Faithless and Twisted?

In reply Jesus said: “O faithless and twisted generation, how long must I continue with you?  How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.¨  Matthew 17:17  (Reference Bible)

The Disciples had followed Jesus throughout His ministry and had walked with Him, ate with Him and sat at His feet taking in all the wonderful instruction Jesus gave.  They were personally instructed by the Son of God Himself.  They were sent to teach, heal and share with the world, the presence of the Savior of all mankind.  They had been given the authority to cast out evil spirits from suffering individuals.  They were a very lucky and privileged group of men.

Unfortunately though, they could not sound the trumpets and jump straight into the celebration party either.  Jesus left them alone with the multitude and went up the mountain for a while.  When He returned there was a man who had been asking for help with his boy.  Nobody could help him.

What was Jesus´ reaction to the situation?

Should we sit back in comfort and think that those poor Disciples were doing something wrong that we are doing right?  No, let us stand there with them and accept Jesus´ scolding in the hope of correcting any possible defect in our own faith.

Jesus uttered some words that may hurt you and me if we let them fall on us.

It goes something like this; ¨Unbelieving and twisted people, how much longer must I put up with You?  Can I not get my work finished and return to the Father and get on with the celebrating part?¨

His Disciples were disappointed as we may be too.  They came to Him afterwards to try to find out why they were unable to accomplish the simple task they had been left with.  They wanted to know how they had let down their Lord.  Let us go with them as they approach Jesus with our ears open and hope to learn what it is that we lack.

“Why could we not cast it out?¨  (verse 19 ASV)

“Because of your little faith.¨ (verse 20)   If you even had the smallest bit of faith, He tells us, you could do all kinds of things and nothing would be impossible.  Mountains could be moved and all.

¨This is great,¨ you say.  ¨We know all this already.¨ But do we?  Are we listening to Jesus?  What is it that He is trying to tell us and just can´t seem to get through?

Sometimes we Christians think we got it all figured out.  We hold all the promises of God and wear around the name of Jesus.  But all the while we have closed our ears and our eyes to the things of the Spirit.  We are wrapped up in casting out demons, healing people or spreading good news.

All these things are great and the celebration is not something we would want to miss.  But the amazing thing behind all this is God.  Jesus too is here, right behind a veil so that we do not see clearly.  This is why we need to use the eyes of faith.  God saw fit to make it so, and we have been called to exercise this muscle called faith.

Dear Jesus, we would draw close to you right now and ask if we are headed in the right direction.  We do not want You to come back and say to us again that you are tired of our lack of faith in You.  You worked hard to show us a shining existence just beyond the veil of our pitiful powers of belief.  If we would unleash all of heaven to work in marvelous ways in and all around us, we must exercise that tiny mustard seed.  Please do not let us stand in the way and hold back the celebration You have prepared.  Lift up our understandings, our faith and our hope in the Divine kingdom despite all our limitations.  Let us direct all to its correct center and purpose in You.

And may Your name be glorified by our smallest offering of faith today.

Amen