November 12, 2013
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Matthew 17 (Extract)
At the bottom of the mountain, they were met by a crowd of waiting people. As they approached, a men came out of the crowd and fell to his knees begging, “Master, have mercy on my son. He goes out of his mind and suffers terribly, falling into seizures. Frequently he is pitched into the fire, other times into the river. I brought him to your disciples, but they could do nothing for him.”
Jesus said, “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus of your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.” He ordered the afflicting demon out – and it was out, gone. From that moment on the boy was well.
When the disciples and Jesus off to themselves, they asked, “Why couldn’t we throw it out?”
‘Because you’re not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, ‘Move! and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.”
As they were regrouping in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him – and three days later he will be raised alive.” The disciples felt terrible.+
