He was healed at that moment

He was healed at that moment

Scripture:

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “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. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

“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.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 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.” Matthew 17:14-20

Observation:

“Lord, have mercy on my son”, the desperate father as he knelt before Jesus. The poor man had brought his demon-possessed son to the Lord’s 9 disciples, and none of them were able to drive the demon out. The crowd had gathered, watching with interest, wondering if the Lord Jesus Himself would be able to drive out such a powerful demon.

“He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water” the sad father explained. Medically, seizures can usually be explained to be due to various reasons, but in this case, the fact that the boy would often fall into the fire or water showed that there were dark spiritual forces involved here.  “I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him” the father added with exasperation.

The Lord looked around at the crowd. Typically, there would have been gloating Pharisees or teachers of the law in their midst, gleefully waiting for Jesus to fail. Most of the crowd too would have concluded that this demon was probably too powerful for even Jesus, considering the failure of His nine disciples. Having just come down from such a wonderful Heavenly experience with Moses and Elijah on the mountain, meeting this fickle, unbelieving crowd must have been very annoying. Furthermore, the failure of His nine disciples had only heightened the expectation in the air that He had finally met a demon He could not overcome.                                                                              

Probably shaking his head, the Lord astonishingly rebuked not only the whole crowd but the whole generation “You unbelieving and perverse generation. How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me!”. Then straightaway, the Lord rebuked the demon with great authority, and it left the boy right away, leaving him completely healed to the complete amazement of all the crowd.

Later, in private, the shaken nine disciples asked Jesus, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”, and Jesus told them frankly “Because you have so little faith! If you had 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.”

Application:

Looking at this passage, what strikes us first is the failure of the nine disciples to drive out this one demon. This was a major problem that caused the whole crowd to start doubting the validity of the Lord’s ministry. When we say we are Christians, we all become ambassadors for our Lord Jesus right away. Our success or failures affect the perception of our Lord in the eyes of others. The higher the profile of a Christian, the more the world reacts with glee when they fall. We need to humbly pray that the Lord will enable us to live lives worthy of His name.

Secondly, the model of the father bringing his son to Jesus is still true for us today. As parents, we are to bring our children to Jesus in prayer, and He is faithful to listen to us and heal us, but we must believe and continue to believe! There is great power in the blessings and prayers of a father or mother for their child.

Thirdly, looking at the symptoms of the demon possessed child, we see that he had seizures, was suffering greatly and had a tendency to throw himself into fire or water. The last symptom in particular was a clear sign of demonic activity. Throughout His ministry, we see that the Lord healed the sick and cast out demons regularly. Somehow, these two ministries go hand in hand, and there is a certain connection between sickness and demonic influence. Sickness if of the devil who came to steal, to kill and to destroy, but Jesus came so that we might live life to the full, and that also includes a life which is healthy and free from sickness and pain. How do we obtain this? Only by faith!

The Lord clearly explained to His disciples that if they had faith as small as a mustard seed, they would be able to say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it would move. What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 gives us an excellent definition saying that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Faith is not the same as hope. Hope speaks of wishing something to come true, but faith is strongly and confidently believing that what we hope for will come true. It is written in Isaiah 53 that Jesus bore our sicknesses and carried out pains and that by His stripes we are healed. Faith is believing on God’s Word that it is true for us. It is believing that God will watch over His Word to ensure it comes to pass. It is believing that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed, even though the symptoms persists, even though what we feel does not correspond with what we belief.

In the church today, much damage has been done by wrong usage of “If it is God’s will” in our prayers. The moment we pray “Lord, if it is Your will, let me be healed”, we immediately inject doubt into our prayer and faith is no longer evident. However, if we pray “Lord Jesus, I thank You that by Your stripes, I am healed.”, we put our faith in God’s Word, and if we hold true to that in faith, we will be healed. Now healing is not always immediate, but if we cling on to God’s Word, it will become true for us sooner or later, for God watches over His Word to bring it to pass.

Does having faith in God for healing mean stopping our medication, throwing away our spectacles, and foregoing all medical help? No! God is our healer. It is in the nature of His name, Jehovah Rapha. Doctors and medical advancement are also involved in doing part of God’s will, which has been clearly established in Scripture, which is to heal those who are sick.

God may heal us immediately by His great power, or lead us to the right doctors, but we must be clearly convinced that it is His will to heal us. Then we believe on God’s Word that our healing will come to pass, whether through divine or human means. 

Prayer:

We praise thee, Heavenly Lord, for Your great love for us. We thank You, Lord, that You are Jehovah Rapha, our healer. You are the God who heals us, and it is Your will always to heal us. It is for this reason that You sent Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, not only for the forgiveness for our sins, but also for the healing of our sicknesses and infirmities, for as it is written, He bore our sicknesses and carried our pains, He was pierced for our transgressions, and by His stripes we are healed. We praise You and thank You, Lord, for this great revelation and believe on our Lord Jesus to be healed. Though the symptoms remain, and our feelings show otherwise, we choose to believe in our healing based on Your Word O Lord. Let Your Word come to pass even now in Jesus name! Let our faith always be on You, and on Your Word O Lord, that will never pass away. We pray too O Lord, that we may be faithful in the things we do, and the words we say, for we are Your servants, and we are called by Your name. Let us be faithful indeed, we pray! As fathers and mothers, we pray for our children, we bring them to You, Lord Jesus, believing in their healing for You took their pains, You took their infirmities! We praise You and love You, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.