Mark 9:14-29, O Faithless Generation!
Introduction:
In Mark 9:14 we read of the continuation of the scene from the transfiguration. Jesus, along with Peter, James, and John are coming down from the mountain. Recall that on the mountain Jesus’ clothes have become dazzlingly white, Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with Jesus, and the Lord spoke in a cloud concerning Jesus, “This is My beloved Son; hear Him.” On the way down the mountain, Peter, James and John ask Jesus concerning Elijah and why the scribes say he must come first. Jesus teaches them that Elijah has already come as John the Baptist (Luke 1:17 ). Further, Jesus asks some rhetorical questions to show these three disciples that the kingdom of God must be a spiritual kingdom if John the Baptist suffered and died, and their Messiah, Jesus, would also suffer and die.
The Story
The scene ( 9:14 -18)
Jesus, Peter, James, and John come down the mountain to the rest of the disciples. However, there is a great crowd that has surrounded the other nine disciples. In the midst of the crowd the scribes are arguing with the other nine disciples. So we need to place in our minds this heated debate and exchange going on between the nine disciples and scribes. As Jesus approaches the scene, the multitudes see him coming near and are amazed to have Him come into their presence. Jesus asks everyone, “What are you arguing about with them?” We can see Jesus coming back to this scene and wanting someone to explain what is going on while He has been on the mountain. We are presented with an interesting contrast between what Jesus is now embroiled in and the transfiguration experience that was just completed. Jesus has just been on the mountain speaking with Moses and Elijah concerning His death and His Father has also spoken to Him that He is the beloved Son of God. Further, to some degree, the glory of Jesus has been revealed to Peter, James, and John such that they were terrified, yet were glad to be there. Now Jesus has returned from the mountain and He is not received with the thronging glory that He deserves. Instead, He comes back to an argument between His own disciples and the scribes who are trying to discredit Him. As we can see Jesus looking around at the crowd, He looks for an answer to why an argument has arisen. In verse 17 we see that someone in the crowd speaks to us and says that he came to bring his son to Jesus who has a spirit that make him mute. The person in the crowd further describes the condition of the son--that the spirit seizes him, throws him down, foams and grinds his teeth, and makes him rigid. Since Jesus was up on the mountain, the man brought his son to the nine disciples who had been left. Jesus’ disciples were unable to cast out the spirit.
Now let us stop the story for a moment and make some notes about what has been described to us thus far. First, we need to consider the despair and hopelessness of the man whose son has this spirit. Though we cannot truly put ourselves in this man’s shoes, for none of us has had a child experience demon possession, we must do the best we can to see what this man is experiencing. He has a son that is seized by this spirit such that he cannot speak, foams at the mouth, and is thrown on the ground. If this were not bad enough, notice the description in verse 22: he is often cast into the fire and into the water to destroy him. This spirit has wreaked havoc upon this man’s son. Imagine the scars and the burns that the son would have from being thrown into the fire. Imagine the heartache of the father who has seen these things happen to his son since his childhood. Now the father has brought the son to the disciples for healing and they could not do it. How depressing! Imagine the despair and hopeless feeling the father and son would have after the disciples’ failure! We must see what the father has endured to fully appreciate the rest of the story.
But we also must see what the scribes were doing. We are not explicitly told what the disciples and the scribes were arguing about, but we can make a pretty reasonable deduction. What do you think the scribes were saying when the disciples could not cast out the spirit? I believe the scribes tried to seize upon this opportunity of the disciples’ failure to discredit Jesus. I would imagine that the scribes were teaching this multitude that if Jesus were the Messiah and these were His disciples, why was the spirit not cast out? I believe the argument between the disciples and the scribes becomes very evident. The argument is over the validity of Jesus, because the disciples have failed.
