Jesus and Faith
Preached by Jason Abbott
October 27, 2013
In Mark’s gospel, as Jesus comes down off the Mount of Transfiguration, he begins a journey toward Jerusalem and the cross. Consequently, as we continue in our series through Mark, we will be on that journey with Jesus and his disciples. And, Jesus in this time will be teaching the twelve (and us too) about the costs of discipleship and preparing them for the climactic events of his mission—namely his trial, condemnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Mark 9:14-29
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Sometimes I’m at the church offices during the week, and I feel like I’m up on the mountain with Jesus. I’m able to read and study a passage of Scripture. I’m able to begin to piece together small details from a particular biblical passage and then connect those details to God’s grand redemptive storyline. I’m able to pray and to plan and to have “mature” Christian conversations about “important” spiritual matters.
Then sometimes, after such ivory tower like days, I come home and my mountain top experience is crushed! My glorious experience is brought down to earth! Usually it happens something like this:
I walk into the house and greet my lovely wife, and we begin to process both of our days like mature Jesus-loving adults should.
Then, from some dark mysterious corner of our house where apparently only evil things take place, she and I will hear a scream. Immediately following this we will hear many voices begin to yell, all at the same time, in an unintelligible argumentative mess. It is as if a bar-fight has erupted in my home.
(I will usually look at my wife at this point, yet she is unfazed by the adolescent gang-war taking place in our home! This is normalcy for her! She is calm and collected and not at all surprised!)
But, I am surprised. And, a little embarrassed that I’m surprised and that she isn’t. So, I’ll pull myself together and say something calm and pastoral. “Kids…please calm down.” Then I listen to see if it’s worked, but it never works.
So, what happens then? Well, I shed some of my composure. “Kids…you better stop it immediately, or you’re all going to go to timeout!” But, this is like threatening death-row inmates with after school detention. My kids virtually live in timeout. They are not worried or deterred by this threat!
Finally, all that chaos that erupted amongst my children minutes before has migrated fully into my heart, and I am completely transformed into some version of Mr. Hyde! I mean—I don’t speak in full sentences any longer; it’s just grunts and growls and arms swinging around like a wild Grizzly Bear. I am completely down from the mountain now. In fact, I don’t even remember the mountain at all. It doesn’t even exist as far as I’m concerned!
Now, I’m not going to even ask if this happens to you because I know it does! It happens secretly in your heart and your head if it doesn’t happen outwardly in your words and your deeds. None of us can stay on the mountain top; we cannot always behave as we’d like to behave. We are easily caught up in the sin and the chaos of this fallen world.
But, Jesus wasn’t distracted by the chaos or caught up in the sin of this life! And, in this passage, Jesus provides a model and >strong>a message
for us. (1) Jesus models how one rightly deals with life’s chaos. And, (2) Jesus delivers a message on how one is enabled to defeat sin in a fallen world.
1. Jesus provides a model (vv. 14-27).
When Jesus brings Peter, James, and John down the mountain, he finds chaos. His disciples are arguing with the scribes over something. (He finds a scene that resembles the scene I described with my kids! Except that Jesus doesn’t act like me—does he!) Jesus stays calm and asks them a question in order to get to the heart of their argument. He doesn’t level threats. He doesn’t react in anger. Jesus simply wants to hear from those involved in this dispute.
Yet, what Jesus finds out disturbs him greatly. For, a desperate father in the crowd quickly answers his question:
Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able (vv. 17-18).
How do we know Jesus is disturbed by this? We know that Jesus is disturbed because of his response:
O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me (v. 19).
At this point, it is important for us to not merely note that Jesus is disturbed and stop at that, but to further consider what in this situation has made Jesus so upset. What about this father’s answer so bothers him? Why is Jesus exasperated by the faithlessness of this generation? Who is included in Jesus’ rebuke?
