Help My Unbelief - Mark 9:14-29

Mark 9:14–29 ESV

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.”

Let’s set the stage for this encounter. The Father has just revealed Jesus’ glory to the disciples and then Jesus has informed them not to reveal it to anyone until after he rises from the dead, and then the disciples are wondering what he meant by resurrection. Jesus teaches them that the way of the Messiah is through suffering and death, but does not end there but in resurrection.

As they come down the mountain they find the rest of the disciples with a crowd, and the disciples arguing with some scribes. What could they be arguing about? That is going to be Jesus’s first question in a moment.

As the people see Jesus vs 15 says they were amazed. Why were they amazed? That is unclear. It is possible Jesus has some residual glow about him as he came down the mountain like Moses did, but ultimately the text does not tell us.

So Jesus, seeing them and seeing the disagreement asks them “what about arguing about with them?”

Now the reply is interesting. At first, this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Jesus’ question or the dispute. A seemingly random person from the crowd comes forward and informs Jesus “I brought you my son. He has been demonized. He cannot speak. It throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth. He grinds his teeth. And the ESV say he becomes rigid, the NASB says he stiffens out, other translations say paralyzed.

The word for “throws him down” in vs 18 is a very violent word. The NASB tries to capture the severity by translating it as “it slams him to the ground”.

Three times in this text Mark is going to describe what happens to this boy. It’s communicating that this child has been severely demonized by an evil spirit.

And now we get to what was almost certain the source of the argument with the scribes:

In the second half of verse 18 he says “So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able”

The word that the ESV translates as “asked” there is actually not a word for asking. Literally its “I said to your disciples that they should drive it out”

Or the NASB puts it a possibly a little too strong: “I told your disciples to drive it out”

I don’t think that this is exactly a demand by the father, but the language seems to communicate it was more than a simple request. There is desperation here. I spoke with your disciples to the effect that they ought to drive it out, that they should do this thing.

But they were not able. They did not seem to have the capability. Thought they tried, they were unsuccessful on account of inability.

This was the course of the conflict with the Scribes. As you might imagine, the Scribes, who have been Jesus’ biggest adversaries, would love nothing more than to throw this into the face of the disciples. You don’t have power of the demons like you claim. Your authority is lacking.

And in that culture. The failings of the disciples of any given rabbi reflected back upon and were considered the failings of that rabbi as well. So the Scribes, seeing an opportunity to score some points in their struggle for influence, seized upon this opportunity to take it up with the disciples over this failing.

I think there is a lesson there. The enemy loves to discourage and discredit us by throwing our failures in our faces.

So here’s the problem. The disciples failed to do what was asked of them, and now the father is distraught, and the scribes and disciples are arguing, the disciples are probably super confused, because back in chapter 6 they were casting out demons just fine, thank you very much, and now they can’t, so they don’t know what the deal is, the Scribes are probably giddy, finally something pounce on, and Jesus looks around at the scene and seems to just about have had enough.

Vs 19.

O, faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.

Commentators debate who Jesus’ words are directed toward. The disciples, for failing to have sufficient faith for the exorcism? The Scribes for their attack on the disciples? The father? the crowd?

I think Mark’s ambiguity is likely intentional so that it would be understood to include all the above.

This generation that is characterized by faithlessness.

This issue of faith or lack thereof is a central theme in this text and shows up three times.

This is the crux of the whole issue. Lack of faith.

Crisis moments are exacerbated by a lack of faith.

This is the whole issue right here. If it wasn’t enough that the boy was demonized, the tensions are only heightened because of the lack of faith. The desperation in the voice of the father, the conflict between the disciples and the scribes. Things have escalated. Why? A fundamental lack of faith in the Lord.

Lack of faith has been an issue previously in this book of mark.

In chapter 6, Jesus was in his hometown and the text says that he did very little miracles there because of their lack of faith. They doubted. They did not come to Christ in humility and faith looking for deliverance, but rather with an attitude of “oh yeah? You’re the messiah, huh? Show me!”

And so Jesus did very little there. He doesn’t owe anyone anything. Their lack of faith was a primary reason for Jesus’ lack of miracles there.

Here things seem to be a little different. This time it seems that the lack of faith might be on the part of the disciples. That’s an idea that we will circle back to with the concluding portion of this text. They are going to ask “why couldn’t we cast it out” and Jesus will give an explanation.

But for now, just not the that the issue of a lack of faith is what Jesus identifies as the problem.

Here in the year 2023, we don’t often see the overt demonic oppression in our day to day lives as this man saw with his son. We do experience other hardships and trouble. We all encounter crisis moments.

In those moments, how do we respond?

It is in our crisis moments that our faith is tested the most. Its easy to have faith when everything is going well. It’s easy to say “God is good” when your bills are all paid, the pantry is stocked, you have a clean bill of health, and everyone is smiling.

But when the crisis arrives. That’s when faith is tested. And a lack of faith will only increase the crisis. The devil knows this, so I believe he seeks to use those moments to attempt to undermine our faith and tempt us to despair.

