Sermon Tone Analysis
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*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?” *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.”
*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!”
*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.
*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.”
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It is amazing how quickly we can move from confidence to crisis, especially in regards to our faith.
That which we believe so passionately today we are tempted to deny tomorrow.
We are fickle people, turning the requirement of faith into the problem of faith.
This was the problem Moses faced when he returned from the mountain where God had given him the Ten Commandments.
The Israelites had lost their faith in the God they could not see and placed it in the image of a golden calf that they could see.
And this is the problem that Jesus encounters when he returned from the mountain of transfiguration.
Mark tells us in verse 14 that “a great crowd” had gathered around the remaining disciples and that scribes were in a dispute with them.
Jesus inquires into the situation and from the response we get from a troubled father, we can reconstruct what had happened.
The remaining disciples had attempted to heal the father’s son, who is described as being possessed by a demon.
The boy’s symptoms include an inability to talk and hear as well as epileptic-type problems like convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and paralysis.
Throughout Mark’s gospel demonic resistance to Jesus gets more intense.
And this time the disciples, who were experienced at performing successful exorcisms (Mark 6:13), fail in their attempts to exorcise this demon.
So the scribes were arguing with the disciples in light of their failed exorcism.
Failure often makes us question the validity of one’s claims.
If the disciples claim the power to cast out demons but then fail to do so, then what does that suggest about their claim?
These teachers of the law were furthering skepticism regarding the validity of the disciples’ ministry and, by implication, Jesus’ ministry, too.
Jesus will not allow this skepticism to continue.
He confronts the situation head on.
But there is one prevailing question to be answered in this story.
Why did the disciples fail in their attempts to cast out the demon?
Jesus answers that question directly in verse 29 when he says, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
We are tempted to conclude that the reason the disciples failed was because they did not pray.
But that answer is not precise enough.
The problem in this passage is unbelief, but this deficiency of faith is not unique to the disciples.
!
THE PROBLEM OF UNBELIEF
I say the problem of unbelief is not unique to the disciples because the focus of this passage is on the unbelief of someone else.
Notice Jesus’ words in verse 19.
They are clearly words of frustration.
His frustration comes because of ongoing unbelief.
!! The Real Struggle in This Story
When Jesus asked why the disciples and scribes were arguing, he got this answer from the father of the demon-possessed child.
“I asked your disciples to cast out the demon, and they were not able.”
It is at this point that Jesus responds in frustration at the “faithless generation.”
It is unlikely that Jesus is referring to the unbelief of the disciples here.
As Pastor Clint pointed out last week, when Mark uses the word /generation/ (he does so 5 times), it never has reference to the disciples.
In spite of their inability to heal this boy, the disciples are not the problem.
Or at least, they are not the /main/ problem.
We can detect unbelief in the father of the boy as well.
He had brought his child to the disciples with great hopes that they could help.
His words at the end of verse 18 express how he now feels.
“They were not able” to cast out the demon, he says.
The word that the father uses here highlights the comparative weakness of the disciples.
In his mind the disciples have met their match.
They may have been able to cast out other demons, but this one they can do nothing about.
So when Jesus bemoans the faithlessness of this generation, he is reading the hopelessness in this father’s heart: /If Jesus’ disciples could not cast out this demon, then perhaps Jesus can’t either.
/This lonely father is struggling not only for the life of his son, but also for the existence of his own faith.
And Jesus knows it.
!! Can God Spread a Table in the Wilderness?
The main problem this passage confronts is the problem of unbelief.
And Jesus is troubled by the persistent unbelief of the crowd, expressed in the words of this father.
After all he has done up to this point to display his power, there is still a question as to just how powerful Jesus could possibly be.
Maybe there is /something/ out there that he cannot do.
Throughout the Bible, God rebukes humanity for the problem of unbelief.
God complained to Moses about the stubbornness of the Israelites in Numbers 14:11, “/How long will this people despise me?
And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?/”
The greatest problem you and I struggle with, whether we detect it or not, is the problem of unbelief.
We are like the Israelites who doubt, “/Can God spread a table in the wilderness?/” (Psa 78:19).
!! God Never Fails
Jesus identifies the lack of faith in this father in verse 23.
The father cries out to Jesus, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
Jesus repeats the father’s words, almost sarcastically, “/If you can!/”
This father is uncertain of Jesus’ power in light of the disciples’ failure, but regardless of how much God’s people may fail, God /never/ fails.
We make the same mistake of unbelief when we begin to doubt God because of the failures of God’s people.
How many people today are convinced that God has let them down because the church or other Christians have let them down?
The problem of unbelief is that we don’t want to believe in the God of the impossible.
We will trust him so long as we see hope, but this is only a subtle way to disbelieve.
If your faith in God is identical to your faith in the church or your Christian friends or your pain-free life, then you do not believe God.
!
THE REQUIREMENT OF FAITH
In verse 23 Jesus says, “All things are possible for one who believes.”
But the father is struggling to believe because Jesus’ disciples have failed him.
So he asks Jesus for help, /if/ Jesus was able to provide it.
Jesus says this uncertainty regarding Jesus’ ability to help is unbelief.
!! God Will Not Act Apart From Faith
Okay, you say, but /why/ does God require me to believe first?
That seems backward.
Shouldn’t faith come from evidence?
The father will most certainly believe again if Jesus can heal his son.
But here is Jesus saying, “No, you have to believe first before I heal your boy.”
Why is faith a requirement for God to act?
We have seen this before in Mark’s Gospel.
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