Jesus answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you, how long will I put up with you? Bring him to Me.”
This saying is severe, yet it is also full of mercy. The Lord condemns not only a father’s weakness or the disciples’ failure, but the deep unbelief of an entire generation. Unbelief is not merely an error of the mind, but a spiritual condition that makes a person closed to divine power. Yet immediately after the rebuke comes the command of grace: “Bring him to Me.” Here is the heart of the Gospel: a person may be unbelieving, confused, powerless, yet Christ still says, bring that suffering to Me. He does not reject them; first He rebukes them, exposing their unbelief, and then He has the sick one brought near to Him.