Matthew 17:14-21
We read in this passage another of our Lord’s great miracles. He heals a young man lunatic and possessed with a devil.
The first thing we see in these verses is a lively emblem of the awful influence sometimes exercised by Satan over the young. We are told of a certain man’s son, who was “lunatic and sore vexed.” We are told of the evil spirit pressing him on to the destruction of body and soul: “Oft-times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water.” It was one of those cases of Satanic possession which, however common in our Lord’s times, in our own day is rarely seen; but we can easily imagine that, when they did occur, they must have been peculiarly distressing to the relations of the afflicted. It is painful enough to see the bodies of those we love racked by disease: how much more painful must it have been to see body and mind completely under the influence of the devil! “Out of hell,” says Bishop Hall, “there could not be greater misery.”