Matthew 17:14-18: Trusting Beyond Our Understanding

“O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you?” Jesus in Matthew 17:17

“Diabolical forces are formidable. These forces are eternal, and they exist today. The fairy tale is true. The devil exists. God exists. And for us, as people, our very destiny hinges upon which one we elect to follow.” (Ed Warren, real-life exorcist.  He is featured in the movie, The Conjuring.) 

Jesus, Peter, James and John have now come down from their literal mountain top experience and they have re-entered society and came to the crowd (v. 14).  From Mark’s version we learn a few more interesting details.   A great crowd had gathered as the disciples were arguing with the scribes (see Mark 9:14). When Jesus appeared the crowd forgot about the argument and “ran up to him and greeted him.” And  Jesus asked his disciples, “What are you arguing about with them?” (Mark 9:15-16). The text does not supply a direct answer but one can assume the argument had to do with the suffering boy.  

Rafael's "Transfiguration" (1518-1520) with the portrayal of the demon-possessed boy in the bottom half.  

This is when the father came up to Jesus and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic 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,” (vv. 14-15).

In our Sunday school class we recently studied Hebrews 2:3-4.   The text mentions signs, wonders and healings.  Someone asked, “Are those things for today?” Many in the class were better educated with more years of missions experience than me.  They provided a great answer:  “yes and no.”   On one hand, ““We do not wrestle against flesh and blood” but “against the spiritual forces of evil…” (Ephesians 6:12).

On the other hand, miraculous signs were given, according to Hebrews 2:3, so the gospel could be “attested (i.e., validated) to us by those who heard.”  In parts of our world today where the gospel is not even known culturally and where the unreached are open to the spiritual world, one is more likely to see the gospel attested to by signs and wonders.    This was the world of first-century Palestine.  

This episode is much more about the faith of his disciples and the crowd than it is about the doctrine of demon-possession.    After all the disciples had seen and heard, they still wrestled with their own lack of faith.  One can hear the exasperation in Jesus’ words, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you?  How long am I to bear with you?” (v. 17).  This is similar to the rebuke of 16:8.

“Bring him here to me,” Jesus commanded.   And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly, (v. 18).  The outward signs were epilepsy (v. 15), foaming at the mouth, grinding his teeth, seizures and unable to talk (see Mark 9:17-18).  It must have destroyed the boy’s father to see his son suffer like this.    He loved his son.  In his heart’s desire to see his son healed, the father brought him to the only one who could heal him.  Even though he acknowledged his own struggles, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24), the father showed great faith and his son was healed.

The faith of the father, like the faith of the centurion (7:10) and the Canaanite woman (15:28), stands in stark contrast to the faith of the disciples.   I believe Jesus expected a greater demonstration of faith from the disciples than what they showed.   The jealousy and strife among the disciples (see Mark 9:13, 34) showed that they were still “infants in Christ”, not ready for “solid food” (1 Corinthians 3:1,2).

Our Lord is “far above all rule, authority, power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21), as this passage shows.  As humans, we must respect the power of the spiritual world.  However, we must neither be fearful of demons, nor ignore them.  We must not attribute all things negative to the demonic.   The other extreme is that we act as secular liturgists and ignore the spiritual realm altogether.   Our faith is greater than gold (1 Peter 1:7) and the Lord desires that we trust him, even beyond our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

Matthew 17:9-13: Day Has Come

“Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead,” Jesus in Matthew 17:9

“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty….’This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”  (2 Peter 1:16-18 ESV)

And as they were coming down from their mountain top experience, coming back into the earthly realm of disbelief, suffering and demonic activity, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, of his transfiguration, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead,” (v. 9).   At first glance, these words may seem confusing, even counter-productive.

However, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection and glorification are all part of God’s sovereign plan.  Even the timing of these events is precisely planned.   A premature proclamation of the transfiguration of Jesus may lead the mob to want to crown Jesus as a mere secular messiah, a mistake that nearly happened once before (see John 6:15).   But Jesus’ “kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).   He did not come to be crowned an earthly king but to die on a cross and “to give his life as a ransom for many,” (Mark 10:45). 

At the right time, in the right way, Jesus will by his own volition lay down his life for the sins of the world (see John 10:17-18), but not then as they were coming down the mountain (v. 9).    For his “hour has not yet come” (John 2:4, see also John 7:30 and 8:20).  Soon however the hour will “come for the Son to be glorified” (John 17:1; see also Matthew 26:18, 45).

