Causes of failure in spiritual power.
"I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him." Now, these very disciples had been able to heal and cure and restore, when on their trial mission. They had returned to their Lord greatly excited, and saying," Even the devils are subject to us in thy Name." It does not, however, appear that they had healing powers when their Master was present. True, he was not present on this particular occasion, but he was only temporarily absent, and he had left them with no particular commission. It is easy to find excuses for their failing and their feeling. Jesus does not so much reprove them as mourn over them. They did not come up to the standard he desired; they did not grow spiritually. Their failure showed failure to attain spiritual power. It is plain that the disciples were not fitted to receive news of the glorious but mysterious scene of the Transfiguration. Our Lord suggests two explanations of the failure of the disciples: they were "faithless and perverse."
I. ONE GREAT CAUSE IS SELF-CENTREDNESS. This is the mood which is indicated by their question, "Why could not we cast him out?" It really was not a question of their casting out. It was a question of their Lord's power to cast out, and of their Lord's gracious willingness to make them his agents in the casting out. They had come to be interested in what they could do; and, like the man who walks on a giddy height, they began to turn giddy as soon as they looked down to watch the goings of their own feet. The greatest secret of failure in spiritual power is still the growing up of self-centredness; the turning of our eyes in upon ourselves; the supreme interest in what we can be, or in what we can do. If these disciples had been able to cure, they would have been proud of their power; and that would have been ruinous to their Christian standing. Humbling lessons of failure are necessary to break us off from dangerous self-centralizing.
II. ANOTHER GREAT CAUSE IS UNBELIEF. But this is not to be taken in its active form. What is meant here is weakness, ineffectiveness of faith. It was not there, ready for an emergency. An unexpected demand was made on faith, and faith was caught at unawares. It was no question of denying truths. It was a question of daily reliance, mood of trust, the life of faith, the state of mind and heart that finds such noble expression in St. Paul's words, "I can do all things through him who strengtheneth me." These disciples should have had an established faith which linked them to the Divine power of their Master, and would have given them power to use his power to heal.—R.T.