Reflections on Scripture

Matthew - Chapter 17

Entered: February 02, 2005
Chapter 17 has a theme of faith. It begins with Jesus' transfiguration which validates His Messiahship, but only for three disciples. The world is not going to be won through evidence, but through faith based on the preaching of those who have already accepted who He is. Then there is the failure of the disciples to cast out the demon. Jesus says this failure is due to a lack of faith. Then he says that with even a small size faith anything is possible. We struggle to understand this. We figure that some of us must surely have at least a little faith, but we know of no one who has every request granted or is working great miracles. So what does Jesus mean? Well, I don't have any greater insight than anyone else, but my thought is that Jesus is talking about the power that faith connects us with. He was not making a promise that due to our faith great miracles will happen at our request, but was saying that with even a little faith we are connected to God with whom all things are possible. Chapter 18 is about relationships - not offending others and forgiving others. There is a suggestion that our offending others can keep them from the kingdom of heaven.

Entered: December 17, 2009
In Matthew 16:28 Jesus told His disciples that there were some in the group who would not "taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom." Chapter 17 opens with the fulfillment of this event. Six days following that conversation Jesus took His inner circle, Peter, James, and John, up on a mountain with Him. There Jesus was transformed so that they saw His face shine like the sun and His clothes become white as the light. They also saw Moses and Elijah appear talking with Jesus and then a "voice from the cloud said: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him. Listen to Him!" These three had an affirmation of Jesus' identity as the Messiah that would take them through the trials and persecutions that came later.

Verses 9-13 record the conversation between Jesus and the three disciples as they came back down from the mountain and were talking about Elijah coming. We see in this conversation another oversight by the scribes that contributed to their oversight of Jesus as the Messiah. The scribes looked to the coming of Elijah to provide their sign that the Messiah had come. But the same blindness that kept them from recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, despite all the signs He provided, also kept them from recognizing that Elijah had already come in the person of John the Baptist. They missed the first sign, Elijah's coming, and thus missed the Messiah. And, just as they treated John the Baptist as they pleased, so, too, would Jesus suffer at their hands.

This new insight and understanding of these three disciples is contrasted by events they found when they returned to the other disciples. The three inner circle disciples had new evidence and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, but the other nine were still lacking in faith as demonstrated by their failure to heal the boy of his seizures. Jesus' comment to them that only faith the size of a mustard seed was necessary to move a mountain indicates that the size of our faith is not an issue, simply the presence of faith. But what should be the focus of such faith? Is it faith that God can do the miracle? They had seen enough miracles of various complexity performed by Jesus for this not to be the problem. I suspect the issue was faith regarding whether or not they had been empowered to perform such miracles. In other words, the focus of the faith is God's will. If God leads us to do a thing, whatever it is, we must step out in faith and do the thing. But if we lack faith that God has directed us to do it or if clearly He has not directed it, we will not succeed in doing it. If we are to say, no, this is not about whether it is God's will but about our faith that God can perform the miracle, then we get into a debate about how much faith is enough. All of us who accept that God exists and that He created all that is and who have given our lives to Him believe that God can do anything. The question in our mind is whether He wills to do the thing we are asking Him to do. That is the issue of faith, not the size of our faith. Jesus' reference to the mustard seed made clear the size of our faith is not the issue.

In the concluding verses of the chapter Jesus addresses two other matters. The first was His pending death and resurrection. We know, due to the distress of the disciples that they understood this time that Jesus' death was coming. But did they clearly hear the part about His resurrection? This time, however, no one of them challenged Jesus about the reality of His death. The second matter Jesus addressed in these verses was submission to authority. Jesus and His disciples returned to Capernaum to find temple tax collectors who asked about whether Jesus paid His tax. Jesus explained to the disciples that He and the disciples were not subject to the tax, but nevertheless, rather than offend the authorities, He would submit and pay the tax. No issue of significance was in question here to prohibit Jesus and His disciples from submission at this point. Thus, they should submit to the authorities.