you truly rely on the power given to you, you will say to this mountain, “Move.” This is a common saying that means what follows, and nothing more, “Nothing will be impossible for you.” They had been fully commissioned to cast out demons without exception, but this demon was unusually fierce and stubborn. They distrusted the power they had received, and so they failed. To make this plain, Christ showed them what they could have done. Active faith can move mountains, not by its own strength, but by the power of God, which faith holds onto through God’s promise.

The second reason was that the disease itself made the cure more difficult than usual (Matthew 17:21). “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” This kind of possession, which caused a kind of seizure, or this kind of demon, which was so violent, is not usually driven out except by great acts of devotion, and this was where they were lacking. Some spiritual enemies are stronger than others, even though all of them are principalities and powers.

The unusual strength of Satan should not weaken our faith. It should stir us to act with greater earnestness and to pray more eagerly for faith to increase. Some understand the verse this way: “This kind of faith, the kind that removes mountains, does not come from God, does not grow to full strength, and does not come fully into action except through earnest prayer.”

Fasting and prayer are fitting means for bringing down Satan’s power against us and for drawing in God’s help. Fasting helps give prayer an edge. It shows humility, which is necessary in prayer. It also helps weaken sinful habits and prepares the body to serve the soul in prayer. When the devil’s hold on the soul is strengthened by the body’s condition, fasting must be joined with prayer, so that the body is kept under control.