Some commentators believe that Jesus is rebuking the disciples’ faithlessness since they were unable to heal this boy.1
Other commentators believe that Jesus is rebuking the crowd’s faithlessness since the disciples have tried but failed to heal this boy while they (the crowd) apparently don’t trust in Jesus’ power and authority, via his disciples, to heal at all.2
I, however, tend to think Jesus is rebuking the whole lot. And, I believe he may be rebuking them for a rather different kind of faithlessness than the mere inability to heal this boy or to believe in Jesus’ authority and power. I think he may be rebuking them for their inability to faithfully obey the great commandment and the commandment like it. He will later in Mark’s account explain, to an inquisitive scribe, what the greatest commandment is. Jesus says:
“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
O faithless generation who argues and who fights and who multiplies chaos in this fallen and broken world how long am I to bear with you? You who bicker to win arguments in the midst of suffering how long am I to be with you? Bring that boy to me!
Here is a desperate father ready to do anything to save his child, and you argue over his broken situation! Here is a boy in the grips of evil and you bicker over who is right and who is wrong! How does that love your neighbor as yourself!? How does that love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength!? You are indeed a faithless generation!
Then, in stark contrast, Jesus moves into the heartless void left by the crowd’s argumentative chaos and fills that void! Again, he seeks to understand the situation. Thus, he asks the father: “How long has this been happening to him?”
This is a compassionate and caring question. This is an empathetic question.
We all know that there’s a difference between a bad doctor and a good doctor. A bad doctor deals only with the ailment; a bad doctor simply wants results. A good doctor deals with the whole person; a good doctor wants results that restore health to the sick but that also deals with the spiritual and mental and emotional toll of the illness.
Jesus is such a good doctor. In fact, Jesus is the good doctor.
Here, as always, Jesus is a model for us. When we are dealing with the broken situations of those who are in need, do we take the time to ask questions that focus on really understanding their particular situation? When someone has come to us with their problems, do we resemble the good doctor or the bad doctor in how we deal with them and their problems? Do we treat them as people created in the image of God or machines that need fixing?
Jesus never takes a mechanistic approach when dealing with people. Neither should we! So:
Ask questions with the intention to listen and understand.
Consider what it must be like for the person for whom you are caring.
Compassionately speak biblical truth into the person’s broken situation.
Never simply make their pain and brokenness into a merely academic exercise to debate and argue over.
2. Jesus provides a message (vv. 28-29).
a. The disciples have botched this healing.
There is no doubt that the disciples indeed failed when it came to freeing this boy from his demonic affliction. They admit as much when they are finally alone with Jesus. Thus they ask Jesus about it:
Why could we not cast it out (v. 28)?
Already in Mark they had been sent out by Jesus with authority over evil spirits (i.e. Mark 6:7). And, already in Mark they had been successful in casting out demons through Jesus’ authority (i.e. Mark 6:13). They are therefore perplexed at why they failed here.
Also, it would be easy to understand Jesus’ response to their question in simply formulaic terms. Something like: “Well, this is a particularly nasty kind of demon. So you have to pray for X number of hours and next lay hands on the person and then pray for another X number of hours and only after all that will the demon come out.” But, if this were the case then praying would be reduced to a mere casting of magic spells!
What then does Jesus’ answer mean? What is his message here?
b. Jesus’ message is that it is never by our own power that evil will be defeated.
Consequently, when Jesus answers the disciples’ question by saying:
This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer (v. 29).
He is not speaking merely about prayer as a tool but as the avenue by which we call upon the only One who has the power to defeat evil. Prayer is not a magic trick to be spoken over a certain kind of demon but an expression of faithful reliance on God for deliverance from demons!
One commentator explains Jesus’ answer in this way:
Apparently they [the disciples] had taken for granted the power given them or had come to believe that it was inherent in themselves. So they no longer depended prayerfully on God for it, and their failure showed their lack of prayer.3
Jesus, throughout Mark, is constantly, prayerfully going to and relying on his Father. If we follow Jesus, we must also rely on God our Father. This is Jesus’ message here. Evil will never be defeated through our efforts alone. However, when we, in faith, call upon God in Jesus’ name, no evil can stand against us!
1Walter W. Wessel, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Mark, 702.
2James R. Edwards, The Gospel According To Mark, 278.
3Walter W. Wessel, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Mark, 704.
