Mark 9:14-29, CEB - When Jesus, Peter, James, and John approached the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them and legal experts arguing with them. Suddenly the whole crowd caught sight of Jesus. They ran to greet him, overcome with excitement. Jesus asked them, “What are you arguing about?”
Someone from the crowd responded, “Teacher, I brought my
son to you, since he has a spirit that doesn’t allow him to speak. Wherever it
overpowers him, it throws him into a fit. He foams at the mouth, grinds his
teeth, and stiffens up. So I spoke to your disciples to see if they could throw
it out, but they couldn’t.”
Jesus answered them, “You faithless generation, how long
will I be with you? How long will I put up with you? Bring him to me.”
They brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it
immediately threw the boy into a fit. He fell on the ground and rolled around,
foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked his
father, “How long has this been going on?”
He said, “Since he was a child. It has often thrown him
into a fire or into water trying to kill him. If you can do anything, help us!
Show us compassion!”
Jesus said to him, “‘If you can do anything’? All things
are possible for the one who has faith.”
At that the boy’s father cried out, “I have faith; help
my lack of faith!”
Noticing that the crowd had surged together, Jesus spoke
harshly to the unclean spirit, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you to come out
of him and never enter him again.” After
screaming and shaking the boy horribly, the spirit came out. The boy seemed to
be dead; in fact, several people said that he had died. But Jesus took his hand, lifted him up, and he
arose.
After Jesus went into a house, his disciples asked him
privately, “Why couldn’t we throw this spirit out?”
Jesus answered, “Throwing this kind of spirit out
requires prayer.”
Of the
three gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) that include this story, Mark’s is the
longest account. That can create the
temptation to get bogged down in the details (which is actually kinda fun for
me). The danger in that is to miss the
forest for the trees. The thread that runs
through the entire story is faith vs. unbelief.
The story opens with Jesus and his inner circle of three (Peter, James,
and John) returning to the other disciples who are arguing with the experts in
the law. The argument seems to concern
the disciples inability to cast out a demon in a boy brought to them. When Jesus finds this out, he is obviously frustrated
and He says exactly why. They are
faithless. Let me say this another way
to be clear. The boy’s demon was not exorcised
because they didn’t have the correct interpretation of the law (which is what
they were arguing about). The demon
continued to torture the boy because they lacked faith.
The
next conversation takes place between Jesus and the boy’s father. This conversation also leads to the issue of
faith. The father is pleading to help
his boy, “if you can.” Jesus is much
more compassionate in His response here, for the father here has not been
witness to the hundreds of miracles that Jesus’s disciples have.
“‘If
you can do anything’? All things are possible for the one who has faith.”
The father’s response is one of my favorite statements in
the entire bible.
“I
have faith; help my lack of faith!”
The
father did have some measure of faith. After
all, he took the time to bring the boy to Jesus’s disciples and then to Jesus,
even after Jesus’s disciples were unable to help. What is particularly striking about the
father’s faith is that it is faith that recognizes that more faith is
needed. It is faith seeking more
faith. It is after this faith is expressed
by the father that Jesus commands the demon to leave the boy never come
back.
This
leads us to the closing conversation in this story – the private conversation
later between Jesus and His disciples about why they could not cast out the boy’s
demon:
Jesus
answered, “Throwing this kind of spirit out requires prayer.”
The word “prayer” here, in the larger context of the story,
means much more than uttering some words in God’s direction. It is a way to talk about the same “faith
looking for more faith.” We pray, not
simply to get God to do something, but more to intentionally express our
dependence on God for all that is beyond our power and/or control. We pray to connect with the God is already
doing something about the situations for which we pray.
There
was a saying that was used quite often when I was growing up to describe the deeply
spiritual saints among us. We would say
something like, “Oh Dan, he’s a man of great prayer” or “Judy is certainly a
prayerful woman.” We didn’t say this to
describe the beauty of their public prayers.
We said to speak to their deep dependence on God that was evident in how
they approached everything in their life.
It is this kind of living that demons flee from, for they know they are outmatched. It is this kind of faith that sees miraculous
things happen. May we all aim for that. We believe. . .help our unbelief!
Question: Can you point
to tangible ways that you are working to grow your dependence on God right now?
Prayer: Lord we believe!
Help our unbelief! Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for political prisoners held in prisons all over the world right now.
Song: O Come All Ye
Faithful – Third Day
