Little Faith

Setting and Overview
Although many of the narratives in Matthew’s Gospel are shorter than the parallel accounts in Mark and/or Luke, Matthew 17:14-20 is still remarkable for how much detail is left out in comparison to Mark’s account in Mark 9:14-29. Of course, brevity can be a valuable tool to draw attention to key points, and Matthew certainly uses it effectively in this pericope. While Mark goes into great detail of the setting, the impact of the demon possession of the boy, and most memorably, the father’s appeal for help with his unbelief, Matthew leaves out most of those details to draw his reader’s attention to the lessons learned from the disciples’ failure to cast out the demon at the beginning. While the term “little faith” has already occurred several times in the Gospel, now we are challenged to learn from the admonishment in new ways.

Exposition
Because Matthew’s account is so much shorter, the few details that he preserves that Mark doesn’t really stand out. One is that the man kneel before Jesus and appeals for mercy. His humility and dependence are clear, and certainly seem to identify him with so many others who have had their requests answered. Matthew also explicitly mentions the suffering of the boy, implied in Mark, which highlights the desperation of the father. Certainly he came to the disciples with great confidence that they could perform similar miracles to Jesus, but his faith has been shaken. Jesus’ response is sharp, but doesn’t seem to be directed at the man who is addressing him, or at the disciples (although their failure has just been mentioned), nor the scribes (who other places receive such assessments but are not even mentioned here in Matthew.) Instead, Jesus seems to address the generation in general, including the crowd and opponents before him. While Mark preserves the emotional toll of Jesus’ earthly ministry more vividly than Matthew generally (Mark 3:5, 8:12), here even Jesus’ words make that toll clear in Matthew. The contrast from the transfiguration that preceded is certainly very sharp.
Verse 18 gives in one verse what Mark tells in eight (Mark 9:20-27), and the brevity focuses the readers on the aftermath. The disciples were likely relieved that Jesus succeeded where they failed, but are nonetheless puzzled as well and want to know why they failed. Although Mark mentions prayer (Mark 9:28-29), Matthew focuses on Jesus’ admonishment of their “little faith.” The comparison to faith the size of a mustard seed emphasizes that Jesus is not challenging them to “big faith” but rather to true faith. Little faith isn’t defined, but the comparisons in other passages (Matthew 6:31-32, 8:26, 16:8) and pictures of strong faith (Matthew 8:5-10, 15:21-28) show what “little faith” lacks: trust in God’s ability, trust in God’s reliability, submission to his will, and humility and dependence. It is the last one that the disciples seem to fail to demonstrate here, as seen more clearly in conjunction with the parallel response in Mark (Mark 9:28-29.)

Examination and Application
Very often people interpret little faith as lacking confidence that God will answer prayers, or being unwilling to ask for big things. While true faith does trust God’s ability to do great things and is willing to ask for great things that are in his will to provide, that is not Matthew’s focus here. Little faith is also failing to pray about things because we doubt the power of our prayers or God’s desire to or ability to answer them. Little faith is also looking to grow past dependence on God, desiring to spend less time in prayer instead of more. Little faith is also failing to accept and embrace God’s will, especially when it doesn’t align with what we desire in the short term. True faith not only believes that God can do great things, but also looks to his word to see the great things that he promises, then prays with confidence for his promises to come true, and finally looks eagerly to participate in that carrying out the roles that he gives us in that fulfillment.