Mark 9:17-29 (NLT)
17 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. 18 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.”
19 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.”
20 So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.
21 “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.
He replied, “Since he was a little boy. 22 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.”
23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”
26 Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
29 Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”
Dear God,
This story is one of my favorites, but my favorite part is in the middle, and I will get to that in a second. First, I want to talk about the idea of “seizures” and how they could be interpreted to be demons “seizing” a person. In this case, there is a child who was apparently nonverbal. Is this a medical issue? Is it a demon? When we see someone with seizures now, is it a demon manipulating a person’s body or simply a medical condition? I do not know, and I do not know that the answer to that question is as important as the rest of the story and how this particular situation plays out.
The next thing I notice about this story is Jesus’s exasperation with the disciples: “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you?” He says that to the 12. How many times, Jesus, do you look at me and shake your head? How many times do you wish I would just turn to you and pray? (Spoiler alert for the rest of the story.)
The exchange with the father is my favorite part of the story. Here is a dad who feels helpless and scared.
Father: “Have mercy on us, if you can.”
Jesus: “If I can? Anything is possible if a person believes.”
Father: “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
Boom. That’s it. That is the line I love. I do believe, Father. Help me overcome my unbelief.
Then we have the casting out of the demon and a boy who appears dead. We have seen Jesus obfuscate death before. Did the demon kill him on the way out and Jesus brought him back to life, or was this simply a casting out and then regaining strength? I do not know, but it is an interesting thought.
Finally, we have the disciples, chastened and embarrassed, asking why they could not cast out that evil spirit. Jesus: “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”
When my back has been up against the wall, I have taken a day to fast and pray. I do not think you have ever let me down in those times. I was thinking last night about some of the things I am afraid of. It came to me that I need to take a day to fast and pray about CoronaVirus. How it is impacting the world. How it will touch my community. How the economics of it will impact the most vulnerable. How people are losing their loved ones. How it will affect the nonprofit where I work in the practical terms of helping potential patients, protecting our staff, and in our fundraising efforts. I need to take a day to pray about it often, but I definitely need to take a day to fast and pray about it. I might just do that this Sunday. I will pray between now and then, but I will really fast and put myself before you this Sunday.
Father, I love this dad. He is one of my top three or so in the Bible. I love his insight into himself. His words are what I have felt so many times. I do believe, but help my unbelief. Also, help me to turn loose of my expectations regarding how you will answer my prayers. In the words of the classic hymn, have thine own way, Lord.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
