Faith and Demons

Matthew 17:14-21

[14] Luke says that Jesus and the three disciples descended from the mountain of transfiguration “on the next day,” so they may have been there for a full day (Luke 9:37). A crowd had gathered together at the foot of the mountain (see also Mark 9:14). As Jesus approached, He noticed that the crowd had surrounded His disciples. Scribes were asking them why they could not cast a mute spirit out of a child (Mark 9:14, 18).

From the mount of God to the valley of devils, from the height of praise to the depths of unbelief, the descent was as dark as it was deep. We must be prepared to descend with our Lord from the pinnacles of glory to the valleys of service and humiliation, even among Satan and his hosts.

[15] A desperate man spoke first to Jesus: “Lord (kúrie [2962], Master) have mercy (eléēson, the aorist imperative of eleéō [1653], to be merciful toward) on my son: for he is lunatic (selēniázetai, the present passive of selēniázomai [4583], to be moonstruck), and sore vexed: for oftimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.” Luke adds a motive to this request for mercy: “because (hóti [3754], for the reason that) he is my only-begotten (monogenēs [3439], only [one of his] kind)” (Luke 9:38; a.t.).

Mercy is universally related to punishment. Historically, a criminal who pleaded for mercy before his judge or king requested the removal or mitigation of a merited punishment. Because the lawbreaker deserved the punishment, mercy was issued solely at the discretion of the king. Here, the father’s request seems like a tacit acknowledgment that his son’s suffering was due to sin. The aorist tense of eleéō shows that he wanted his son to have an immediate cure from the disease and relief from injuries sustained by fire and water.

The passive tense of selēniázetai reflected the ancient idea that the moon or lunar cycles caused seizures. (Selēnē means moon, as does the Latin root “luna”- [lunar] in “lunatic.”) During these episodic attacks, the boy frequently fell into fire or water. Even if we identify his condition as epilepsy, the demon was the cause. This is substantiated by the fact that epilepsy produces random motions, not sadistic targets like fire and water.

[16] The father continued his depressing story: “I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.” Since the three—Peter, James, and John—were with Jesus on the mountain and the four of them descended to the commotion at the base, the man brought his son originally to the nine remaining disciples. They were now surrounded by the multitude, and the scribes questioned them, most likely concerning their inability to heal (Mark 9:14).

[17] Jesus responded with, “O faithless (ápistos [571] from a [1], without; and pístin [4102], belief; wholly without faith) and perverse (diestramménē, the perfect middle participle of diastréphō [1294], to pervert, make crooked, twist) generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me.”

Jesus’ answer was politely impersonal and generic, yet the accusation was universal. The disciples would be first in line to receive it, since Jesus did not expect unbelievers to cast out demons. On the other hand, since He did not do miracles on certain occasions “because of . . . unbelief” (Matt. 13:58), the crowd was equally culpable for discouraging the disciples with their skepticism. “How long shall I be with (meth’ from metá, with, as in “God with us [meth’ hēmōn]”; [Matt. 1:23]) you? How long shall I suffer (anéxomai, the future middle deponent indicative of anéchomai [430], to endure; from aná, up, again, or ánō [507], above; and échō [2192], to have, hold; therefore “to bear up under” some crushing weight) you?

The incarnate Son of God’s stay in the presence of this perverse generation was to be temporary: “He tabernacled (eskēnōsen, the aorist tense of skēnóō) among us” (John 1:14; a.t.). In Mark 9:22, after summarizing the oppressive regularity of the demon’s violence from the time the boy was a child, the father understandably addressed Jesus with a bit of doubt, not “if You will,” but rather, “If (ei [1487], the “if” of supposition) You can (dúnasai [1410], to be able, to have power) do anything, having been compassionate (splagchnistheís, the aorist passive deponent participle of splagchnízomai [4697], to have deep-felt compassion) to us, help (boēthēson, the aorist imperative of boēthéō [997]) us” (a.t.). This was not a rebellious spirit but a despairing cry. The father himself had borne this crushing weight for a long time.

