Mark 9:14-29
14 When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. 16 He asked them, "What are you arguing about with them?" 17 Someone from the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so." 19 He answered them, "You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me." 20 And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. 22 It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us." 23 Jesus said to him, "If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes." 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!" 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!" 26 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 was able to stand. 28 When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" 29 He said to them, "This kind can come out only through prayer.”
I have no record of ever having preached on this text. Ether I was not scheduled to preach on the Sundays it came up, or it never was used. Which ever, I find it a bit amusing as it contains one of my favorite confessions, the farther of the boy who says honestly, out of the depths of his heart, “I believe; help mine unbelief!”
It’s like it is too much to swallow so fast yet it is so vital to his deepest needs that he lets Jesus know that he does have faith, even though he still has questions.
Don’t we all!
Faith is always accompanied by doubt, questioning, wondering, speculating, even uncertainty.
I think this is the most honest expression of faith in the New Testament! Listen to these words from Ellie Wiesel, who lived through the fanaticism of the Holocaust born of the blind belief in the superiority of the Arian race.
“I turn away from persons who declare that they know better than anyone else the only true road to God....My experience is that the fanatic hides from true debate...He is afraid of pluralism and diversity; he abhors learning. He knows how to speak in monologues only...The fanatic never rests and never quits; the more he conquers, the more he seeks new conquests....A fanatic has answers, not questions; certainties, not hesitations,(and ) as the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche expressed it, (it’s) ‘Madness is the result not of uncertainty but certainty’.”
Parade Magazine, April 19,1992
A second observation I would make of this text has to do with Jesus last statement, “This kind can come out only through prayer.” Yet it doesn’t say Jesus prayer as he healed him.
What does Jesus mean?
Could it be - (and this is a speculation based on years of struggling with prayers which didn’t seem to make any difference . i.e.lots of faith healing on TV which often raised havoc with the individual involved) - is it possible that by prayer Jesus means being in touch with God so deeply and intimately, as he was, that things happen which otherwise would never happen?
If this is close to what is hidden in these words, we need to keep prayer at the center of our lives but not at the center of our actions. Jesus often when away alone to pray. His disciples
had to ask him to teach them to pray. Prayer is not a religious action by which we let others know how religious we are. It is a secret action in which we draw strength to be compassionate as our heavenly Father is compassionate.
Something to wonder about as we wander out under the stars.
“Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith, it is an element of faith”
Paul Tillich, 20 Century Theologian
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