In today's devotional, let's discuss the subject of unbelief. There is this story of this man who brought his son to Jesus to be healed. With Jesus not around, he had to fall back on the disciples who were available. But tried all they may, and to the surprise of the disciples, they could not cast out the demon troubling the boy. We pick up the story from when Jesus returned;
"When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them. When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him. “What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked. One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.” Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
Mark 9:14-19 NLT.
What do you think they were arguing about? Probably that the disciples were not good enough, if only Jesus was there. Or that the method they were using was wrong? Whatever they were doing was not helping. And the problem was not whether Jesus was there or not, they didn't need Jesus to be there, they only needed his name because during this time, there were those who were using the name of Jesus, even without being one of his disciples, to cast out demons;
"John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.” “Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me.
Mark 9:38-39 NLT.
So what was the problem? Unlike the disciples, Jesus quickly point the problem, the problem was not the faith of the disciples but the lack of faith of the crowd and the unbelief of father in particular;
"“How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy. The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
Mark 9:21-24 NLT.
My thinking is that the father initially, and in connivance with the Pharisees, were simply looking for an opportunity to argue, cause commotion and rubbish the ministry of Jesus. Unbelief makes you do stupid things.
Unbelief is not just an absence of faith, it is skeptism in whether God exist or can do the things they say he can do. No wonder the man asked Jesus; "help us if you can! So why did you come. Unbelief poisons the heart and bars it from receiving from God.
I pray the Lord will deliver us like he did this man from unbelief.
