Jesus on Faith and Seeds.

#biblestudy #matthew #gospel #whatjesussaid #greeknewtestament

MATTHEW 17: 17 -, 20-21.

After the Transfiguration Jesus was approached by a man who son was having seizures due to epilepsy or some other neurological disorder. Whatever.

Answerd and the Jesus said

O generation faithless and perverse
note that diestrammenee could be translated as perverse distorted twisted orcrooked as it is a perfect passive participle from the verb diastrephoo
how long then with you I will be!
how long then i will endure of you / how much more will i have to put up with
Note that anexomai is future of anekhomai  kh=s > ks / x
you plural bring / carry / bear to me him here !
Bring him over here to me!

The disciples approached him afterwards in private and asked when their own (limited) gifts did not work on the boy.

Jesus tells them

Dia why because the little /few /limited faith of you
truly for i say to you
whenever / if (nb ean) you have faith so /like / as much as mustard seed
you will say to the mountain this MOVE from here to there
and the mountain it will move
and nothing will be impossible or literally beyond your abilities what you can do dunamai !

Now some people take this verse as support for faith healing or proof there are demons but Jesus says nothing about demons Matthew just presumes it was a demon or spirit. He rebukes them for their lack of faith. Perhaps because he wanted them to fix problems themselves instead of relying on him too much when he would be leaving them soon.

Note how he links faith to ability in his final statement.

kai ouden adunateesei humin

and nothing you will be unable to do

How do we join faith to action?

Or perhaps he's simply teasing them because its been a long stressful day?

Which could also explain the contrast of mountain and mustard seed.

Faith works yet faith is variable?

Personally I think its a good thing we have modern medicine and techniques to treat neurological disorders or whatever was wrong with that boy.

I rather fear most of us have  a level of faith closer to the mustard seed.

However one tiny seed can produce a plant that has more seeds and a larger crop in the future! I can have faith in that from growing my own lettuce and greens and herbs.

Maybe thats the real point since many of them would have been more familiar than farming and seed planting with a modern apartment dweller or home owner.

Gardening is faith building?