Faith that Moves Mountains - Matthew 17:14-21
Most of us have heard the instruction that faith can move mountains. We know in our head that this must be metaphorical. There is seldom a need to actually move a mountain and . . . where would you put it if you did move it? This morning we are going to look at the origin of that phrase. We will ask the question: What does the phrase “mountain moving faith” mean? How much faith do you have to have to move a mountain or cast a demon into the sea? And how can we find that faith so we can experience the power of God in our life?
The text we look at today is where that phrase comes from. There are additional descriptions of this occasion event in Mark 9 and Luke9:32 ff. and we will refer to those from time to time.
Let’s make sure we understand what happened before we begin drawing conclusions.
At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”
Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.
So here is what seems to have happened. While Jesus was up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John talking to Moses and Elijah and being transfigured, down at the base of the mountain the disciples were brought a boy who was suffering from what some have called epileptic seizures. However, this appears to be more than epilepsy, it is a case of demon possession and the father (and Jesus) knew it.
Mark adds the spirit would seize him and throw him violently to the ground. He would foam at the mouth, grind his teeth and he would become rigid. Luke adds that these seizures made him scream. He said, “it batters him and hardly ever leaves him alone.” In other words, the boy was in bad shape.
The man was looking for Jesus but when he learned that Jesus wasn’t there, he turned to his disciples and asked them to help.
The disciples had some experience casting out demons. In Matthew 10 and Luke 9 (the same chapter where we read this account, the disciples had been sent out by Jesus and were told to heal the sick and cast out demons. I believe chronologically this was before this time. When they returned they reported they saw some amazing things and even the demons submitted to them. So it is reasonable that the disciples believed they could help.
When Jesus came down from the mountain there was a crowd gathered and the people were arguing. The disciples, after claiming to be able to help, were unable to help this boy. This left them open to the charge of being false prophets.
Jesus sounded frustrated by the whole situation. He said, ““You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” The boy had one of the violent seizures in front of Jesus.
Mark adds additional dialogue with the dad,
21 “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.
He replied, “Since he was a little boy. 22 The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
(Let me add a little aside here. There is no need to be troubled by the different details in gospel accounts. They are NOT contradictions! Police investigators will tell you that differences in the story told by various eyewitnesses is a sign that they are telling the truth because they all observed or remembered different things. Stories that are exactly the same is generally evidence of collusion.)
It appears Matthew’s focus was on the inability of the disciples. Luke talks about the faith of the man. So, Jesus healed the boy, the father was grateful. Jesus was praised.
Why Did the Disciples Struggle?
Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
It is natural for the disciples to ask why they failed at casting out the demon. Jesus responded not only with, “You don’t have enough faith” but with “if you even had faith the size of a mustard seed” (one of the smallest seeds there is) you could have done it. Jesus seems to be saying they had NO faith.
We can only speculate. It is possible that after their earlier success they began to see healing and casting out demons as a technique. They knew the technique. In other words, it is possible that they were trying to cast out the demons in their strength rather than seeking the Lord for His strength.
And let’s face it, we sometimes view our Christian life as something that you must learn to do. I believe this is why some people seem to speak well but seem to say nothing! Pastors may believe they have learned the “skill” of sermon preparation when they should be bathing the message in prayer, seeking the strength and leading of God’s Spirit. This is also why many Christians are busy doing things but seem to lack the power of God.
It is also possible that the disciples met a spirit more stubborn than they had in the past and became discouraged, and gave up rather than continuing to seek God in prayer.
It reminds me of the time Elijah prayed for rain (you can find this account in 1 Kings 18). Elijah announced that the drought would end and the people should expect rain. So Elijah knelt before the Lord and prayed. He sent his servant to look and see if there were any clouds starting to roll in. There were none. Elijah prayed some more. He sent the servant back to check the weather. Nothing. He did this 7 times! On the 7th time the servant saw a very small cloud and Elijah knew the rain was coming. He barely got back to the city in time.
Elijah was diligent. He continued to seek the Lord until the rain came. He did not get discouraged. We are often guilty of the same thing. We don’t see answers to prayer because we either don’t believe God can do anything or we give up way too soon.
Are We Supposed to Believe Prayer Really Can Move a Mountain?
William Barclay explains this well
When Jesus spoke about removing mountains he was using a phrase which the Jews knew well. A great teacher, who could really expound and interpret scripture and who could explain and resolve difficulties, was regularly known as an uprooter, or even a pulverizer, of mountains. To tear up, to uproot, to pulverize mountains were all regular phrases for removing difficulties. Jesus never meant this to be taken physically and literally. After all, the ordinary man seldom finds any necessity to remove a physical mountain. What he meant was: “If you have faith enough, all difficulties can be solved, and even the hardest task can be accomplished.” Faith in God is the instrument which enables men to remove the hills of difficulty which block their path.[1]
In other words, Jesus wasn’t saying that you could move the Rocky Mountains to rural LaHarpe if you had enough faith. He is talking figuratively. In this case the strong demon seemed like a mountain impossible to move. Jesus says faith can move that mountain!
Jesus said “nothing is impossible” if you have faith. Note the qualifier: if you have faith enough. What does that mean? We are to pray in accordance with His will and in His name (in other words, consistent with His character). If we are not praying in accordance with His will, we are not praying in faith. Praying in faith also means trusting that God knows better than we do and will only give us good things . . . even if we are asking for something not-so-good. He is the One we are to trust; not our own ability.
