The problem of unbelief is that we don’t want to believe in the God of the impossible. 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? Rather he is directing the father’s attention to himself, for that is where faith originates. %PDF-1.5 The demon would often cast him into the fire to burn him to death or into water to drown him. It is amazing how quickly we can move from confidence to crisis, especially in regards to our faith. In this passage, Mark gives us part of a conversation between a father, whose child had an unclean spirit, and Jesus Christ. 4 0 obj They are clearly words of frustration. God requires faith from you because God wants to relate to you as a Father not as your miracle worker. We will trust him so long as we see hope, but this is only a subtle way to disbelieve. But what exactly is Jesus faulting the disciples for, in regards to prayer? We are like the Israelites who doubt, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” (Psa 78:19). Failure often makes us question the validity of one’s claims. <>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> Jesus knew they could not stay there; He had much yet to accomplish. In other words, the disciples had failed in the same way the father had. Jesus had just returned from the mount of transfiguration when He came upon a large crowd surrounding His disciples. How many people today are convinced that God has let them down because the church or other Christians have let them down? He confronts the situation head on. Undoubtedly it shows the compassion of Jesus by giving the father an opportunity to elaborate on the desperateness of the situation. The easiest way to check the temperature of our faith is to evaluate our prayer life. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up, a picture to all who surrounded him that not even death can deliver the final blow. At any rate, we are right to see in this call to prayer a call to faith. Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I believe; help my unbelief!” – Mark 9:24. And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” The greatest problem you and I struggle with, whether we detect it or not, is the problem of unbelief. We read that “he could do no mighty work there” and “he marveled because of their unbelief” (Mark 6:5-6). But here is Jesus saying, “No, you have to believe first before I heal your boy.” Why is faith a requirement for God to act? A Prayer to Build Us a) A Prayer to Pray Contritely b) A Prayer to Pray Continually 1. Again we ask, “Why is this so?”. As this story concludes we find Jesus once again in a private conversation with his disciples. Jesus responded to their question by simply saying, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” Later manuscripts say prayer and fasting, but Jesus probably referred only to the need for prayer. The answer is that he is the Christ, the Anointed One. So we ask, “Why does Jesus take the time to inquire into the duration of this boy’s illness” (v. 21)? His words at the end of verse 18 express how he now feels. If the disciples claim the power to cast out demons but then fail to do so, then what does that suggest about their claim? 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. Because the power of faith is not found in faith itself but in the object in which we place it. Summary: Dealing with doubt when overcome by circumstance, a … Lord, Help My Unbelief Mark 9: 14-27 Jesus has just returned from the Mount of Transfiguration to find a multitude gathered with the disciples. He does not require a thoughtless faith. Mark 9:24 “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Context. The man struggled to believe, to be sure, yet he wanted to believe. I say the problem of unbelief is not unique to the disciples because the focus of this passage is on the unbelief of someone else. 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. Mark tells us in verse 14 that “a great crowd” had gathered around the remaining disciples and that scribes were in a dispute with them. When Jesus asked why the disciples and scribes were arguing, he got this answer from the father of the demon-possessed child. )�4�W�N�H�_)�Z%2U^$e-��^���?~xur1�4�]�zu�=�Gn,W�����~��jv*Լ�I�3��+�4�pb����Ƨ�RI���L&Uy`����;q����8��1l�&���qi�6�i�$~fe!zࠬ�R�"����*Ʉ��o_�\}������ӂZ��UIZ�L�H�d��4_���-�+� �%g#|�j����KDU&M�G�����l��� �y���P(�I�d�b����ѷL���jvФ�m�ך�>5�һ������_;�*f��NP1��i`��+�pD� �*�\ا��9���50. It is amazing how quickly we can move from confidence to crisis, especially in regards to our faith. No matter how great the past successes, following Jesus will always take us into things that are beyond our abilities. After Jesus’s return from the Mount of Transfiguration, He is met by His disciples and what would seem like a mob. We are fickle people, turning the requirement of faith into the problem of faith. Even after Jesus has exorcised the demon, things still seem to deteriorate. 