Jesus answered contingency with contingency: “If (ei) thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). All things are possible, not certain, which means that once faith overrules the impossibility, the Lord’s will is still determinative. But first the impossibility must be removed through belief in His omnipotence. The father responded, “Lord, I believe, help (boēthei, the present imperative of boēthéō) me with respect to the unbelief (apistía [570])” (Mark 9:24; a.t.).

The father clearly had faith in the Lord Jesus; otherwise, he would not have brought his son to the disciples in the first place. Yet he had lingering doubts, weighed down by the severity of his son’s case and reinforced by the disciples’ impotence. Now he asked Jesus to remove his doubts. From this we learn that our faith is not holy, reflecting the single-minded perfection the Lord commands. Christ alone increases faith. Therefore, we can ask Him to help us when we honestly doubt. We cannot hide from Him what He already knows.

[18] Jesus then commanded the demon to leave: “And Jesus rebuked (epetímēsen, the aorist tense of epitimáō [2008] from epí [1909], upon; and timáō [5091], to evaluate) the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured (etherapeúthē, the aorist passive of therapeúō [2323], to compassionately heal) from that very hour.”

As when Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves (Matt. 8:26; Mark 4:39; Luke 8:24), the effect was immediate. Jesus’ verbal rebuke caused the demon to flee. Today, liberal thinkers dismiss most of these narratives as mythological overlays on history. We need, they say, to “demythologize” these fables, stripping them down to “real” history. Yet the New Testament is clear that the Lord Jesus not only acknowledged the existence of demons, but He addressed them, He linked many illnesses to their destructive behavior, and He cast them out with His omnipotent word.

The three aorists are simultaneous, and logically so. Since an “effect” is “that which is caused” then causes and effects are never sequential. The instant Jesus spoke, the demon departed, and the child was cured. There were no delays between cause and effect, as if the demon was “thinking over” God’s will: “For with authority commandeth He even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him” (Mark 1:27). He commanded; they obeyed—instantaneously!

[19] “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart (kat’ from katá, according to; idían, private, particular), and said, Why could not we cast him out?” The disciples were embarrassed, frustrated by their failed attempt before the crowd, and humiliated by the scribes (see vv. 14, 16).

[20] “And Jesus said unto them, Because (diá [1223], for the reason) of your unbelief (TR: apistían; UBS: oligopistían from olígos [3641], little; and pístis).” The UBS reading has better manuscript support. Also, it makes sense to set apart the disciples’ “little faith” from the crowds’ “faithlessness” (Remember, too, that “faithless” is joined to “perverse” in verse 17). This does not weaken Jesus’ argument. The disciples could be fairly ineffective against a powerful demon, with faith smaller than a single grain of mustard seed.

The “for” (gár [1063]) introduced a strong conclusion: “For verily (amēn [281], truly) I say (légō [3004], to intelligently say) unto you, If (eán [1437], the “if” of reality, as opposed to ei, the “if” of supposition) ye have (échēte, the present subjunctive of échō, to have) faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say (ereíte, the plural tense of eréō [2046], to say) unto this mountain, Remove (metábēthi, the aorist imperative of metabaínō [3327], depart) hence (enteúthen [1782], from this place) to yonder place (ekeí [1563], there, that place); and it shall remove; and nothing (oudén, contracted from ou, the absolute “not”; dé, even; and hén from heís, one) shall be impossible (adunatēsei, the future tense of adunatéō [101], to be impossible) unto you.”

By “this mountain,” Jesus probably referred to the Mount of Transfiguration in their immediate presence. Although we might be tempted to dampen, if not negate, the force of this teaching, Jesus Himself said this is the way it “shall be” with the faith of a mustard seed—a faith that no doubt includes its own wisdom and righteousness. Since Jesus gave this imperative, He implied that such a command even to a literal mountain would be rational. He Himself commanded the wind and sea that “obeyed” Him (Mark 4:41). He reinforced His point by adding that “not even a single thing” is impossible to the person of faith.

Nothing was impossible for the perfect Man of perfect faith far beyond that represented by a mustard seed. His point seemed to be that our less-than-mustard-seed size faith will never match His faith, by whose righteousness of faith alone we are justified (Rom. 5:18, 19; Gal. 2:16). If a seed of faith saves us from demons and our own demonic natures, then it is Him, to whom all glory belongs both now and in the ages to come (1 Pet. 4:11).

