Matthew 17:19 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 17:19 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?”

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said: why could we not cast it out? The private question — why could we not cast it out — is the disciples' honest engagement with their own failure. The willingness to ask the question rather than rationalize the failure communicates the disciples' genuine desire to understand. The private asking is the same pattern as the private asking about the parables (Matthew 13:10): the disciples press Jesus for understanding that they cannot reach on their own.

Church Fathers on Matthew 17:19

The disciples had received from the Lord the power over unclean spirits, and when they could not heal the daemoniac thus brought to them, they seem to have had misgivings lest they had forfeited the grace once given to them; hence their question. And they ask it apart, not out of shame, but because of the unspeakable matter of which they were to ask.
Chrysostom · 4th century

The Apostles had believed, yet their faith was imperfect; while the Lord tarried in the mount, and they abode below with the multitude, their faith had become stagnant.
Hilary of Poitiers · 4th century

This is what the Lord says in another place, 'Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name believing, ye shall receive.' [Matt 21:22, John 16:23] Therefore when we receive not, it is not the weakness of Him that gives, but the fault of them that ask.
Jerome · 4th century

Read all 19 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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