“This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Matthew 17:10-27 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹¹ And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; ¹² but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.

¹⁴ When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. ¹⁶ I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸ And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” ²⁰ And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. ²¹ But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

²² And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; ²³ and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.

²⁴ When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?” ²⁵ He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” ²⁶ When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt. ²⁷ However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”

In today’s text it says:  When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying,  “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”  In Luke 17:5-6 it says:  The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”  We too, like the apostles need to have our faith increased. It’s not though that we need a huge amount of faith. A mustard seed is very small and Jesus says that’s all we need. In John 14;12-14 Jesus says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”  So, it is not the size of our faith that matters, but rather it is the object of our faith. We don’t need to believe enough for us to do it. We need to believe enough in Jesus and He will do it. Our faith, our tiny mustard seed faith, needs to be in the great big omnipotent God; Jesus and the Father in heaven.   Hebrews 12:1-2 says:  Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  We need to fix our eyes on Jesus. To do that though, to fix our eyes on Jesus, we need to see into the heavenly realm, where He sits with God the Father.

In the text Jesus says: “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”   I think that we often have a misunderstanding of the purpose and application of prayer and fasting. In the account, when confronted with the problem, Jesus neither called for a fast, nor fasted Himself.  In fact, Jesus didn’t actually pray. The text says: Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.   Too often, we wait until we are confronted with a situation or circumstance that we cannot resolve on our own. Only then do we fast and pray, asking Jesus to intercede and God to intervene. The true purpose of our prayer and fasting though is not to make God aware of or to bend God’s will to our need.   In Matthew 6:8 Jesus says: “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”  The purpose of our prayer and fasting is to move and change us not God.  We fast so that nothing would hinder us from seeing God and seeing from heavens perspective. We pray, because that is how we communicate with God. Communication is a two-way process. We pray to hear and know what God is saying. If we pray before the need arises; if we listen to God, He will prepare us for what He is doing.   In Luke 12:11-12 Jesus says:  “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”   The same is true when we are faced with difficult situations and circumstances, the Holy Spirit will give us the words to say. Then, knowing God’s will, we can ask and He will do it. Jesus taught us to pray saying: Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  If we want to see the realities of heaven impact the circumstances of earth, we need to live a life of fasting and prayer, so that we see from heavens perspective and align ourselves with what God is doing. Then, nothing will be impossible to you. 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, may my faith increase. Not that my confidence in what I can do would increase, but rather that my knowledge and understanding of who You are would increase. May I learn to fix my eyes on You, in heaven, may my faith be perfected, knowing that what I ask, according to Your will, will be done. Amen.