How often does it happen? One moment . . . day . . . week . . . month . . . you’re flying high, enjoying a mountaintop experience and the next moment . . . day . . . week . . . month . . . BAM!!! . . . you’re in the dumps, looking up from the valley floor. That’s kind of the Matthew 17 scenario. One moment the disciples are on the mount with Jesus beholding His transfigured glory . . . and the next, they’re staring at the fire scarred image of a boy who has suffered uncontrollable seizures at the hands of a demon. They go from the mountaintop of possibility as they watch Jesus conferring with Moses and Elijah to the valley floor of frustration and futility as the other disciples simply can’t deal with and dispense of this demon. And what causes me to pause is Jesus’ rebuke of those gathered around this desperate father and his equally desperate son . . .

And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to Him and, kneeling before Him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to Me.”   (Matthew 17:14-17 ESV)

Now some think Jesus was rebuking His powerless disciples . . . others think He may have had the religious leaders in the crowd in mind . . . and others think Jesus was speaking to the crowd at large. Regardless of who Jesus was specifically addressing, it’s the term “faithless and twisted generation” that’s got me thinking.

The NASB, NIV, and NKJV translate it as “unbelieving” and “perverse” or “perverted” generation. The word for “twisted” or “perverse” has the idea of “turned away” or “distorted” or “corrupted”. And while, at first, Jesus’ rebuke came across to me as perhaps a little bit harsh (regardless of the audience), I’m thinking it’s simply a statement of fact . . . that where there is no faith, there will be twisted thinking. That, absent believing, the void will be filled with corrupted conclusions. Take away the walk of faith, and all you have left is to be turned away by the “wisdom” of men. All that’s left to the faithless is a twisted view of reality.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  (Romans 1:21 ESV)

And there’s a warning here for me. Sure, through the faith I’ve already exercised (and that being a gift of God, lest any man should boast) in the finished work of Christ on the cross, I’ve been called out of darkness into marvelous light and become part of a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession.” But that’s just the beginning. There’s a few miles for this sojourner to log before he’s home . . . a life to be lived which is worthy of the calling of Christ. And, in order to do so, the just shall live by faith (Heb. 10:38) . . . for we walk by faith and not by sight (2Cor. 5:7) . . . and without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

So, if I instead “lean to my own understanding” and, through a spirit of unbelief, do not “trust in the Lord with all my heart”, then I shouldn’t be surprised if things get a bit twisted along the way . . . if my thinking gets a bit turned around . . . if my walk gets a bit corrupted.

Oh, how I need to cry out, as did this boy’s desperate father, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)