When they came to the crowd a man approached, knelt down before him, 15 and said, “Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Jesus said in reply, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I endure you? Bring him here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. 19 Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to 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. Nothing will be impossible for you.” [21]
Jesus came down from the mountain with Peter, John, and James after the Transfiguration (Lk. 9:28-36) and was met by a large crowd in three groups; one group around the nine apostles who did not accompany Jesus up the mountain, one group around the Pharisees, and the third group around the man and his son who suffered from epilepsy and was possessed (Mk. 9:17-18). The man approached Jesus, knelt in homage, and addressed him as ‘Lord’. He asked Jesus to have pity on his son who was suffering (vv. 14-15). The man had brought his son to the disciples when Jesus was being transfigured on the mountain but they were unable to cure the boy so the man now turned his faith and trust to Jesus with the belief that Jesus could cure his son.
Jesus lamented the lack of faith and moral deficiencies of the crowd and the disciples and called them a “faithless and perverse generation (v. 20).” The disciples’ faith was based on what they experienced as they accompanied Jesus. They received power from Jesus (Mt. 10:1) and believed that could cure the boy and exorcise the demon. They did not understand that it was not by their own power that the boy would be healed. Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing (Jn. 15:5).”
Jesus healed the boy and cast out the demon. The apostles asked him privately why they could not heal the boy. Jesus told them that they relied on their own little power and lacked faith in the power of God. That is why Jesus told them that they were morally perverse like the crowd because their will was not aligned with God’s will. The smallest grain of faith in God can do the impossible (Mt. 13:31-32).
Almighty God, grant us the grace to trust in you so that we can use the gift of faith to live our lives in accordance with your will. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
__________________________________
References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
Comments