I Believe… Help My Unbelief!
Mark 9:14-29
Introduction: Have you ever had the experience of
coming down from a “mountain top” experience, and then immediately being
confronted by the reminder of the struggles of life in a fallen world? Elijah
certainly had such an experience after contending with the prophets of Baal on
Mount Carmel (I Kings 18). After seeing God send fire down from heaven before
the people, he heard that Jezebel had sworn to put him to death, and in despair
he prayed for God to take him (I Kings 19:2-4)! Consider Moses who spoke with
God on Mount Sinai. He entered the cloud that covered the mountain and received
from God the Law (Ex 31). When he delayed in returning the people had Aaron
make a Golden Calf, and they set it in the center of the camp and were having a
wild party!
What about you? Maybe you
return from a Christian conference or a retreat and you are feeling on top of
the world. And then you get home, and the bills are still waiting to be paid,
your spouse has a “honey do” list that won’t quit, and you have to go to work
on Monday morning and deal with your boss! Think of this experience for the
disciples. On the mountain, “meeting” two OT heroes of the faith, Moses and
Elijah. They see Jesus transfigured, His glory shining through, and hear with
their own ears the voice of the Father, “THIS
ONE is my Son, hear Him!” So, our passage begins with…
The Setting: Jesus
descending from the mountain with the three disciples… and they find the
scribes arguing with the remaining disciples! (14-16). Do you ever think (or wish!) that a mountaintop experience
with the Lord may never end? Someday, but for now He has left us on assignment
in this fallen world! Why do you think we see so many imperatives in the NT
telling us how to live as His disciples? In fact, sometimes the “highest highs”
are followed by our greatest challenges. Remember that God is present on the
mountain and in the valley. Jesus and the three come down the mountain…
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?"
Once again, the scribes appear, and are
apparently arguing with the nine disciples who had stayed behind while Jesus
was up on the mountain with the three. We are immediately reminded of the
antipathy that existed between the religious leaders and Jesus (and by
extension with His followers!). As the Pharisees had been waiting when he
crossed from Decapolis to Dalmanutha (Mk 8:11), so now the scribes are there
arguing with the disciples when Jesus descends the mountain. The three are
probably bursting at the seams, wanting to say something about what they had just experienced on the mountain! But
they had been instructed to say nothing until the Son of Man is raised from the
dead… whatever that meant (we know better than the disciples knew at that
moment!). Jesus asks, “What are you
arguing about…?” Question: Do you think He needed to ask? After what just
happened on the mountain, is there any doubt? He is the Son of God! He asks, as
a teacher, giving an opportunity for someone’s faith to be deepened. Another
teaching moment!
Why were the people “greatly
amazed” when they saw Jesus? It is a very strong expression, appearing only
4 times in NT, all in this Gospel. It seems to say more that they were glad to
see Him, or that they were excited by His return. It seems to evoke again the
setting on another mountain, 1500 years earlier, when Moses came down the
second time from being in the presence of the Lord.
We read about that in Exodus 34…
30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of
his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and
Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked
with them. 32 Afterward
all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the LORD had
spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33
And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his
face. 34 Whenever Moses went
in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came
out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was
commanded, 35 the people of
Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining.
And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak
with him… (Exod
34:30-35).
Here Mark doesn’t say anything about
Jesus’ face shining (that was mentioned by Luke and Matthew) but it seems
likely he wants us to think back to that story. Without any explanation he tells
us that the people were “greatly amazed”
or “awed” when they saw Jesus. Rather than being afraid to come near
him, as happened at first with Moses, the crowd “ran up to Him, and greeted Him.” (Remember the three had been terrified
at first when they saw Jesus transfigured before them [Mk 9:6]). Are we to see a contrast here between the
Law, represented by Moses, which exposes our sin, our unworthiness, and Grace,
represented by Jesus, offering forgiveness and hope? Mark is inviting us to
see that One greater than Moses, the one of whom Moses wrote and to whom he
pointed, was present. Because of who He is, because of what He has done, we
need to look to Him and trust Him as we carry out His mission in the world. It
is not about us, we are in a spiritual battle, and the battle is the Lord’s! We
need to trust Him…
The BIG Idea:
Our compassionate Lord has all authority in heaven and on earth. We can express
our trust in Him through prayer as we carry out His mission in the world.
