Slices
Prepare
Our failures are painful, but they can be the most fruitful sources of learning. As you ponder this statement, which experiences spring to mind?
Bible passage
Jesus heals a boy possessed by an impure spirit
14 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16 ‘What are you arguing with them about?’ he asked.
17 A man in the crowd answered, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.’
19 ‘You unbelieving generation,’ Jesus replied, ‘how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.’
20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, ‘How long has he been like this?’
‘From childhood,’ he answered. 22 ‘It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’
23 ‘“If you can”?’ said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. ‘You deaf and mute spirit,’ he said, ‘I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.’
26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, ‘He’s dead.’ 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why couldn’t we drive it out?’
29 He replied, ‘This kind can come out only by prayer.’
Explore
Jesus had trained his disciples to cast out demons. Already they had had some success (6:7,13), but here is a noisy scene of controversy and failure (vs 14–18). At the heart of it is a desperate father and his sick son. Whatever contemporary medical label we might give to the boy’s condition, the underlying cause is evil. What is going on, and why are the disciples so ineffective?
Like us today, Jesus was operating in a climate of unbelief (v 19). The struggle in this scene is not with the powers of evil, but with unbelief. The disciples do not need to hone their technique: they need stronger faith. Jesus is able to work even with the mixture of faith and unbelief which the boy’s father confesses (v 24).
The key lesson for the disciples is that something else underpins faith: prayer (v 29). While desparate, even loud, energetic prayer in the face of evil has a place, Jesus’ secret is the ongoing background current of prayer that expresses total dependence on God, the essence of faith (1:35). With this, when evil rears its head, he is ready and equipped.
Respond
The causes of public failure rarely lie in the immediate circumstances. Track back from the failures you have recalled. What is the Lord trying to teach you?
Deeper Bible study
‘Visit then this soul of mine, / pierce the gloom of sin and grief. / Fill me, radiancy divine, scatter all my unbelief.’1
Many different emotions are at play in this complex story, as well as faith and non-faith, belief and unbelief. Jesus and the three disciples have come back down to earth, literally and figuratively. Like them, we too may be blessed with a mountain-top experience, but we cannot stay there. All of us, particularly those in Christian leadership, must be prepared for the reality check which follows. Jesus seems annoyed, although yet again, I suspect we have only the briefest excerpt of what was said. Commentators debate who Jesus was annoyed with but, following Mark’s careful arrangement of the material, I conclude that he was frustrated with the disciples. This story is framed by the disciples’ lack of understanding as they descended the mountain (v 10) and their jostling for power and prestige in Capernaum (v 34). Still not understanding Jesus, they were unable to continue his mission when he wasn’t with them. Jesus had expected more.
The disciples having failed, it is hardly surprising that the desperate father was unsure if Jesus could heal his frighteningly epileptic son. In people I have known, this terrible condition is controlled by drugs, but Jesus lived and worked in the culture and world view into which he had been born. The term used here is ‘unclean spirit’ (v 25, footnote, TNIV) which is a different emphasis to ‘evil spirit’. Luke, with his medical knowledge, sometimes chose to say that Jesus ‘cured’ people of unclean spirits, rather than cast them out.2 All sickness is evil, the brokenness of a fallen world, and Jesus had power over it all, physical evil and spiritual evil. The father’s faith mattered, but it didn’t have to be mountain-moving faith. His response has so often reassured me. I offer Jesus my weak, inadequate faith, my vulnerable belief, and he accepts it.
Jesus, Lord of all I long to be, I believe. I believe. Accept my flickering flame of faith. Help me when faith falters and belief eludes me. Help my unbelief.
1 Charles Wesley, 1707–88, ‘Christ, whose glory fills the skies’ 2 Eg Luke 6:18 and footnote, TNIV
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Ezekiel 16,17; Psalm 119:145–176
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for the Development Hub team as they finalise the Bible Reading Guides for July to September 2024. Thank God that although the notes are prepared many months in advance he always speaks into the present.
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