We should remind ourselves, first, that “possibility” is not “actuality” (i.e., the promise is that all things are “possible,” not “certain”). Second, the Son of man Himself did not command any mountains to displace themselves in His short time on earth. Even if we did command a specific mountain, it will move eventually because they are all going to move in the future: “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places” (Rev. 6:14; see also Isa. 40:4; Rev. 16:20). We believers, destined to judge angels (1 Cor. 6:3), will probably take part in the renewal of the earth.

But this follows later. We should seek which mountains the Lord would have us move now. Babylon, the evil city of unbelief surrounded by the gates of Hades, is the mountain the church should bring down with the Word of God in our present evil age: “Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain [identified as Babylon in the prior verse], saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain” (Jer. 51:25). We will indeed move the mountains the Lord wills that we move in our lifetimes: “Greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father….If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:12, 14).

[21] Jesus then advised His disciples that different types of evil spirits exist: “Howbeit (dé [1161], but) this kind does not go out (ekporeúetai, the present tense of ekporeúomai [1607], to go out of; from ek [1537], out of from within; and poreúomai [4198], to depart) except by prayer (proseuchē{4335} from prós, to, or toward; and euchē, a wish) and fasting (nēsteía [3521]).

Whether or not copyists inserted this verse in Matthew from a Markan source is irrelevant to the present discussion. The phrase is original in Mark and only serves to amplify, not contradict, what Matthew says. Since Jesus evidently said it, we will deal with it here. With perhaps the one exception of Daniel’s refrain from “pleasant bread…flesh [and] wine” (Dan. 10:3), the biblical fast is total abstinence from food and drink for a certain period of time (Esth. 4:16). The Mosaic Law indirectly legislated fasting for one day only by inclusion in the general prohibition of work (cooking) and the “affliction of souls” on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:27–32; Num. 29:7). This became known as the “day of fasting” (Jer. 36:6) or “the fast” (Acts 27:9). After the exile, fasting was included in additional feasts and private expressions of grief and penitence.

According to the New Testament, some strict Pharisees fasted every Monday and Thursday (Luke 18:12), and devout laypersons, like Anna, fasted often (Luke 2:37). The only record of Jesus fasting is during the time of His temptations at the outset of His ministry. When asked why His disciples did not fast like those of John the Baptist and the Pharisees, Jesus responded that it was not appropriate until He left their presence (Matt. 6:16–18; 9:14–15).

Since Jesus did not rebuke a disease or the symptoms, the antecedent to “this kind” can only be the demon itself. We know there are individual demons and sets of demons with names like “Legion” (Mark 5:9, 15; 9:17; Luke 8:30).

What does fasting add to prayer? Apart from the Mosaic command to “afflict your souls” (see above) on the Day of Atonement, no Scriptures teach us exactly what fasting does. By itself, fasting does not prove that believers are sincere. A case in point is God saying He did not honor fasting (Isa. 58:3, 4), and that true fasting is ministry to the poor (vv. 5–7). Yet fasting is evidence of a willingness to exchange material goods for spiritual goods, the temporal things of this world for eternal things, such as salvation from sin and demonic oppression. If we are willing to give up food so someone else might be saved, then our prayers are in agreement with God’s will.

Had Jesus fasted before casting out the demon? Perhaps so, although there is no correspondence between the way Jesus casts out demons and the way we do. If His deity alone cast out the demon, then the appeal to fasting is incongruous, since God cannot fast. Furthermore, the teaching is ignored, since none of the disciples is God. We must remember that the Son of man “cast(s) out devils by the Spirit (Luke 11:20 says ‘finger’) of God” (Matt. 12:28), which is the way we will do it if we do it at all. The implied promise here is we can do it if we fast and pray.

Dr. Spiros Zodhiates (1922-2009) served as president of AMG International in Chattanooga, Tennessee for over 40 years, was the founding editor of Pulpit Helps Magazine, and authored dozens of exegetical books.