A Job for JesusSample

Disproportionate Faith And The Mountain

The beginning of this text is the ending of a lifelong trauma for a little boy who has spent his entire life under demoniac power. As difficult as it is today to understand emotional and mental health you can imagine what it was in the days of Christ. This was more than Schizophrenia or some mental malfunction. This boy was moved under the unction of the devil—falling into things that he did not even want. 

The father, in exasperation, has come not to Jesus first, but to his disciples asking them to heal his son. Note there are only nine disciples present, because the rest of them are up on the mount of transfiguration. When Jesus comes down from the mountain he is confronted by a crowd of people and there are serious accusations being thrown at him because of the frustration of a father who has come to his wits' end. 

The retreat from the mountain top is over. The revelation has been experienced. It is now time to get back into the valley. What do they encounter? This is a chaotic mess. This is not dissimilar to Moses when he came down the mountain after experiencing God’s glory and having the law revealed, only to see God’s people deep in faithless idol worship. But this mess is where the mission is. In the crowd are people who are hurting, families with members who are sick physically and oppressed or possessed spiritually.

At the end of the day you may appreciate everyone praying for you but there are some problems that rise to a level that you cannot bring to anyone or even God's servant. You have to bring them to the feet of Jesus. You have to go to God for yourself. This is a job for Jesus.

When they bring the boy to Jesus, he begins to peel back the layers of the complexity of the problem. Often our problems are complicated. It wasn’t that Jesus just touched him and said be healed. Jesus enters into a dialogue with the father that affects the son and then delivers the boy because this is a multi-layered problem which is complex. Do you have problems that are complicated? Jesus deals with the father’s duality of faith. Lord I believe. Help my unbelief. How can you believe, and not believe. How can you trust. and not trust? How can you have faith and still have doubt? Is it possible for both to coexist?

To heal the boy all they needed was faith "as small as a mustard seed." In that day and age the mustard seed was the smallest thing the human eye could see. We can only conclude, then, that the disciples' faith was even smaller than the mustard seed. Jesus is saying that their faith was so small that it was non-existent

Faith is so impactful. If it’s a mountain you want to move, don’t use a cup—a grain is enough. 

Remember Jesus has just come down from a mountain so the mountain is there right in front of him. What is the mountain that is in front of you that is staring in front of your face?

Jesus is saying the promise is not proportional. You don’t need a mountain of faith for a mountain of problems. I know that when Jesus is talking about mountains, he is not just talking about literal mountains but whatever is standing up in your life blocking your view that you cannot see him—that is your mountain. 

Sometimes our perception of being small comes from how we see ourselves.  If you read Numbers 13: 32-33 notice it  says because of how we saw ourselves—as little insects and we saw them as giants. Sometimes our smallness is imagined or imaged on us. Where did we get those images from? Why did you believe them?

If you have been beaten down and all you have is a little bit left, that’s all God needs. He is the God of small things.