God is stronger than any barrier. He can heal any disease. Obviously, for some reason, God does not choose to heal every disease. He calls us to come to Him with expectancy, confidence, and an unwavering trust.
Unfortunately, there have been abuses of these verses. There are some who teach: if you aren’t being healed from a disease or if your situation does not change, it is because your prayer is not strong enough. You lack faith. If you had more faith, the problem would go away. In other words, the key is having a positive attitude. If you believe strong enough and can get enough other people to believe it will happen, then it will happen.
God says all we need is faith as small as a mustard seed. In other words, it is not the amount of faith; it is the object of our faith. We just need to honestly and faithfully turn to Him. The “muster more faith” approach is actually putting confidence in our ability to leverage God rather than in God’s ability to meet our need.
God is loving, compassionate, tenderhearted and forgiving. He loves us like a parent. God certainly will use hard times to teach us. However, God is not waiting for us to dial the right number to get the answer we want.
I prayed for my dad to be healed of his Alzheimer’s disease for over ten years. I believed God could somehow heal him right up to the end. I watched expectantly. Nothing happened. However, I believe God wants us to keep praying until it is apparent He is doing something different.
Prayer is aligning our hearts with His. It connects us to the source of power like a plug in an outlet. We know He can heal bodies, relationships, and nations. We know He can provide finances, wisdom, strength, and open doors. Our job is to trust HIM! It isn’t about trusting our formulas, our fervency, or our words. We are to trust Him. Trusting Him also means trusting His wisdom over our own.
To this end, I don’t see any reason we would stop praying for
Our friends and family who don’t know Christ
Healing from a sickness
Provision for a need
Spiritual maturity and a greater depth of love
At the same time, we need to be praying that God will
Help us to faithfully share the gospel with our friends
Equip us to use times of sickness to testify to His greatness and sufficiency
Help us to be content with what we have
One of the greatest prayer warriors we know of is a guy by the name of George Mueller. Vernon Grounds describes his story.
George Mueller was an example of mountain moving faith. He had no resources but he knew how to pray. In his lifetime, he cared for our 10,000 orphans, building five spacious home to house them. He established day schools and Sunday schools all over the world in which perhaps 150,000 children had been taught; he put into circulation 2 million Bibles and Scripture portions; he had published more than 3 million books and tracts; and in addition he had liberally supported missionaries in my countries. As a result of his prayers, he was entrusted by God (in 1899) with gifts somewhere in the neighborhood of 7.5 million dollars.
What was the secret of Muller’s phenomenally fruitful service for od and the human family Christ died to redeem? Asked that very question by a grateful admirer, he replied, bending lower and lower until almost touching the floor, “There was a day when I died, utterly died,” died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will – died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends – and since then I have studied only to show myself approved to God.” (Vernon Grounds, Radical Committment p. 43,44)
I remember reading Mueller’s story. There were times he invited the orphans to breakfast knowing he had no food in the house. As they prayed, the milkman stopped to say that his cart had broken down and the milk would spoil unless they could use it! This is the kind of story that happened again and again in the life of this prayer warrior.
I’m not suggesting that our story will be the same. It seems that God most often works quietly. Yet, occasionally something spectacular happens. We will never know the power of God until we tap into it.
Lessons to Learn
Let’s draw a couple of lessons that we can readily apply. First, we should not be intimidated by anything or anyone. Our God is a consuming fire. He is All-Powerful, All-knowing, and He is present everywhere. There is nothing that surprises Him and nothing that is stronger than He is. The person who walks in faith is confident in God’s strength even when we know we are facing something bigger than we could possibly handle by ourselves.
God has a plan for each of us and nothing can thwart that plan. This doesn’t mean things will be easy . . . it just means it will be good. We can live confidently because we know and have confidence in God rather than in our own ability.
Second, we should pray and keep praying. Prayer is like an oxygen hose; it is helpful only when it is connected. When we pray, we connect to the Father. When we pray we align our heart with His. When we pray, we open up windows that allow God to bless in ways that are often unexpected.
Third, we must beware of “formula Christianity”. We are always looking for the seven keys to abundant living, or the three steps to tapping into the power of God. However, all these things are the same . . . they focus on what WE need to do. We are putting our faith in the ingenuity and wisdom of men rather than in the power and wisdom of God.
We are forever looking for ways to “make ourselves” stronger or find a better program for reaching the lost. We can and should learn from what others have learned. However, put your confidence in God! He knows precisely what is needed for each situation. He knows how best to remove each mountain. If we are looking to the schemes, programs, and techniques of others, we are not exercising faith, we are trying to do things on our own.
We serve an amazing God. As I watch Him work, I am always stunned. I wonder how He can do what He does. How does He take a casual remark in a grocery store and use it to change a life? How does He lead someone across the world to read something we wrote years ago and have it be just what they need to hear today? How does He take a simple hug from a friend and in that one act of kindness show you a whole new dimension of love? How does He mend broken hearts? How does He change hearts that once were totally against Him? How does He bring good things out of tragedy? How can pain sometimes turn into blessing? You won’t find the answer to these questions in a program that you purchase online. You may discover some of these answers while you are on your knees before the Father. Or, like me, you may just have to sit back and watch with wonder, appreciation and gratitude.
[1] William Barclay, ed., The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2, The Daily Study Bible (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster John Knox Press, 1976), 167–168.