I think of that song we sang earlier “Before the throne of God above”

Verse two begins

When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within

He wants to undermine our faith, throw our failures in our face, and weaken our trust in the Lord, and if we give in to that tempation it only makes the crisis moment worse. Because then we are not only dealing with the crisis itself, but we are also adding anxiety, fear, despair, anger, or other responses that arise from a lack of faith, but most importantly, we cut ourselves off from the one who can do something about it!

We cut ourselves off from the one who has the power to remove us from the crisis. We cut ourselves off from the one who can sustain us and strengthen us to endure the crisis.

The crisis moments are only made worse by a lack of faith.

Will you fight for your faith? The father of the demonized boy did. Let’s continue on with our text.

Jesus instructs them to bring the boy to him, and this caused the demon to react to Jesus in vs 20. He began convulsing and rolling around foaming at the mouth.

Jesus asked how long this has been happening. Why Jesus asked this is not clear, but it narratively it serves to highlight how desperate a situation this was. Not only has this demon been causing epilepsy-like symptoms in the boy, but the dad says in vs 21 and 22 its been happening essentially his whole life, and that the demon was not just interested in harming the boy, but also destroying him!

It casts him into the water or fire!

And once again we hear the desperation in the father’s voice:

But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

Here is the extent of the issue. If there is anything you can do, would you help?

Jesus seems almost incredulous at this statement. Look at vs 23

“If you can!” What do you mean “If”??

All things are possible for the one who believes.

Jesus challenges the man on his faith. We should not understand this challenge to mean that God will do whatever you want if you simply have enough faith, but rather that your faith should be in the God who is able to do all things.

It’s not about how much faith you have, but the object of your faith.

Again, the issue of faith is highlighted by our Lord. This problem is being exacerbated by the lack of faith that is present. The whole language of “if” is revealing the lack of faith all the more.

The father of this boy is having not only a crisis in life with his boy, but he’s having a crisis of faith.

The disciples were not able to cast it out. Is Jesus able?

Look at how he responds to Jesus in vs 24

“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said “I believe; help my unbelief”

In his crisis moment, in the midst of doubt, he asked the Lord to help his unbelief. Lord, strengthen my faith!

In the midst of his doubt and lack of faith, he had enough humility to seek greater faith from the Lord.

Faith-seeking humility in doubt is honored by the Lord.

How we respond to our crisis and lack of faith are defining moments for us.

There are many who struggle with doubt. This week I saw someone online ask for prayer because they were really struggling with doubt int he face of the hardship of the righteous and apparent prosperity of the wicked.

It’s so easy for us to look at what is going on around us in the world and our eyes begin to taken off of Christ and we doubt begins to set it.

How we respond in those moments of doubt can be defining moments.

This is not the first person to experience doubt in this gospel. I made reference to the people in Jesus hometown. They doubted.

Everyone experiences doubt. But for some, in their doubt they might demand a sign from God to prove his existence, or to prove his love, or to prove something else about his nature, character, or power.

“If you’re real, prove it!” “If you love me, do this for me!”

Back in chapter 8 the pharisees came seeking a sign to test him. They doubted Christ, but it was not humble doubt but and arrogant doubt that demanded Christ respond to them on their terms.

And Jesus denied them that sign. No sign will be given to this generation.

But here, Jesus responds to the man and casts out the demon. Why? Why the difference?

The man wasn’t coming with a prideful doubt that demanded a signed. He came with a faith-seeking humility asking the Lord to strengthen his faith.

He was fighting for faith.

This prayer is so simple, yet so profound.

One thing I’d like to note. As we consider this text we might be tempted to conclude that if we can just muster up enough faith, that God will do whatever we want. That isn’t what this text is after. Its not about how much faith, but the battle for faith and the object of our faith.

So often we want to have enough faith so that God will do what we want.

And is God able to do that? Yes! All things are possible!

Does “all things” include removing the crisis? Yes!

Does all things include sustaining you through the crisis instead of taking it away?

If that’s what the Lord would have for us, so often that’s where the battle for faith rages. Lord, Help my unbelief.

The battle for faith is not only that God can remove the crisis, but also that he can sustain us through it.

Jesus honors this man’s request for more faith and casts out the demon.

There is significant imagery here.

He commands the demon to come out and never enter the boy again, and the demon violently leave the boy, but does so in such a way that leaves everyone assuming that the boy is dead. And I think it is very possible that the demon did kill the boy as it exited him. It would make sense to conclude this based on the language used in verse 27.

Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose.

That’s some of the same language and structure that we saw when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead in chapter 5! Which, incidentally, is another text where Jesus had to challenge a distraught father on his belief when he said to him “Do not fear, only believe” in 5:36.

Jesus raises this boy up and restores him to his father.

Well, Jesus and the disciples continue on, and when they had a private moment with Jesus, the disciples ask him the question that had to be burning in their hearts for hours. This had to be eating them alive.

Why could we not cast it out??

We had cast out others! This wasn’t the first demon we encountered! What was going on there?

Jesus response is so crucial.

Prayer directs our faith

The setting

The problem

The Solution

Key idea: The need for faith by those who need help, and the need for faith by those who seek to provide help.

The Scene: The disciples arguing with the scribes

The Issue: disciples can’t cast out the demons

The problem: Lack of faith;

The plea: Help my unbelief

The Solution: Prayer