I. Look to our compassionate Lord: Jesus shows His compassion by inviting a father to
bring his needy son before Him (17-24). Let’s read 9:17-22…
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."
Jesus asked what they were arguing about. He is showing compassion,
teaching, leading those with ears to hear closer and deeper. And it is not the
disciples or the scribes that speak up, but someone steps forward from the
crowd. He had brought his son to Jesus – and in the Master’s absence the
disciples could not help. It seems this was at the heart of the argument. Possibly,
the scribes were using their inability to cast out the demon as evidence
against Jesus. Or, possibly they were challenging the legitimacy of the
disciples themselves in their ministry of healing. Mark says there was a
sharp dispute. At the heart of the matter was an inadequate understanding
of who Jesus is.
Just as He had with the Pharisees at Dalmanutha, Jesus laments the
unbelief of “this generation” (Mk 8:12).
The leaders represented the unbelief of the Jewish leadership. The challenge to
the ministry of the disciples was at it’s heart a challenge to the authority of
Jesus himself. Unlike the refusal of Jesus to grant the demand of the Pharisees
for “a sign from heaven,” Jesus responds
compassionately to the plea of this father on behalf of his son. He is not
looking for a sign, he is looking for grace!
Jesus calls for the boy to be brought to Him. Was it necessary for Jesus
to be near the boy in order to cast out the demon? Remember the Syrophoenician
woman in Mark 7? She came to Jesus pleading with Him on behalf of her
demon-possessed daughter. And though she was a gentile, in response to her
humility and faith, without going near the girl or seeing her, without even speaking
to the demon, seemingly by a mere act of His will, He told her to go home, her
daughter was free from the demon. And she was!
It may be that Jesus wants this father, along with the disciples, the
scribes, and the crowd that was gathering, to hear His words and see his
authority.
Jesus again compassionately
engages the father, leading him to express his need. The demon, seemingly
senses who it is that he is near, and convulses the boy violently. Jesus asks
the father how long the boy has been like this (21). This is not a doctor
taking a medical history, it is the compassionate Lord of history allowing the
man to express his need, his helplessness as he has seen his son, since he was
young, in the grasp of this demon apparently bent on his destruction. The
father pleads with Jesus on behalf of the boy, “…if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” We see
the man’s limited understanding and his struggle to believe as he pleads with
Jesus for help. As we see Jesus compassionately interact with him, we can be
reminded that faith and prayer are necessary to compassionately carry out God’s
mission in the world.
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!”
IF? Faith means trusting God, believing HE
is bigger than the challenges of life in this fallen world. Can I ask, how big
is your God? “Don’t tell God you have a
big problem, tell your problem you have a big God!” As David said when he faced
Goliath, “The Battle is the Lord’s!” Jesus discerns where this man is,
and His words and actions lead the man deeper, closer to Him. Who is this Jesus?
Remember the Peanuts cartoon with
Linus and Lucy looking out the window while the rain was falling. Lucy asks, “Boy,
look at all that rain! What if it floods the whole world?” Linus replies, “It
will never do that. In the ninth chapter of Genesis God promised Noah it would
never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” Lucy sighs, “You’ve
taken a great load off my mind.” Linus agrees, “Sound theology has a way of
doing that.” This father, came to the right person, to Jesus, but he needed
some sound theology! He needed to know that Jesus is God, the eternal Son, and
the nothing is impossible for God!
Immediately
the father cries out to Jesus. In response to Jesus’ statement that “all things are possible for one who believes”
the man confesses both his mustard-seed faith, and his need for more. “…I believe; help my unbelief!” Is this a
contradiction? Not at all! It is honesty, transparency before the Lord. In
fact, in crying out to the Lord to help his unbelief, the man is both
expressing humility and showing faith! It is not the greatness of our
faith, but the greatness of the One who is the object of our faith! Our compassionate Lord has all authority in
heaven and on Earth. When we pray, we express our trust in Him, our dependence
on Him, as we carry out His mission in the world.
II. Trust in His authority as Lord: Jesus showed his authority in casting out the demon
and raising up the boy (25-27). Jesus
said in the Great Commission: “All
authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth…” In Mark, Jesus speaks and acts with authority.
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.
