Jesus' instruction of His disciples in view of the King's coming death and resurrection and the kingdom's postponement continued. Jesus had taught them about His person (16:13-17) and His program (16:18-17:13). He now taught them principles that clarified His work and His person further.
"The contrast between the glory of the Transfiguration and Jesus' disciples' tawdry unbelief (see v. 17) is part of the mounting tension that magnifies Jesus' uniqueness as he moves closer to his passion and resurrection."679
17:14-16 The Greek word gonypeteo, translated "falling on his knees"or "knelt,"suggests humility and entreaty, not worship (cf. 27:29; Mark 1:40; 10:17). Likewise "Lord"was simply a respectful address (cf. 8:2). The young man's epilepsy was evidently a result of demon possession (v. 18). The impotent disciples were some or all of the nine who did not go up the mountain for the Transfiguration.
There are many instances of the disciples' failures in this section of Matthew (cf. 14:16-21, 26-27, 28-31; 15:16, 23, 33; 16:5, 22; 17:4, 10-11). Earlier they had great miraculous powers (10:1, 8). However, their power was not their own; it came from Jesus. As Jesus progressively trained the disciples, He also withdrew some of their power to teach them that it came from Him and related to their faith in Him (14:26-17, 31; 15:5, 8).
17:17-18 Jesus' rebuke recalls Moses' words to Israel in Deuteronomy 32:5 and 20. Unbelief characterized the generation of Jews that had rejected Jesus, and now it marked His disciples to a lesser extent. Their failure to believe stemmed from moral failure to recognize the truth rather than from lack of evidence, as the combination of "perverse"and "unbelieving"makes clear (cf. Phil. 2:15). The disciples, too, were slow to believe, slower than they should have been. Jesus' two rhetorical questions expressed frustration and criticism.
17:19-21 The "we"in the disciples' question is in the emphatic position in the Greek text. The problem, as Jesus explained, was their weak faith (Gr. oligopistia). It was not the quantity of their faith that was deficient but its quality. In spite of the revelation of Jesus that they had received, the disciples had not responded to it with trust as they should have done. They had some faith in Jesus, but it should have been stronger.
"Much earlier, Jesus had endowed the disciples with authority to exorcise demons as part of their mission to Israel (10:1, 8). Consequently, he expects them to draw on this authority. But if they approach the tasks of their mission forgetful of their empowerment and encumbered by a crisis of trust, they render themselves ineffectual."680
Removing mountains is a proverbial figure of speech for overcoming great difficulties (cf. Isa. 40:4; 49:11; 54:10; Matt. 21:21-22; Mark 11:23; Luke 17:6; 1 Cor. 13:2). In this context the difficulties in view involved exercising the authority that Jesus had delegated to them to heal people. The disciples were treating the gift of healing that Jesus had given them as a magical ability that worked regardless of their faith in Him. Now they learned that their power depended on proper response to revelation, namely dependent confidence in Jesus to work through them to heal. Continual dependence on Jesus rather than simply belief in who He is constitutes strong faith (cf. Mark 6:5-6).
"Nothing is impossible for the disciple of Jesus who with faith works within the established will of God. It is therefore the case that not every failure in the performance or reception of healing is the result solely of insufficient faith."681
Verse 21 does not occur in several important ancient manuscripts. Evidently copyists assimilated it from Mark 9:29: "And He said to them, This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.'"
The lesson of this miracle for the disciples was that simple belief that Jesus is the King may be adequate when a person first realizes who Jesus is. It can even result in spectacular miracles. However with the privilege of added revelation about the person and work of Jesus comes increased responsibility to trust totally in Him. Failure to do this weakens faith and restricts Jesus' work through the disciple (cf. John 15:5).
Jesus next gave His disciples His second clear announcement of His passion (cf. 16:21-24).682He had alluded to it in veiled terms before He articulated it clearly (cf. 9:15; 10:38; 12:40).
17:22 Matthew's reference to time was general. All the disciples were again with Jesus in Galilee. Jesus introduced the subject of His passion again, which the Transfiguration and the events that had followed it had interrupted.
Jesus' statement was direct, but it was also somewhat ambiguous. The Greek word paradidosthaimeans either "to hand over"or "to betray"depending on the context, which is no help here. Furthermore this verb is in the passive tense so the perpetrator of this action, whoever it would be, remained hidden. In typical fashion Jesus gave His disciples more information, but He did not give them all He could have. More information would have created questions and problems that He did not want them to face yet.
17:23 The disciples' response shows that they understood and did not like to hear what lay ahead. They grasped Jesus' death but did not yet understand His resurrection. It was not until after Jesus arose from the dead that they understood the Resurrection. Had they understood His resurrection now they would not have been sorrowful.
17:24 The two drachma tax was a Jewish tax that every male Jew between 20 and 50 years of age had to pay toward the maintenance of the temple and its services (Exod. 30:13). There was no two drachma coin in circulation at this time, so two adults often went together and paid one shekel that was worth four drachmas.683
17:25-26 Jesus turned this inquiry from the tax collector into a teaching situation for Peter and presumably the other disciples. Jesus changed the tax from a religious one to a civil one to make His point clearer. The principle is the same in both cases, but it was easier to illustrate in the civil arena of life.
Jesus' point was that as the sons of kings are exempt from the taxes their fathers impose, so He was exempt from the taxes His Father imposed. He meant the temple tax. The temple really belonged to Jesus (Mal. 3:1). Jesus was teaching Peter the implications of His deity. He was not teaching Peter to fulfill his civic responsibility.
17:27 Even though He was exempt, Jesus would pay the tax because He did not want to offend anyone needlessly (cf. 5:29). Failure to pay the tax would create unnecessary problems. Because Peter was one of Jesus' disciples and one of God's children through faith in Jesus, he also had no obligation to pay the temple tax (cf. 12:1-8). Paul later followed Jesus' example of not giving offense in a similar situation (1 Cor. 8:13; 9:12, 22), as all God's children should.
God had declared Jesus His Son clearly in the Transfiguration (v. 5) as well as at Jesus' baptism. Yet Jesus' glory remained veiled as He moved toward the Cross. This established a pattern for His disciples (cf. 18:1-5). Since the sons of God are exempt from maintaining the temple and its service, the end of this system of worship appeared to be approaching, as it was. Here is another indication that Jesus ended the Mosaic Law (15:11). Again the disciples failed to grasp the major significance of these things until after the Resurrection.
Jesus alone could obtain the stater (shekel) as He did. Again the sinless Man fulfilled the command of the Adamic Covenant to exercise dominion over the fish of the sea (cf. 8:27; 14:25). Even though He was free from the law's demands, being God's Son, He submitted to them and miraculously provided for His disciples to do so. This demonstration of humility and power is even more impressive following as it does an announcement of Jesus' passion. Jesus proceeded to teach His disciples the importance of following the examples that He provided for them in the next section (ch. 18).