Having just seen Elijah with Jesus, the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” (v. 10).  The scribes were familiar with the verses from Malachi, which state, “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction,” (Malachi 4:5-6). 

Jesus affirmed these words of Malachi and answered using the future tense, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things,” (v. 11).  The appearance of Elijah on the mountain was not the fulfillment of the prophecy from Malachi.  Then Jesus reverts to the past tense and adds a twist: “But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased.  So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”    Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist (vv. 12-13). 

But John the Baptist seemed to contradict Jesus and denied that he was Elijah (see John 1:21). Clarity, however, appears with two other New Testament verses.  The first is from 11:14, when Jesus said, speaking of John the Baptist, “if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come,” (emphasis added).

Second, in Luke 1:17, Gabriel the angel said that John will come “in the spirit and power of Elijah.”  John is not the fulfillment of the Malachian prophecy of the return of Elijah.    John could have been but Israel has rejected her Messiah.  Many scholars believe that the prophecy in Malachi is fulfilled in Revelation 11:3-13 with Elijah as one of the two witnesses who help usher in the day of the LORD. 

Israel has rejected her Messiah and they did to John whatever they pleased.   And when the Son of Man came, he did certainly suffer at their hands.   But the story does not end there.   The Son of Man is raised from the dead! Now is the time to proclaim his resurrection and his glory! “Night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4) but now it is day, “the day of salvation,” (2 Corinthians 6:2).  

Matthew 17:6-8: Jesus Only

“Rise, and have no fear,” Jesus to Peter, James and John in Matthew 17:7

“For it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” (Hebrews 10:31, NASB).  

“Wow, I was wrong, you really do exist!” (Atheist actress Julianne Moore, said glibly, when asked by a reporter what she would say if she sees God at the gates of heaven.  www.salon.com, February 23, 2013)

Jesus’ inner circle of disciples was with him on a mountain near Galilee.   Jesus was transfigured into his heavenly glory.   Appearing with him were Moses and Elijah.   From a cloud, the voice of God says, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased; listen to him,” (v. 5).  When the disciples with Jesus heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified, (v. 6). 

When the LORD spoke and made a covenant with Abraham, a “dreadful and great darkness fell” upon Abraham (Genesis 15:12).   When Isaiah saw a glimpse of the throne room of God, he cried, “Woe is me, for I am ruined!” (Isaiah 6:5, NASB).    The shepherds, receiving the news of the birth of Jesus, had the glory of the Lord shine around them.  And “they were filled with fear,” (Luke 2:9).

At his arrest Jesus, incarnate and empty of his heavenly glory, indentified himself with three words: “I am he.” Still, when Jesus said those words to the entire band of chief priests, officers and soldiers, they “drew back and fell to the ground,” (John 18:6). When once again two generations later John encounters the glorified Jesus, he says, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead,” (Revelation 1:17).

In Holy Scripture, from the patriarchs to the prophets to the gospels to Revelation, when mere mortal man comes face to face with Almighty God, man does not dialogue, bargain or debate with God.  Neither does man express anger nor casual indifference.  Rather, there is only fear: terrifying, gripping fear.   

The mistake that unbelieving man makes today is that he thinks God is a benign, hunched-over, absent-minded grandfatherly old man, void of power, holiness, righteousness.  I, too, would not trust my soul to such a god.    Even believers often have in mind a picture of God that is too small.   But Scripture gives us a radically different picture.   On judgment day, for those who are alienated from him, there will be no back and forth conversation with God, the way two people might debate politics at a coffee shop.   Rather there will be only “a fearful expectation of judgment” and “a fury of fire” (Hebrews 10:27).

However, this is also where the beauty of the gospel emerges.   Yes, we are “by nature children of wrath…but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ… For by grace you have been saved by faith.  And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God,” (Ephesians 2:3-4, 8).   “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Romans 5:1).  The wrath due us was poured out on Jesus (see Romans 5:9).   Now, salvation is free for all who trust in Christ. 

Jesus, while on the mountain with his disciples, gives us a beautiful illustration of the reconciliation that the gospel brings.   Peter James and John were overcome by terror realizing they were in the presence of Holy God.  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear,” (v. 7).   Even being physically touched by Jesus communicated their peace with God.  Love replaces fear; justification replaces enmity. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only, (v. 8).

Salvation is not about Moses or Elijah.  It is not about James, Peter or John.   It is about Jesus and Jesus only.  “For there is no other name under heaven…by which we must be saved,” (Acts 4:12).    Fear God.  Yet peace is ours through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Do not “neglect such a great salvation,” (Hebrews 2:3).