The outcome was not in doubt: Jesus has all authority in
heaven and on earth. He spoke, rebuked the demon, and it was gone. The language that Mark uses here is pointing
us ahead to another deliverance that will be for all who believe. First, the
words he uses to describe the boy’s state after the exorcism are strong: 1) he
was like a corpse; so much so that, 2) Most of them said “He is dead.” The
repetition draws us in, Mark is painting a picture, giving an illustration of
the resurrection power of the Lord. Not that the boy literally died, but he
appeared so to those present. He was “like” a corpse, and some thought he had
actually died. Jesus of course truly died and was buried. Since the fall
“…it is appointed unto man once to die...”
And then Jesus took his hand, and 1) “lifted him up,” and 2) He “arose.”
We see both terms used to describe the resurrection of Jesus and the
future resurrection of believers. For example, the term translated “lifted
up” is used in I Corinthians 6:14 – “And God raised
the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.” We also see the same
word in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, “…and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he
raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” So, the term can refer to both the
resurrection of Jesus, and the future resurrection of believers.
The term second term, “he arose,” can also be used to refer to
the resurrection, as in 1 Thess 4:14,
“For since we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who
have fallen asleep.”
Now remember that Jesus had begun teaching the disciples about his
coming death and resurrection, but they didn’t have “ears to hear,” they could not
understand. Even as they came down the mountain, he repeated the teaching, and
the three did not understand what He meant (Mk 9:9-10). It seems likely Mark
used these terms to describe the actions of Jesus to prod us to think ahead to Jesus’
resurrection, and perhaps to consider that He will likewise “raise up” all who
have put their trust in Him. Paul said the same thing to the Corinthians when
he wrote in I Cor 15:20-23,
“But in fact Christ has been raised
from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by
a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ shall all be made alive. 23
But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who
belong to Christ…”
In setting the boy free from the demon, Jesus is giving an illustration of the future, final deliverance He will
provide to all who believe. So, we trust Him, because He has all authority. We
express that trust in prayer as we carry out His mission in the world.
III. Pray in faith: The disciples needed to understand and express their dependence on the
Lord to carry out His mission in the world (28-29).
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."
One clear deduction from what Jesus says: If the disciples had
prayed, they hadn’t prayed enough!
Prayer is a cry for help. It is an expression of humility and faith. It
is an acknowledgement of our dependence on God as we live and carry out His
mission in the world. We are engaged in a spiritual battle, and prayer reminds
us that “the battle is the Lord’s!”
We pray because we trust Him, we believe Him, and as we pray we draw nearer to
Him and He grows our faith. We believe, and He helps our unbelief!
Does prayer really accomplish anything, does it make a difference? James
said “The effective prayer of a righteous
man can accomplish much…” (James 5:16). One preacher told the story of
George Mueller, a great man of faith, who began to pray for five of his friends
who did not know the Lord…
…It was not until five years later
that the first one of them came to Christ. After five more years, two more of
them became Christians, and after twenty-five years the fourth man was saved.
He prayed for the fifth friend until the time of his death, a few months after
which the last friend came to salvation. For that friend Mueller had prayed
more than fifty years! (MacArthur, Matthew, 3:81).
That is persistent, believing, persevering,
prayer! Have you felt discouraged that some
in your oikos, your friends and
family, continue to resist the Truth? If God has put them on your heart, keep
praying! Perhaps the delay is to grow your faith!
What is God saying to me in
this passage? Our
compassionate Lord has all authority in Heaven and on earth. We express our
trust in Him through prayer as we carry out His mission in the world.
What would God have me to do in response to this passage? I don’t know if you are on a mountain-top right now, glowing
in the presence of the Lord, or in a valley, struggling to believe God to help
you through this present darkness…
1) Know this: Mountain-top or valley,
God is real, and He is good, His steadfast love endures forever. We can trust
Him, He is bigger than anything you are facing.
2) Furthermore, be encouraged, we
have a high-priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses, who experienced life in
this fallen world and was tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without sin! He works in the valleys and on the
mountain tops to grow our faith, to lead us deeper, to draw us closer. For
myself I enjoy the mountaintops more than the valleys, but I have to say that
it is sometimes in the valleys that I have learned the most, and grown the
most. Could it be that those are the moments when we pray, like the man in this
story, Lord I believe, help my unbelief! AMEN.
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