Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
All Commentaries on Matthew 17:19 Go To Matthew 17
Hilary of Poitiers
AD 368
The disciples are surprised that they could not throw out the demon. All power, not only of besting demons but even of raising the dead, had been given them. Furthermore, because the law was soon to be transcended, Jesus says, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you?” He does not seem to be saying this to those whom he had set apart. Those who did not have faith were going to lose the very law that they had. If they had had this faith within them, they would have been like the grain of mustard seed. By the power of the Word they would have thrown out this burden of sins and the heavy mass of their unbelief. They would have transferred it, like a mountain into the sea, to the activity of the pagans and secular people.
