Help Me Overcome My Unbelief

It is mid-October. You can tell by the decorated yards. Driving around, you’ll see chrysanthemums, cornstalks, and pumpkins. You’ll also see jack-o’-lanterns, fake tombstones, bedsheet ghosts, spiders on webs, and giant plastic skeletons.

This month, you’ll see ads for movies about ghosts, witches and evil powers. As the hours of daylight grow shorter, people tell stories of battles b/t good & evil. It’s a small season in which our culture pays attention to spiritual forces. The rest of the year, most people seem blind to spiritual realities.

It was different in Galilee in the 1st century. The crowds described in Mark’s gospel have no doubts about spiritual powers. They’re aware of the spiritual realm. The doctors and teachers of the law were aware of evil spirits. Every illness, from leprosy to epilepsy, has a spiritual component.

The awareness is not just in Galilee. Throughout the Roman Empire, there were temples to Aesculapius, the Greek god of healing. Doctors could prescribe antibiotics or refined pharmaceuticals so they depended on herbs, hot and cold baths, oil, animal sacrifices, and scrolls of prayers, magic writing, amulets, and potions for healing – and $, lots of $!

So, the father in Mark 9 brought his son to Jesus’ disciples. When you’ve seen you boy foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and then lying rigid, when you are constantly guarding lest he gets tumbled into fire or water, you’ll go anywhere and try anything for a cure.

This father heard about Jesus’ miracles of healing. Jesus even raised a 12 yr old girl from the dead! Grasping at straws of hope, the father brought his son to Jesus’ disciples. The practise of having disciples means that as disciples learn from their teacher, they learn to do what their teacher does. A few chapters earlier in the gospel, Mark reports:

They (the 12) went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. Mark 6:12–13 (NIV)

The disciples were successful in driving out demons and healing sick people.

Yet when the father asked Jesus’ disciples to free his boy from demon possession, they could not. It led to a confrontation with the religious authorities. The teachers of the law began arguing with Jesus’ disciples.

That’s what Peter, John, James, and Jesus walk into after their mountaintop experience. On the mountain, Jesus’ clothing became dazzling white, Moses and Elijah appeared, and a voice came from a cloud, saying about Jesus, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Imagine the shift from an uplifting spiritual retreat into a squabbling crowd.

Jesus’ arrival is good news for the father. No more dealing with disciples, the master has arrived! When Jesus asks what the argument is about, the man blurts it all out:

Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not. Mark 9:17–18 (NIV)

Jesus’ reaction is surprising: He laments how the crowd is mired in unbelief.

You unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you?

How long shall I put up with you?

Jesus makes the same complaint repeatedly in Mark’s gospel. He’s amazed at the lack of faith in his disciples, his hometown, the crowd, even in his disciples after his resurrection.

What does it take to have more faith?

How can people like this dad move from unbelief to belief?

These questions are at the heart of being disciples of Jesus. It’s a question that leaders at Crosspoint ponder:

Where does faith come from and how does it grow?

When the boy is brought to Jesus, the evil spirit exerts its power and throws him into a convulsion. The son rolls on the ground, foaming at the mouth. It’s the evil spirit’s act of defiance towards Jesus.

Like other spirits Mark describes, this spirit recognizes Jesus. Yes, Jesus is as human as the disciples and the rest of the crowd. But Jesus is also divine. Jesus created the world, everyone in the crowd around him, and every spiritual power. This spirit’s defiance arises from rebellion against God: Father, Son, and HS. It is an evil spirit.

As the convulsions continue, Jesus asks the boy’s father how long his son has been like this. You can hear the desperation in the dad’s voice. There’s skepticism there too.

“From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Mark 9:21–22 (NIV)

Maybe you can understand his doubts. I doubt this is the first place he brought his son for a cure. The disciples couldn’t help. Why should he have any confidence in their master?

Jesus has just commented on the unbelief of the whole generation of people. Now he picks up on the dad’s skepticism:

“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Mark 9:23 (NIV)

What is it about faith that makes “everything possible for one who believes”?

More than once, when one of my family members was sick, people have told me that if we simply had more faith, the sickness will be cured. Maybe you’ve been told the same balderdash.

Thankfully God’s mighty acts of healing and salvation are not dependent on how much faith we have. I’ll say that again, although we always want to grow in faith: “God’s gifts of healing and salvation do not depend on how much faith we have.”

Healing and salvation depend on WHO we have faith in.

The LORD God is our loving heavenly Father. He knows precisely what we need. He has our best interests at heart. He knows all the variables and sees all the outcomes. God always does what is right out of love for his creation, love for his people. God alone is worthy of our faith.

The boy’s father gives the most appropriate response when Jesus challenges his skepticism: I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.

Where else can he turn? Who offers better help overcoming your unbelief than Jesus?

Jesus is on a rescue mission. He has come into his own creation to rescue the world from sin, darkness, and evil. Jesus recognizes how stuck people are in disobedience and darkness.

Jesus knows better than anyone the dangers of persisting in sin and living in rebellion against God. Jesus knows the force of God’s holy and righteous anger when I – we – persistently reject God’s love, God’s instructions for holy living, and God’s gracious gifts of life.

When you read further in Mark’s gospel, you’ll discover how Jesus allowed himself to be arrested, convicted, and crucified. At the cross, Jesus shouldered your sin and shame. Jesus died to rescue you from death and hell.

When Jesus rose from the grave 3 days later, he offers victory and life everlasting to all who believe. Jesus’ gift of life free from the shadow of brokenness and evil is illustrated when Jesus heals the boy with the evil spirit. At Jesus’ command, the spirit came out of him. Although the boy looked dead,

Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. Mark 9:27 (NIV)

By faith in Jesus, you too will be raised up to a new life in Jesus’ strength.

To make you truly alive, Jesus sends his HS, so you too can be Jesus’ disciple, growing more and more like him as your faith matures. Don’t you want to stand beside the father in Mark 9 and tell Jesus, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief”?

It’s a gut-level cry for Jesus’ help that recognizes the we can’t even muster up enough faith in Jesus w/o his help. The only way to be rescued from rebellion and punishment, to get help dealing with evil spirits, addictions, or any other illness is to put your faith in Jesus.

No matter what other answers Jesus has for your cries for help, I guarantee that Jesus will strengthen your grip on his promises. Your faith will grow when you appeal to Jesus. Faith is a gift from God. You can’t get faith anywhere else.

That’s the problem with the disciples earlier attempts to deal with the evil spirit. When the disciples privately ask Jesus why they couldn’t drive out this spirit, do you remember how Jesus answered?

He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” Mark 9:29 (NIV)

Is it possible they were trusting their own authority as Jesus’ disciples?

Praying to God, Father, Son, and HS, recognizes that you don’t have the power to deal with stuff yourself. Perhaps you’ve heard it said, “When you work, you work. When you pray, God works.”

Why in the world would you try to tackle evil spirits, sickness, addictions, or any other difficulty in your own strength when God invites you to appeal to him?

Probably we should start with the dad’s prayer: I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.