Last week we studied “the transfiguration”, where Jesus reveals his divinity to his inner circle. In our passage today, they come down the mountain and are immediately plunged into the clamoring crowd, full of accusing scribes and tormenting demons. His disciples had failed and are confused.
Mark recounts this scene to the first century church, under persecution from the Roman empire. Likely they were feeling lonely and powerless in the seeming absence of the Lord Jesus. The overwhelming force of the empire arrayed against them, oppressing them, tempting them to abandon the faith either through the enticement of the pleasure and comfort of the world, or through physical threat. “Where is your Lord now? He said he was returning soon? Has he abandoned you? Or maybe you just imagined all of that stuff in the first place.”
Have you felt powerless in your life? Helpless in the face of trouble? On the verge of defeat? Or maybe just defeated? Have you ever felt in need of help, but help seems nowhere to be found? Do you find your faith faltering? Wondering if all this Jesus stuff is real in the first place?
Sometimes we find ourselves in circumstances that are beyond our strength and ability to deal with. We find ourselves lacking skill, wisdom, power, faith. What are we supposed to do in those circumstances?Our passage today shows us.
Let’s read.
Mark 9:14–29 (CSB)
14 When they came to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and scribes disputing with them. 15 When the whole crowd saw him, they were amazed and ran to greet him. 16 He asked them, “What are you arguing with them about?” 17 Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”
19 He replied to them, “You unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him to me.”
20 So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 “How long has this been happening to him?” Jesus asked his father.
“From childhood,” he said. 22 “And many times it has thrown him into fire or water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, 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 Then it came out, shrieking and throwing him into terrible convulsions. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus, taking him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up.
28 After he had gone into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” 29 And he told them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”
This scene is such a vivid narrative account, with some shocking detail if you really stop to think about what’s being related here. A young man (we don’t actually know his age…) being terrorized by a demon. Being unable to speak or hear, thrown into epileptic seizures. Body wracked beyond control in ways that have scarred him with fire, nearly drowned him, and this has been his whole experience growing up. Can you imagine being him? Can you imagine being his father! What a helpless feeling!
This passage naturally has us empathizing with the young man and the father, we naturally want to help! We want to know what the fix is! Perhaps there are circumstances in our life which we immediately relate to this story. Does this passage have practical fixes for us?? “Maybe the problem I’m facing is demonic. Does this have answers for how to get rid of the demon?” Well, maybe it does! But I think we sell this passage short if we get lost in the details of the characters in the narrative and don’t look at the bigger picture of what this teaches us about ourselves, and about Jesus, and about our life of faith.
I’m not trying to turn this story into an allegory, but I do think there are some bigger principles at play here that make this passage much more applicable than just exorcisms.
Summarizing the Scene
Let’s take a look at what is going on in this passage. We open on a scene where the disciples have just failed to help a young man who was possessed by a demon. The disciples are confused, the crowd is confused, and the scribes are having a heyday with them. There’s a dispute, an argument, “Ah ha! We knew you were frauds! Maybe your master isn’t as powerful as he claims to be!”
Jesus shows up, asks what is going on, and the scribes seem to shut up and shrink back, the disciples don’t even answer, perhaps they’re embarrassed as well as confused. That’s been happening a lot in the past couple and next few chapters, they are confused and afraid to say anything…
The father asks for help, it seems a bit timidly… “if you can do anything…”
Jesus casts the demon out, but its a pretty graphic scene. And the disciples ask why they couldn’t do it themselves? Jesus gives a rather cryptic answer: “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.”
What’s going on?
Previously, On…
To help us understand what is going on, let's zoom out and back up to a couple of previous passages to help explain the disciple’s confusion.
I want to point you first at Mark 6:7-13. If you’ve been following along in the series, Jesus recruits his followers, and trains them to do the kind of work he’s doing, and then sends them out to do it, and they are successful!
Mark 6:7, 12-13 (CSB)
He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over unclean spirits….…So they went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
By Mark 6:33, the crowds are now recognizing “them”—the disciples and Jesus, and coming to them. Compare that with 3:8, where it was just Jesus they were recognizing and coming to. The disciples were having some of the same “success in ministry” as Jesus and becoming known as teachers and healers as well.
So they were surprised and confused when they could not cast this demon out. What happened?
The Disciples’ Strength, Without Jesus, Failed.
Jesus’s response to the disciples question seems to indicate that they had gotten self-reliant. They failed to pray in this case. We don’t know for sure that they did anything differently when they successfully cast out many demons as recorded in chapter 6, but human nature being what it is, in my experience we have a tendency to start off well, and then we get lazy or overconfident. They forgot that it was Jesus that had granted them the authority over demons and perhaps now we’re starting to think the power was something inherent to them.
What should they have done when the demon did not respond to their attempt to cast it out? They should have immediately gone to the source of authority over the demon: Jesus. They should have prayed to God for help. But instead they are just confused. They stand around and get in an argument with the pharisees.
They learn something here with this failure to pray and failure to cast out the demon. Your strength and ability has its limits.
Most of us live life and do ministry in a comfort zone where we know we are capable in our own strength. We know we can. We avoid things where we can’t.
But, Occasionally we are faced with a situation that is beyond us. Some times in ministry or in life, we are asked to do can only happen with prayer. Will we be like the disciples, caught by surprise? Stopped in our tracks? Uncertain what to do? Perhaps we’ll have the opportunity to just leave. “Sorry I can’t help here…” But sometimes we don’t have that choice either.
