Lent Week 3: Friday | Matthew 17 (14-20)

The Stubborn Demon and the Mustard Seed: Why the Vanguard Fails

To Duffy and the Church in the Americas and Israel: Peace and Grace from Brother Jonathan in Albany.

As we arrive at this Friday of our third Lenten week, we find ourselves slightly more than halfway through our retreat, perhaps feeling the physical toll of our vegan discipline or the mental weight of a surface noise that never seems to abate. In today’s reading of Matthew 17:14-20, we are forced to descend from the heights of the Transfiguration into the chaotic reality of the valley. It is a jarring transition: we move from the blinding light of Christ’s glory to the grinding frustration of a "faithless and perverse generation."

In this scene, we encounter a father kneeling before Jesus, desperate for his son who suffers from seizures that repeatedly cast him into the fire and the water. While the ancient world saw a stubborn demon, we might look at our current global landscape and see a terrifyingly accurate mirror. The boy’s condition feels hauntingly similar to the current seizures of the UN Security Council—a body paralyzed by rhythmic, predictable convulsions of vetoes and tribal interests that render it unable to protect the vulnerable. Just as the boy is cast into the fire and the water, we see future generations being cast into the twin perils of unresolved conflict and catastrophic climate change. Our children are being pushed into the fire of rising global temperatures and the water of rising sea levels and flooding, all while the vanguard—the disciples of today—stand by, powerless to cast the demon of anarchy out of the system.

When the disciples ask, "Why could we not cast it out?" Jesus points directly to the poverty of their faith. As N.T. Wright suggests, the issue isn't that they lacked a large amount of faith, but that they lacked the right kind of faith—a mustard seed faith that trusts in God’s kingly authority rather than the establishment power of the status quo. To move the mountains of nationalistic pride and institutional paralysis, we cannot rely on the same heavy, carnist structures that created the crisis. We need the divine software upgrade that comes from prayer and fasting. 

Our Lenten fast is not merely a dietary preference; it is the ascetic preparation required to sharpen our spirits for both the holy knighthood praised by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the visionary nonviolence prophesied by Bernard's 20th-century Cistercian descendant, Thomas Merton. It is the deep, interior grounding that allows us to stand before the seizures of the world and command the mountain to move toward the Peaceable Kingdom.

The Mustard Seed Strategy: Moving the Mountains of Anarchy

When Jesus speaks of moving "this mountain" with faith the size of a mustard seed, He is offering a blueprint for the World Federalist hope we carry. In the first century, moving mountains was a common metaphor for overcoming seemingly impossible political or social obstacles. Today, the mountain before us is the jagged peak of absolute national sovereignty—the belief that the nation-state is the highest possible authority, even when it fails to prevent the fire and water of global collapse.

A mustard seed faith does not require us to build a human-led world state through sheer force or carnist ambition. Instead, it is the small, living commitment to the oneness of humanity and the kingly authority of Christ over all borders. Like the mustard seed, this vision starts as the smallest of initiatives—perhaps a shared Lenten retreat, a commitment to a green economy, or the quiet advocacy for global law. Yet, because it is rooted in the Truth of the Kingdom, it has the biological and spiritual power to crack the bedrock of anarchy. We move the mountains of the UN Security Council’s paralysis not by shouting louder in the valley, but by planting the seeds of a new global table where the "Canaanite" and the "Israelite" are sustained by the same Bread.

Why Fasting is the Divine Software Upgrade

This brings us to the necessity of prayer and fasting. Whether we follow the manuscripts that include the prayer and fasting verse (Matthew 17:21) or Wright’s more streamlined reading, the theological reality remains: some demons are so deeply embedded in the "meat" of our culture that they cannot be evicted by rhetoric alone.

Our Lenten discipline is the essential software upgrade for the prophetic vanguard. Why does the vanguard of the Church often fail to cast out the demons of polarization and greed? It is because we are often trying to use the world's "operating system"—outrage, consumption, and tribalism—to fix the world's problems. Our vegan fast is a radical decoupling from the carnist system of exploitation. It is a form of spiritual de-fragmentation that clears the surface noise and allows the power of the Spirit to flow through us without being blocked by our own appetites. To be a holy knight in the old tradition of Saint Bernard, or a non-violent prophet in the new tradition of Thomas Merton, one must first be a master of their own soul. Only a heart that is disciplined enough to deny itself a carnist meal is strong enough to command a mountain to move.

Lord, look with favor upon the Church in the Americas and Israel as we cross this midpoint. Grant us the mustard seed faith that refuses to be intimidated by the mountains of anarchy. Sharpen our spirits through this fast, that we may be equipped to stand before the seizures of our institutions and speak Your peace into the fire and the water. Amen.

P.S. On the Temple Tax (Matthew 17:24–27)

As we navigate our vegan retreat, we must eventually face the question of the "Temple Tax." In today’s context, this is our financial and communal support for a Church that—despite the prophetic calls of Laudato Si’—remains institutionally carnist and largely asleep to the climate emergency.

We might be tempted to withdraw our support, feeling like children of the King who are already living in the sustainable promised land. Yet, Jesus instructs Peter to pay the tax "so that we may not cause offense." For the vegan vanguard, this is a call to patient engagement. We continue to tithe and support the institutional Church not because we endorse its current dietary lethargy, but because we refuse to burn the bridge we are currently walking across.

By staying invested in the establishment, we maintain our seat at the table. We pay the tax of our presence and our resources so that we can continue to be the mustard seed cracking the mountain from within. Like the coin found in the mouth of the fish, our support is a miraculous grace—a sign that we can provide for the old Temple while we are simultaneously building the New Federation.

This passage is also powerfully suggestive of a symbolic pivot-point in world history.

For many in the Americas, particularly those who find themselves "spiritual but not religious," we are currently witnessing the sunset of the Piscean Age—an era defined by the institutional "Fish Friday" Church, which has struggled to move past its carnist roots and hierarchical rigidity. In this light, the coin found in the mouth of the fish is the price of admission for the transition into a new era.

• The Old Coin (Pisces): We continue to support the institutional Church—paying the "tax"—even as it remains tethered to the old world. We do this to avoid offense and to maintain our presence within the structures that formed us.
• The New Coin (Aquarius): The "coin of the Kingdom" we are now discovering is the vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian mercy required for the sustainable age ahead.

This Friday, as the old world observes its traditional fish, we are looking through the fish to find the wealth of the future. We are moving from the Age of the Fish to the Age of the Water-Bearer—where the water we carry is the life-giving commitment to climate stabilization, biodiversity, and World Federalist Shalom. We pay the tax of the past to secure the license for the future.

Conceived, directed and edited by Jonathan, written and illustrated by Gemini.