Then the disciples, coming to Jesus apart, said [to him], Why were not *we* able to cast him out?
The disciples had just failed. They could not cast the demon out of a young man, and now, away from the crowd, they ask Jesus why.
The disciples often brought their hardest questions to Jesus when the crowd was gone.
The apostles sometimes used quiet moments alone with Him to bring Him their difficulties. They came to Him "apart" to know why they were unable to cast the demon out of a young man (Matt. 17:19; Mark 9:28). And again, at the close of His ministry... they came to Him privately with their questions as He sat on the Mount of Olives. This was not unusual. They were used to being taught by Him privately like this.
Their willingness to ask put them somewhere we will all stand one day.
The situation retrieved, the disciples invited the Lord to explain their failure, and thus they stood before His judgment seat, as we all shall in the day of His coming.
The authority was already theirs. Jesus had given it to His twelve disciples Himself.
When the Lord sent out the Twelve, He "gave them power over unclean spirits." For a time they used this power, for we read, "they cast out many demons" (Mark 6:7, 13). Here, however, their faith failed. They could not cast out the mute spirit. Power was present to work miracles and to overcome all the power of Satan. But man could not profit by it, and the disciples had no faith to use it.
The loss was not theirs alone.
How humbling when believers dishonour their Lord like this! "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?"... How was it then that these disciples put shame on His name by failing to draw on Him?
Jesus names the cause. Then He shows how little faith would have been enough.
It lies on the surface: they did not know how to use the power their Lord had given them. He tells them plainly that the cause of this was their unbelief. He leads their hearts straight into the secret of their failure. He adds, "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." So without faith at work now, there can be no display of power through the servant, whatever his earnestness or zeal for the glory of God. But if even the smallest degree of faith is at work, God brings in His power and obstacles as large as mountains are removed.
The Lord does not stop at unbelief. He tells them what faith needs to grow.
Had the Lord stopped here, we might have concluded that this victorious faith is easy to get and common to all. So the Lord goes deeper. He reaches the root of the failure to use the power He entrusts to His servants when He says, "this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting." By these words He teaches plainly that faith can only thrive in soil that suits it. A certain state of soul is needed for the confidence in God that can call Him in.
The two words carry two different senses.
Prayer expresses dependence on God, while fasting emphasizes self-denial, or no confidence in the flesh.
Their position that day is also ours.
Let us stop and gather the points where we match these disciples. There are three. First, the Lord is absent in both cases. Second, we, like them, live always in the presence of Satan's power... Third, God gives us power greater than all the strength of the enemy — as much as He gave the disciples, if not more. We may add this, to our sorrow: very often we, like these disciples, are powerless when the enemy displays his power.
Their failure had more than one cause.
As is so often the case with our failures, the reason was not simple but compound. Three things were involved. First, absence of faith — little or no confidence in God. Second, absence of prayer — dependence upon God. Third, absence of fasting — separation to God, even from things quite right in themselves under ordinary circumstances. In these words we believe the Lord exposed the roots of all our failures in seeking to serve Him.
- Ask. The disciples took their failure straight to Christ instead of explaining it away. Asking Him in private was their habit, as it was later on the Mount of Olives.
- Given. The power was already theirs by His gift; nothing was withdrawn. What failed was the faith to draw on it.
- Unbelief. Christ's first answer names the cause. Zeal and earnestness are no substitute. Even mustard-seed faith moves mountains.
- Soil. Faith thrives only in the right soil: prayer, which is dependence on God, and fasting, which is refusal of self.
- Ours. Our Lord is absent, Satan is active, and God has given us power. So when we stand powerless, the disciples' question is ours to ask.
And he says to them, Because of your unbelief; for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard [seed], ye shall say to this mountain, Be transported hence there, and it shall transport itself; and nothing shall be impossible to you.
Jesus gave His disciples authority over evil spirits, yet they could not free one boy from a demon. The Lord names the cause — their little faith — then adds a promise that has puzzled readers ever since: seed-sized faith that moves mountains.
The disciples were not short of authority. They were short of the faith that draws on it.
Christ, Son of God, Messiah, Son of man, had overcome the enemy, had bound the strong man and had a right to cast him out... The disciples should have used this power. They ought to have known how to take hold by faith of what Jesus had shown on earth. But they could not do it. Yet what use was it to bring this power down here, if the disciples had no faith to use it?
Their failure did not stop God's work. Writers note that the Lord still answers one person's faith:
As long as such a work of God continues, Jesus still meets each person's faith with blessing. He does so even when His disciples fail to glorify Him by faith.
The mustard seed is tiny. The point is not size but reality — a small live faith still reaches the God who answers.
Faith works what is impossible to man, to nature; and this wherever there is a grain of reality, however small. Faith may be little or strong. If it is real, it brings in God. And God is the same God when He answers little faith as when He answers great faith. What we feel and enjoy may differ a great deal. But in His grace God answers the weakest act of faith in Him.
That cuts both ways. It rules out despair over weak faith, and it rules out pride in strong faith:
I do not like to hear a child of God speaking much about "my faith," and God answering it; leave out "my" faith... I never once hear the Lord praise the disciples for great faith. But He often speaks to them about their little faith. He never says anything to make us pleased with ourselves... A grain of mustard seed is very small. But as an old writer says, "Bite it, and you will find some heat there!" So this grain of faith is small, yet it is true faith.
A mountain is what will not move. But the promise belongs to a certain path.
This implies, of course, that we are on the path He has appointed for us: for faith is impossible on any other. The picture of the mountain shows that on such a path even the most deeply rooted obstacles disappear. In the path of self-will and self-indulgence, how useless it would be to expect anything of this kind!
Commentators differ on what the mountain first pointed to. One writer sees a nation standing in the way of the message:
Israel was the great hindrance to the gospel going out. It was the mountain of obstruction. Faith would remove it. In fact, Israel as a nation on earth was to disappear. It sank into the sea of the nations — the Gentiles — and is lost among them today.
Some readers misuse "nothing will be impossible." They take the picture as a literal offer to move real hills.
One lady prayed that the hill blocking her view would be taken away. Of course, the hill stayed. She took the Lord's words literally, and what she asked for was selfish.
The limit is not stinginess in God but the direction faith faces:
This means that nothing in line with the will of God would be impossible. Faith sees the will of God as ruling everything. It is impossible to have faith for anything contrary to His will. He has laid down the path for faith in His word: if we do not follow it, the obstacle is in ourselves.
The Lord did not stop at naming their unbelief. He went deeper, to show where such faith comes from:
If the Lord had stopped here, we might have concluded that this victorious faith is easy to get and belongs to everyone. So the Lord goes deeper, down to the root of the failure to use the power entrusted to His servants... By these words He teaches that faith can only grow in soil that suits it. The soul must be in a certain state to have the confidence in God that calls Him in.
- Cause. The disciples had all the authority they needed. What they lacked was the faith to use it, and the Lord pointed straight to that.
- Size. A grain-sized faith is enough. Faith's power is not its own: it brings in God, and He is the same God to little faith as to great.
- Reality. The Lord looks for real faith, not large faith. He never praises great faith, and never says anything to make us pleased with ourselves.
- Reach. The mountain stands for the most deeply rooted obstacle. One writer sees the nation blocking the gospel; faith moves what looks immovable.
- Condition. The promise runs along the path He appoints, and faith only grows in soil that suits it. Where the path is self-will, the obstacle is in ourselves.