Back to life

 

Back to life Matthew 17:14-20

You spent the weekend on a spiritual retreat. It was a most revealing time when you experienced the presence of God. Now, you can't help but carry the excitement with you as you drive home. There's a song in your heart and you sing it with a joy you didn't know you could have. But the first thing you see when you get home are the bills you left piled on the kitchen table. They don't bother you at first. And they wouldn't if you didn't also notice the mounds of laundry. Then there's the voicemails you have to respond to. Plus, tomorrow, you have to go back to a job you don't really enjoy. As the song says: Back to life. Back to reality. Is that how Jesus and three of his disciples felt? Whatever the Transfiguration was, they had just experienced it together, and it was awesome. As soon as they come down the mountain, though, there's a fuss waiting for them. Back to life. Back to reality. A man had brought his epileptic son to Jesus' other disciples for healing. They could do nothing for him. The Lord answered the man's plea by rebuking the "faithless and perverse generation." I've read commentary that says Jesus meant the religious establishment. Other opinions say there's no way he meant that and directed his ire to the disciples. Maybe he was talking to the father and the rest of the crowd. You look it up and tell me what you think. If I understand Jesus correctly, though, the disciples had a little faith. What they needed was a mustard-size faith. Now, I've seen mustard seeds. They're little. So, what gives? If the disciples could move mountains with a little faith, why couldn't they heal a boy with a little faith? There is a sense that what Jesus explains to the disciples has nothing to do with the amount of faith they had. Rather, he challenged the attitude of their faith, which was an unbelieving faith. That's an oxymoron, right? Like a minor miracle. We're left to wonder what the disciples' attempt to cure the boy looked like. Did they trust God enough to keep at such an impossibility? "How much longer" before you can officially call off the praying? Most of us don't have to get back to life or reality. We never had a chance to leave. And when you're dealing with it all, you need a faith that keeps trying. That keeps believing. So, keep trying to move that mountain and believing God will. Stay blessed...john