14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” 17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” [21]22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief. REFLECTIONSWritten by Rebecca SheadImmediately before today’s passage, Jesus’ glory was revealed in the transfiguration. What a contrast in these verses! Through lack of faith, the disciples were not able to heal a boy of epilepsy and demon possession, even though Jesus had earlier given them authority to do just that (Matt 10:1). Jesus’ frustration with the “unbelieving and perverse generation” before him extends even to the disciples, the men who had spent three years with him and believed him to be the Messiah (Matt 16:16).It’s a pretty big rebuke. Jesus says that faith as small as a mustard seed can move a mountain, but the disciples couldn’t heal the boy – so their faith must have been even smaller than a mustard seed! Does this passage mean that if our faith is big enough, we will be able to heal people too? We haven’t been given the same authority to heal as Jesus gave to his disciples, so I don’t think that’s what it means. I think Jesus is teaching them that what really matters is who their faith is in, more than the strength or size of their faith; Peter, James and John have just seen a glimpse of his glory. Jesus is also teaching them that he’s about to demonstrate why they should have faith in him, by dying and then rising to life.It’s easy to be critical of the disciples for their lack of faith, but I’m reminded that I often try to do things in my own strength instead of depending on God. We are in the privileged position of living on the other side of Jesus’ death and resurrection, so we understand why we can have faith in him. Join me in praying that God will help us to put our trust in Jesus every day, to depend on him in everything, and to keep growing our faith as we pray and listen to his Word.ABOUT THE AUTHORRebecca is a member of our of our Bossley Park Morning congregation.