For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ website.
Introduction
- Yesterday: mother/daughter; today: father/son.
- New life -- not just for the boy, but for the dad
- Children have the power to hurt us -- just as spouses do. In today's passage, the pain that is breaking the parent's heart is unwitting (beyond the control of the child).
- Context: While Jesus and the Three were up on the Mount of Transfiguration, the other disciples failed to exorcise a demon who was destroying a family.
Scriptural study: Matt 17:14-20
- Notice the man’s posture (v.14). Like so many who beg Jesus for release from leprosy or demons, he's on his knees. He deeply desires a miracle for his son’s sake.
- The demonic attacks are beyond the control of the boy, harming him by exposing him to death by burning or drowning.
- The Canaanite woman approaches Jesus first; the man in today’s account went first to Jesus' disciples (v.16). Not to his three most trusted, however, who were with him on the Mount of Transfiguration.
- Even when we've been following Christ for a while--like the nine, who had been Jesus' disciples for nearly three years--we still have far to go.
- I wonder how the 9 disciples felt when the man says these words to Jesus!
- Lack of faith is a serious problem (v.17). It is unnatural. We should have faith, and failure to trust God is culpable.
- Sometimes we need to bring our problems to the Lord, when those persons we had hoped could help fail to fix the problem.
- The demon is rebuked (v.18); it ought not to be inhabiting a human being.
- Instant healing—not in multiple stages, nor partial healing.
- Faith is the issue (v.20).
- The disciples were apparently not praying enough, or with sufficient faith.
- Mustard seed = smallest seed known in Palestine, though not the smallest of seeds globally. Jesus is speaking in a way they can relate to, not with perfect biological precision. In fact, all the science in the Bible is of the ancient variety. (It’s not a science book, even remotely.)
- No mountains are literally moved by faith. (Consider, for example, the other impossible deeds of 1 Cor 13:1-2.) Yet we instinctively—and correctly—spiritualize Jesus’ words, because then they make sense, and are applicable to our lives.
- Renewal and relief come to this family, although the passage seems to be more a lesson for Jesus' disciples -- and for us -- about faithful prayer.
Thought questions
- How is my prayer life? What things may I be prevented from accomplishing for lack of prayer?
- As with the Canaanite woman, the transition for the children from possession to freedom is tremendously faith-building for the parents -- not just for the child. In the same way, disciples of Christ need to see the miracle of the new birth on a regular basis. How long has it been since you have helped someone to make the radical transition from the slavery of the world to the freedom in Christ?