14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. Sermons. They may have been able to cast out other demons, but this one they can do nothing about. Jesus is not waiting for the father to conjure up more faith on his own. He mingles with it confession — "help my unbelief." And every time we pray we are fighting for faith. And I ask that we take a closer look at this man’s experience. Why did the disciples fail in their attempts to cast out the demon? And that was enough. In verse 23 Jesus says, “All things are possible for one who believes.” But the father is struggling to believe because Jesus’ disciples have failed him. This poor man had brought his boy to the disciples and found they were unable to heal him. And when they do this they prove that they really never believed him to begin with. We are fickle people, turning the requirement of faith into the problem of faith. The reason Mark includes this detailed dialogue between Jesus and the father is because, as one commentator notes, “for Mark the significance of Jesus cannot be fully conveyed by what he does, but only by who he is. This was the problem Moses faced when he returned from the mountain where God had given him the Ten Commandments. And Jesus is troubled by the persistent unbelief of the crowd, expressed in the words of this father. 1 0 obj For it is as honest an expression of the difficulty of faith you will find in the Bible, and yet, Jesus accepts it. This lonely father is struggling not only for the life of his son, but also for the existence of his own faith. Jesus identifies the lack of faith in this father in verse 23. That is, faith has no ultimate purpose other than to lead us to satisfaction in God. So he asks Jesus for help, if Jesus was able to provide it. If your faith in God is identical to your faith in the church or your Christian friends or your pain-free life, then you do not believe God. endobj Their experience was so wonderful that Peter desired to remain on the mountain. When Jesus returned to Nazareth he was rejected by the people from his hometown. Jesus knows the heart of his followers, and he knows how quickly we feel independent of him. The father will most certainly believe again if Jesus can heal his son. What the man says here can sound contradictory. This is a short prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ. endobj He has expressed his faith in Jesus and he has been converted. And this time the disciples, who were experienced at performing successful exorcisms (Mark 6:13), fail in their attempts to exorcise this demon. We learned from that passage that the power of God is limited by unbelief not because God is incapable to act apart from our faith but because he consistently chooses not to act apart from faith. 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. Scripture: Mark 9:14-29, Mark 9:23-29, Mark 9:14. [1] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, ed. First half of Mark answers the question: Who is Jesus? Most modern translations read Jesus’ response first as a quotation from what the father has just said, expressing surprise at the father’s underlying unbelief in the ability of Jesus—“if you can?” The syntax of verse 23 must have troubled later copyists who apparently added the word believe to turn the words of Jesus into one simple thought: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (NKJV). But there is one prevailing question to be answered in this story. But God is not waiting to fulfill your demands for evidence because the Christian faith is not primarily a philosophy. The man was justified in placing his faith in Jesus; it required much power, and the young man for a moment seemed all but dead, but the demon was cast out, and the young man was made whole (Mark 9:25-29). 3 0 obj There must be a reason Mark includes this detail; it must be important to his argument. We find out in verse 22 that the boy’s condition is a constant threat to his life. The main problem this passage confronts is the problem of unbelief. The scribes have gathered and are questioning the disciples concerning their inability to heal a young man who is possessed. The answer is that he came to set things right by his suffering and death. So the scribes were arguing with the disciples in light of their failed exorcism. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And that is the essence of being a disciple of Jesus. They had failed by fighting spiritual battles in their own strength. It is a prayer acknowledging that without God we cannot believe as we ought to believe. “They were not able” to cast out the demon, he says. A Prayer to Build Us a) A Prayer to Pray Contritely b) A Prayer to Pray Continually 1. That which we believe so passionately today we are tempted to deny tomorrow. [1] In other words, what Mark wants us to see is that the kind of faith God requires must be rooted in who Jesus is, not in what Jesus can do. But here at the end of the story, we find that there was also a problem with the disciples. Ask yourself, “Would you still be able to trust God with your life if you lost your job or your spouse or your child or whatever else is most precious to you?” Can you agree with Job who proclaimed, “Though he slay me, yet I will trust him” (Job 13:15)? If you compare this passage with its parallels in Matthew and Luke you will find that the conversation between Jesus and the father in verses 21 through 24 is unique to Mark. Shouldn’t faith come from evidence? He commands us to pray so we will keep our confidence in him and not in ourselves. These teachers of the law were furthering skepticism regarding the validity of the disciples’ ministry and, by implication, Jesus’ ministry, too. To set things right by his disciples suffering and death does God require me to believe, disciples. Story concludes we find that there was also a problem to Bother us a ) a prayer Pray... What it accomplishes but because of whom it trusts demonstrates to us that even most. 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