Jesus and the man
Jesus responds, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” Who is Jesus referring to when we says, “O faithless generation?” Certainly, Jesus is speaking about His own nine disciples who were unable to cast out the spirit. They clearly showed a lack of faith by being unable to cast out the spirit. But Jesus does not say, “O faithless disciples!” He speaks about the generation. Not only do His disciples show a lack of faith, but everyone in this scene has shown a lack of faith. The crowd has shown itself faithless for not believing that Jesus could do this work. The scribes have certainly shown themselves to be faithless by using this as an opportunity to argue with the disciples and try to discredit Jesus. How frustrating to go from the glory of the transfiguration to dealing with all of these faithless people! Thus Jesus seems to be sighing within Himself when He says “how long must I be with you” and “how long must I bear with you.” But Jesus does not walk away from the scene. Instead, He is going to heal the son; therefore, He orders that the son be brought to Him.
As the son is brought to Jesus, the spirit within the son sees Jesus. The spirit then convulsed the boy, fell on the ground, rolled around, and foamed at the mouth. We are being presented with a test of faith. The stage has been set for the battle between good and evil. We have before us the classic showdown. Jesus says to bring the son to Him, but the spirit puts on a display to show its power. Will the crowd put their faith in Jesus to cast out the spirit, or will they not believe that Jesus can cast this one out?
Jesus now engages in a discussion with the father. Jesus asks, “How long has this been happening to him?” The father says that this has been going on since the boy’s childhood and then describes how terrible the spirit has been on his son. The father now makes the request, “but if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” This statement is a far cry from the faith that we have seen from others who needed to be healed by Jesus. The woman with the flow of blood showed great faith by believing that simply touching the garment of Jesus would heal her. Jairus, though his daughter had died, had Jesus come to his home and raise the girl from the dead. The Syrophoenician woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit approached Jesus and said that even the little dogs eat the children’s crumbs that fall from the table. Great faith has surround most of the healings of Jesus. But this man expresses doubt. He says to Jesus, “if you can do anything.” This statement shows he had no expectation of Jesus' being able to help.
Jesus seizes upon this man’s statement of doubt and turns the pressure back upon the man. Jesus says, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” The man responds, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Jesus essentially asks the man if he will believe, even though he had experienced failure and letdown by His disciples. Will the man believe, even though the scribes have placed doubt in his mind about Jesus? The man recognized his need for greater faith. Jesus was going to have this man learn the need to put his trust in Jesus. With that, Jesus commands the unclean spirit to come out and never enter him again. The spirit, after crying out and convulsing the boy, came out of him. This left the boy appearing that he was dead.
Yet the faith of the father was going to be tested again. Most of the people in the crowd are now saying that the boy is dead. The boy has been convulsing and shrieking, and now the boy seems to lie lifeless on the ground. Will the father continue to trust in Jesus? In verse 27 Jesus takes the boy by the hand and lifts him up and he arises. When the disciples go into the house, they privately ask Jesus why they could not cast out the unclean spirit. Jesus responds that this kind of spirit cannot be cast out by anything but prayer. Jesus tells them that they cannot cast out spirits by their own power. They must have a full dependence on the power of God.
Applications
Everything is possible with God
In verse 23 Jesus makes a statement concerning faith upon which we must turn our attention. “All things are possible for one who believes.” This is such an important statement for the Christian to realize. However, many times we take extreme, false positions in regard to faith.
God must do all I ask. Some Christians take this statement to mean that God must do all that we ask of Him. Anytime the Christian goes to God in prayer, there is the belief that God must do all that is asked of Him. Prayer becomes some sort of way to hold God hostage to the things we ask. Then, when something that we ask for does not come about, faith is shattered and many fall away from the Lord. Jesus is not teaching that the Lord must do everything that we ask of Him, and we must be perfectly clear upon this. Though we pray concerning the spiritual condition of those among us, for the physical condition of many among us, or for our various wants and needs, God does not have to do what we ask. Consider that Paul pleaded three times for the Lord to take away his thorn in the flesh. However God did not take away the thorn in the flesh, even though Paul asked repeatedly. God’s answer was “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9). We must know that this can be the answer the Lord will give us to our prayers. The Lord may respond that we can deal with the circumstances we are in to be perfected to be like Christ in our weaknesses.
