A Faith that Fails

Matthew 17:14-21

 

 

Babe Ruth was known as

The Great Bambino and the Sultan of Swat. But did you know that he had almost twice as many strike outs as home runs? 1330 to 714 to be exact! Based on these statistics, you could easily categorize him as a failure.

 

Speaking of which, here’s what Jesus had to say to his disciples when they couldn’t heal the boy suffering from seizures: ^17 “What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring the boy here.”                       MSG

 

The passage today is about the failure of Jesus’ closest followers. After three years, their faith was not big enough to heal the demon possessed boy. Jesus had just returned from a mountain top retreat; The Transfiguration. Knowing that the cross was waiting for him in Jerusalem, he confronted his disciples. They had failed miserably! What would they do once he was gone?

 

When was the last time you failed? For me, it is every day! Jesus explains that all we need is a very tiny amount of faith, and “nothing will be impossible for you”. When was

the last time you moved a mountain or healed a demon possessed boy? I don’t believe however, that we need to do miracles to use our “mustard seed faith”.

 

Hebrews 11 describes the faith of many from the Old Testament, none of which moved mountains. By faith, Abraham went to an unknown foreign country; Moses led the Israelites; Rahab mislead the spies. These were not miraculous acts, but the actions of ordinary people done by faith.

 

They had failures in their lives too. Abraham lied about his wife to save himself. Moses was a murderer. Rahab was a prostitute. Indeed, they had failures, but each one had faith the size of a mustard seed that moved mountains.

 

Following the list of faithful men and women in Hebrews 11 is this statement in chapter 12: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”       NIV

 

Despite having failures, God has called you and called me to “throw off the sin… run

with perseverance… and fix our eyes on Jesus”. He doesn’t call us to miraculous acts; only to obedience based on faith.

Faith the size of a mustard seed. Faith in a God who is always faithful, always with us, always loves us and always forgives us. He forgives our faith that so often fails.

 

 

 

 

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