By contrast with the disciples who stall out in failure, we have the father of the demon-posed boy.
The Man’s Weakness, With Jesus, Prevailed.
Here you have a man, one of the crowd, not even identified as a follower, just knowing he is in need, his son needs a rescuer. He brings him to Jesus, but is disappointed that Jesus’s people were unable to help him.
(This does bring up a small sub-point: Jesus’s followers might disappoint you from time to time. Their strength and faith and ability is limited. They need Jesus too. It’s Jesus himself you need.)
Is Jesus Able?
He’s disappointed, and it seems he’s starting to doubt his choice. The disciples were unable, and when asked by Jesus was is going on, the man says, “well if you can do anything…” You can hear the disappointment, and maybe the self-protection in his voice. He doesn’t want to get his hopes up. He’s already had them dashed once.
Anything is Possible…
Jesus hones in on the man’s statement “if you can…” and says something quite shocking, I think the central point of our passage today: “Everything is possible for the one who believes.”
There’s a lot of “can and can’t” in our passage today. The disciples couldn’t. The man asks if Jesus can. The disciples ask why couldn’t they.” This statement by Jesus is that same word, “can” - “everything is “can” for the one who believes”.
What is Jesus saying here? This almost sounds like Disney theology.
“Have faith in your dreams, and someday,
Your rainbow will come smiling through
No matter how your heart is grieving,
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish will come true”
Disney's Cinderella
One of my favorite Bill Murray quotes is “every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself.” Is this the kind of thing Jesus is getting at? If I believe hard enough, I’ll be able to fly?
No, we have to remember who is talking, and what they are talking about. This phrase is not to be ripped out of its context. What is the question being asked by the man?“Can you do anything about this?”
Jesus is responding to that question: “If you believed that I am who I say I am, you would realize that I can do anything.”
Does Jesus Care?
The man was questioning whether Jesus was able to do anything “if you can”, and also if Jesus cared… “have compassion on us and help.”That Jesus goes on to heal the boy proves that he cares.
Jesus cares, and he is capable, if the man would believe it.
Help My Unbelief!
“Anything is possible for the one who believes.” Carries with it a question: do you believe Jesus?
The man quickly responds that he does and offers one of the most sincere prayers recorded in the Bible: “help my unbelief!” Oh, what a precious, hope-filled prayer!
Face to face with his creator and Lord, who is asking him about the measure of his faith, the man quickly despairs of any sense of self-sufficiency. This is a prayer of repentance, a humble prayer, a desperate prayer. “Lord, I do not have the mountain-moving, earth-stopping, army defeating, wall toppling, giant-slaying, sea-crossing, faith of the great ones in the Bible. I want to believe you can help. I think maybe its possible you could. But I’m not sure. It seems too big. Help!”
And that prayer: “Jesus, Help.” Is all that is needed. That’s the mustard-seed size prayer that Jesus delights to respond to.
He helps the man with his faith, and he also heals his son.
Prayer is Needed.
In life, our strength and ability will get us a long way. Even in ministry it is possible to produce a lot of good things on our own. God has made us incredibly resilient. But never omnipotent. You will face struggles and situations and tests in your life that are beyond you.
Faith-filled prayer to Jesus for help is needed.
Trust that Jesus can help, and that he does care, just like he showed this father.
Prayer is needed because he wants you to ask him. He knows what you need, and he could give it to you without your asking, but he teaches us to ask. Why? So that you will remember your dependence on him, that you’re not invincible, you’re not omnipotent. You are the creation, he is the creator.
He also wants you to remember his care for you! He wants the relationship, the interaction! Just like we as parents know our kids needs (imperfectly, and that is where the analogy breaks), and we could just take care of everything for them, we prefer it when they ask. Because we love them and want that interaction!
What about the times when it seems like he isn’t there?
When Jesus was on the mountain of transfiguration with the 3 disciples in his inner circle, the other 9 were left below. When they were unable to cast out the demon, I imagine they felt pretty alone. I wonder if the first century church under persecution were feeling that way, Jesus having risen from the dead and gone to heaven. Where is he? When is he coming back? What do I do in the meantime? We can feel like that too sometimes, can’t we?
The answer is the same in every case. Jesus promises that he is always with us, and we have access to him in prayer and through his word. Trust his promise.
What about when it seems like he isn’t answering?
In some ways this story can be discouraging, because our prayer for a problem to be solved isn’t always nicely wrapped up in fifteen short verses. Sometimes it seems like God isn’t responding to our request for help, and sometimes that goes on for years. Why isn’t he answering? I don’t have a good answer for that question, but the thing this passage shows us that we are to hold up to that question is that the answer is not because he doesn’t care, or isn’t able. Trust that he cares, and is able, and has some other reason for not answering the way you want and in the timing you want, and see what results from there.
What if you have a hard time believing?
So I’ve just answered to tough questions with “Trust God.” But what about when you don’t trust him?
Our passage today gives you the answer. Pray for faith. “I do believe, help me in my unbelief.” Take the risk. Trust him. Look around at this room full of those who have put their trust in him. Who have persevered through darkness and pain and confusion, and are still walking. Some of whom have come out the other side. Listen to their stories, and go to the rescuer that they have trusted, the one we’ve been reading about. Go to Jesus.
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