”Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. ” Matthew 17:19-21
Bible Passage: Matthew 17:14-21 KJV
After the disciples’ failed attempt to drive the demon out, they probably all sat down and said “phew, that was one tough demon!” I can imagine what their hypothesis would be, for why they could not cast this particular demon out, but successfully cast out so many other demons when Jesus earlier sent them out in Matthew 10?
Then came Jesus and cleared the air and pointedly said, “because of your unbelief”. Although Jesus eventually said this doesn’t go out unless by praying and fasting, but the raison d’être (principal reason) why the demon was intransigent and unyielding was not anything about the demon. It was neither the strength nor the ferocity, nor its ranking in the demonic hierarchy but because of the disciples’ unbelief. One may say they were actually fortifying the demon they were trying to cast out by their unbelief – they fed the bear! It is like some infections that actually feed and get more severe on the antibiotics that was meant to kill them off.
As humans we are apt often to see the problem anywhere and everywhere else aside from the inside of us. More often than not, the issue we are trying to confront on the outside is often an internal one. This is what makes self introspection of all human endeavours, the most difficult .
This reminds of the report of the 10 spies in Numbers 13:33 KJV ‘’and there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.’’ They were first in their own sight as grasshoppers and projected that outlook unto the giants, who may even not have noticed them at all! So the problem really wasn’t how the giants saw them but how they saw themselves!
This is not to say there aren’t problems on the outside, of course, there are! There was indeed a demon inhabiting the boy. However, the disciples’ inability to rid the boy of the demon is not an issue of external origin, but an internal one, in this case their unbelief.
It was William Shakespeare that said “the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves”.
©2025 Ola Bosun Ajidahun . All Rights Reserved.
This is really powerful! Keep up the good work!
Thank you!