God cannot do what I ask. If Christians do not accept the first extreme, it seems that many Christians accept this extreme. Some Christians do not bother to passionately plead with God because there is no belief that God will do what they ask. This was the issue with the father in this text. He did not have any confidence that the Lord could cast out the demon. This lack of faith will lead us to not receive anything from the Lord (James 1:7). There are times when we may look at our difficulty and our suffering and believe that God cannot or will not do anything about it. But that is not for us to decide! Why did Jesus say, “let this cup pass from Me” while in the garden before His crucifixion? Jesus knew full well that this was the path He would have to take. He had come for this very purpose! Jesus prays this because we must put these things in God’s hands. It is not up to us to decide what God will or will not do, even when the outcome seems clear.
True Christianity demands true faith that all things are possible with God. We must trust that God will do for us what is best. Paul certainly could have seen that a removal of his thorn in the flesh would have been best for him. God did not see it that way. It was better for Paul to experience the sufferings. We must trust that God has a greater plan for us than sometimes what we can see. Our sight is limited about what we need and what is best. God can see from beginning to end and will accomplish what must be done for us.
The connection between faith and prayer
Faith is confidence that what God has promised or said will come to pass. If you can see clearly how something can be accomplished, then you are not living by faith. This is the fundamental teaching that Jesus is trying to impart to the father and to His disciples. The whole story revolves around how the father cannot see how his son is going to be healed by Jesus. The whole conflict is that the disciples could not see how they could not cast out such a powerful unclean spirit. Faith is when you do not know what the outcome will be, but know God can work out the outcome so that it is best. We think we have faith because we can see how God is working in our lives. That is not faith at all. If we can see God working in our lives, then there is no need for faith. We have evidence in our lives of the love of God, but we do not have faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is in the things unseen.
It is circumstances in our lives for which we do not know the result that faith needs to step in as the bridge to God. What we see is that there is a strong connection between faith and prayer. When the disciples could not cast out the unclean spirit, Jesus called them, along with all the people, a faithless generation. When the disciples asked why they could not cast out the unclean spirit, Jesus says that it was a lack of prayer.
Prayer and faith go hand in hand together. When one has a weak prayer life, one will find that he also has weak faith. When one has a strong prayer life, one will find that he has great faith. This is a simple connection, yet many Christians overlook the necessity of prayer to develop faith. Prayer has become the weak person’s voodoo to the average person in the world. People think of prayer as an antiquated act that makes the person who is praying feel better, but really does not have any effect. This may have seeped into our mentality such that we only turn to prayer when we are in dire straits and it is not a habit for us each day. If you find you have a weak faith, consider how often you spend time in prayer. If Jesus is our example, as He must be if we are going to call ourselves His disciples, we must see the frequency of Jesus' stopping and praying. We must follow that example to grow in faith. Would Jesus look at us and claim that we are a faithless generation?
Lack of faith discredits Christ
Finally, we must see that a lack of faith discredits Jesus. The scene began because of the nine disciples' lack of faith to cast out the unclean spirit. Because of this lack of faith, the scribes seized an opportunity to cast doubt into the crowd concerning who Jesus truly was. We need to see that this can also be true of us. We can discredit the work and name of Jesus when we have a lack of faith. When trials, temptations, sufferings, and tragedies come and we crumble, what are we teaching to unbelievers who know that we are Christians? What we teach them is that God does not deliver us and will not keep the promises He has given. The unbeliever will see no advantage to being a disciple versus not being a disciple. It is when we are able to withstand the fires of life that unbelievers look at us and wonder how we could survive. Then we can teach that it is only by the power of God. Let us be sure to recognize the impact of faith. We can be great servants of the Lord when we have a faith that endures all things. We can also do a great disservice to the work of the Lord when our weaknesses are seen by others. Let us work to grow and improve our faith. Let us increase our prayer and conversations with God to be stronger in the Lord.
