⭐WEB · Matthew 17:17
What does Matthew 17:17 mean?
"Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me.”"
— Matthew 17:17 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
When they came to the multitude, a man came to him, kneeling down to him, and saying,
“Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is epileptic, and suffers grievously; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water.
So I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.”
Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me.”
Jesus rebuked him, the demon went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, “Why weren’t we able to cast it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Explanation
This verse captures a moment of exasperation from Jesus following the Transfiguration, when he comes down from the mountain with Peter, James, and John to find a chaotic scene: a father pleading for help because his son is suffering from seizures (described as being possessed by a demon), and the other disciples have just failed to heal him. Jesus's response—"Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you?"—is a sharp lament over the lack of faith he encounters, followed by a simple, direct command: "Bring him here to me."
The passage occurs in Matthew's Gospel, written primarily for a Jewish-Christian audience to demonstrate that Jesus is the promised Messiah. This specific episode (Matthew 17:14-21) follows immediately after the Transfiguration, where Jesus's divine glory was revealed to three disciples. The contrast is striking: moments after glimpsing heavenly glory, Jesus descends into a scene of human failure and unbelief. When the disciples later ask privately why they couldn't cast out the demon, Jesus tells them it was because of their "little faith" (Matthew 17:20), and that with faith even the size of a mustard seed, they could accomplish extraordinary things.
Theologically, this verse reveals J
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