Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” Matthew 17:19 ESV1
Read Matthew 17:14-20, Mark 9:14-32 & Luke 9:37-43
“And Jesus went on with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi” (Mark 8:27). “And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves” (Mark 9:2). Much of spiritual significance happened on the mountain near Caesarea Philippi, but our focus today will be on what happened in the valley.
“When they came [back down] to the [other] disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw Him, were greatly amazed and ran up to Him and greeted Him. And He asked [the disciples], ‘What are you arguing about with them?’ And someone from the crowd” (Mark 9:14-17a), “a man, came up to Him and, kneeling before Him,” (Matthew 17:14b) “answered Him, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to You, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid’” (Mark 9:17b-18a). “‘Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child … a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him’” (Luke 9:38b-39). “‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures, and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him.’ And Jesus answered, ‘O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to Me’” (Matthew 17:15-17).
“And they brought the boy to Him. And when the spirit saw Him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘“If you can”! All things are possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.’ And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose” (Mark 9:20-27), “and the boy was healed instantly” (Matthew 17:18b). “And all were astonished at the majesty of God” (Luke 9:43).
“Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you’” (Matthew 17:19-20). “And He said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer [and fasting (KJV)2]’” (Mark 9:29).
Jesus was angry with the disciples that they could not cast out this demon. He called them “faithless and twisted” (Matthew 17:17, Luke 9:41). That may sound a little harsh, but it was the truth.
You see, the disciples had the power to cast out this stubborn demon. Earlier, Jesus had “called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons” (Luke 9:1, emphasis mine). All means all! And Jesus Himself said, “All things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23b). The disciples had the power; they just didn’t believe they had it. When they asked Jesus why they were unsuccessful, “He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith’” (Matthew 17:20a). If they had had unhindered “‘faith like a grain of mustard seed … nothing [would have been] impossible for [them]’” (Matthew 17:20). It wasn’t the little amount of their faith that was the problem; it was their significant amount of unbelief. Everything about life as a Believer is built on faith. When it all comes down to it, faith saturated in doubt, is as ineffective as no faith at all.
This lack of faith cost them more than effectiveness. Because they doubted their God-given power, they wavered between truth and lies. When they turned away from the truth, they ended up in a twisted state. James, Jesus’ half-brother who wrote the Bible book bearing his name, said the following about the relationship between faith and doubt. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8). Doubt is especially displeasing to the Lord, and it will eventually lead to a mixed-up mess in all areas of a doubting Christian’s life.
By this time, the disciples had closely walked with Jesus for about two years. They had heard Him teach, they had seen Him perform miracle after miracle, and they had received and used the power He had given them. They had no excuse for doubting.
Jesus lamented, “‘How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you’” (Mark 9:19b)? Jesus wasn’t going to be with them much longer. Soon, He was going to leave Earth for He would complete that for which He came. He had tried to prepare His disciples for this by foretelling His suffering, death, and resurrection (see Matthew 16:21, 17:22-23; Mark 8:31-32a, and Luke 9:21-22). After He was gone, the disciples would have to carry on the ministry. He would give them the job of starting a movement that would proclaim the Gospel to the whole world. He had told Peter that he would have a prominent leadership position over the newly to be formed Church (see Matthew 17:17-19). Would they be ready for the task? Thankfully, Jesus would be sending a Helper (see John 14:16). But Jesus had reason to be upset.
How did the disciples go from believing Jesus when He gave them power and going “through the villages, preaching the Gospel and healing everywhere” (Luke 9:6) to being so filled with doubt that “they could not heal” (Matthew 17:16b) this particular boy?
The disciples let someone talk them out of their faith. When Jesus came upon His disciples, they were arguing with some scribes (see Mark 9:14). “Scribes in ancient Israel were learned men whose business was to study the Law, transcribe it, and write commentaries on it. They were also hired on occasions when the need for a written document arose or when an interpretation of a legal point was needed … The scribes took their job of preserving Scripture very seriously; they would copy and recopy the Bible meticulously, even counting letters and spaces to ensure each copy was correct … The scribes went beyond interpretation of Scripture, however, and added many man-made traditions to what God had said. They became professionals at spelling out the letter of the Law while ignoring the spirit behind it. Things became so bad that the regulations and traditions the scribes added to the Law were considered more important than the Law itself.”3
The disciples were mostly unlearned men (see Acts 4:13a). The disciples probably felt spiritually inadequate around the scribes. When a spiritual argument arose, they most likely fell into doubt not knowing how to respond to those who seemed to have all the answers. In other altercations with the religious leaders, Jesus had been there. Now Jesus wasn’t around to come up with an intelligent rebuttal to silence the scribes or to lead the disciples away from the unnecessary negative interaction. They got stuck arguing. The longer they argued, the more uncertain they probably became. But they had a power higher than all the knowledge of the scribes. Yes, they were “uneducated … [but] they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Familiarity with Jesus trumps familiarity with facts every time. Unfortunately, a fact-checker can make one doubt his/her faith if he/she isn’t prepared.
The disciples weren’t prepared. They hadn’t stayed diligent in their relationship with God. When ministry was crazy and so “many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” (Mark 6:31), they knew they needed God. But, when they had a little time to relax in a safe environment with Jesus and one another, they took a vacation from spiritual matters. Take a look at the events recorded earlier in chapter 9 of Luke’s Gospel. “Now it happened that as He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him (Luke 9:18a). And, “He took with Him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray … Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep” (Luke 9:28a & 32a). Notice how, in both cases, the disciples were with Jesus, but He was the only one praying.
When the disciples “asked Him, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’… He said to them, ‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer’” (Mark 9:29). The King James Version of the Bible adds the words and fasting to this verse. I think it would be a waste of time to wonder if particular demons only come out with a specific amount of prayer. It would be equally absurd to try to determine if Jesus really meant fasting, and if so, how much and from what. The question is not: What kind? Or, how much? But, how serious are you?
Anyone attempting to push out Satan from the territory he has claimed better not enter into the task flippantly. Luke documented this event in the book of Acts: “Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.’ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?’ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:13-16).
This story serves as a warning but also as an encouragement. The demon knew Paul! Paul spent a lot of time in prayer and taught those in the churches he founded to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). You see, you are known in the spiritual realm when you spend time in the Throne Room of God. The more time you spend in prayer, the more you are recognized and feared by evil spiritual forces. The more you spend time communing with God, the more prepared you will be to face anything life throws at you. The more time you spend talking to and listening to God, the more direction you will receive on how much prayer, fasting, or anything else will be necessary to handle whatever happens in your life and ministry.
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). If you want to be powerful and prepared, you have got to pray continually. Maybe your first moment by moment prayer, at this stage in the game, needs to be, “‘I believe; help my unbelief’” (Mark 9:24b)! As you make prayer your practice, may your faith be sure and your body and mind be ready whatever comes your way.
1 Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.
2 Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version.