Praying the Impossible

God never disappoints. It has been yet another glorious week of prayer together. I am not saying that we will, but I am contemplating and asking the Holy Spirit to lead in potentially adding a second Prayer Week during the summer when the weather is less of a concern. Prayer is that important to us individually and as a church that one week of focus each year is probably not enough. We will see where the Spirit leads with this thought.

Several years ago, during our Prayer Week, I handed out a bright fluorescent green index card to each one who was in attendance. I asked you to write down at least 3-5 issues in your life that were humanly impossible, and then to pray over those things throughout the year. Some were diligent in their prayers while others slipped the completed card in their Bible cover and forgot about it. But towards the end of the year, everyone gave testimony of how God accomplished the impossible. Many saw their entire list fulfilled by God. Most others were only lacking one item that they were still waiting for God’s intervention.

And yes, I’ll be giving you a new fluorescent green card at the end of today’s service.

Our God is the God of the impossible. The things which we consider as impossible in the human realm is abundantly and infinitely possible with God. The very word, impossible, does not exist in the realm and sphere of God because all things are possible with and for Him.

All of us have experienced this; we may not always recognize it, but we have all experienced God bringing about the impossible in our lives. We have seen it in this church so many times that we have likely forgotten more than we remember.

Yet we still doubt at times, we still lose hope, we still struggle in living by faith, and we still rely on that which we perceive as being able to control with our frail human logic and power. All the while, God keeps beckoning us to trust Him, to trust His Word, to wait on His perfect timing, to expect the impossible, and to walk every moment by faith and not by sight.

Our passage this morning is one of the classic passages of Jesus accomplishing the impossible even in the midst of unbelief and weak faith.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 9:14-29

Let’s pray.

It is much easier to give lip service to the truth that with God all things are possible, than to live it out, but it shouldn’t be. You could be considered by others to be a strong believer in Jesus Christ, yet still place your trust in a litany of other things instead of Christ. The word, but always invades our minds and our hearts. “I know that God can do this or that, but…” Well, you have just said that I know that God can do this or that, yet by adding the word, but you have contradicted yourself; you have serious doubts for whatever reasons and somehow believe that it all relies on you instead of God.

The key phrase in this passage we just read is in verse – “I do believe, help my unbelief”. So, if you are feeling a little guilty over your lack of faith in the past, don’t. This is a common struggle. It doesn’t make it right, but it is a common struggle. So, let us all join in with this desperate father and also admit, “I do believe, help my unbelief”.

The setting in this passage is immediately after what we call the transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him to a high mountain. On that mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white (9:2-3). Elijah and Moses also appeared on the mountain and had a conversation with Jesus that we are not privy to. Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” (9:7).

From this setting, Jesus and the three disciples come down from the mountain to find a crowd of people arguing with some of the religious leaders of Israel. When they saw Jesus, the crowd that had gathered were amazed and began running up to greet Him. We can only surmise that like Moses coming down from the mountain after spending time with God, Jesus still had a glow and a brilliance on Him to cause this amazement, for this is before He accomplished any miracle in their presence.

So, Jesus asks what they were discussing. An exasperated father speaks up and you can hear the desperation in his words. His son, and at this point we do not know how old he is or how many years he has been afflicted, but it is obviously considerable; his son has been afflicted by a demon that has physically harmed the boy and has attempted to kill him on numerous occasions. This desperate man heard about Jesus and His disciples and brought his son to be healed of this demonic influence.

But there is a problem – the disciples, who by this time had cast out other demons and witnessed healings by God through their hands, could not cast out this particular demon. And typically, herein lies our struggle. We have at times witnessed the miraculous and we may have even been used by God to accomplish the miraculous in times past, but when that one time when we think that we need a miracle and it doesn’t happen, our doubts return. All of the previous miracles lose their luster; we become like the Children of Israel wandering in the wilderness wondering what God has done for us lately.

Most of us can easily step into the sandals of this father. Most of us know the desperation in our hearts and minds when a child of ours is struggling, whether that child is still young or is a full-grown adult. “God, be merciful to my son”, or “God be merciful to my daughter”, or “God be merciful to my husband or my wife, or my parents!” “Only You, O God, can make this right and I desperately need You to intervene!”

We understand this kind of desperation and we know the disappointment when God chooses to not intervene, at least in the way we prefer. Or, even worse, we have some despicable false teacher throw it back in our face that it was our lack of faith that kept God from accomplishing the miraculous in our life. Such people should be strung up by their toes who teach such heresy! And I know that is not loving and not kind, but these hooligans who misrepresent the clear teaching of Scripture and dash the hopes of the desperate infuriate me.

We know the pain of this father in some measure at least, if not in the fullest measure. And we get puzzled and confused and even despondent when we tarry long in prayer over months and years with seemingly no response from heaven. It’s heartbreaking. It can become a wound in our spirit that gets poked every time we see God intervene in someone else’s life while we are still waiting.

I can imagine this father as his hopes are rising when he brings his son to the disciples of Christ, and then I can feel his heart sinking and his hopes being dashed against the rocks yet again when they were unsuccessful in helping his son. And he to add insult to injury, the scribes, part of the ruling religious elite in Israel are likely mocking the disciples and possibly even mocking this battered father for having any such hope of healing.

But hope arises yet again as Jesus appears from the mountain. Can Jesus do the impossible? Will Jesus do the impossible? Will I even get the opportunity to beg Him to do the impossible? Should I expect Jesus to do the impossible? Dare I get my hopes up one more time?

This father has been dealing with this affliction in his son for years, constantly in fear of this demon destroying him, constantly binding the wounds, constantly weeping over him, constantly pulling him out of the fires and rescuing him from drowning. It is difficult to fathom how exhausting and how devastating this existence had to have been.

The fuel light came on in Alan & Leigh’s car the other night on their way to prayer meeting, indicating that there wasn’t much left in the tank. The faith light in this father’s life had likely been on for quite a while – there probably was not much faith left in his tank.

But here comes Jesus! And He is likely coming in a robe so brilliantly white that the people are somewhat dazzled and slightly blinded by the brightness of the white that could seemingly penetrate any form of darkness – even the darkness of the demonic! Here comes Jesus!

So, Jesus asks the question, and this beleaguered father jumps at the opportunity. Nobody is going to stop him from speaking to the Son of God. This father explains that he brought his son to the disciples, but they could not help him.

Mark 9:19a

It is not necessary to attempt to define specifically who Jesus is rebuking in this account. The Greek grammar leaves it open, meaning that this rebuke could have been narrowly focused on the disciples, on the scribes, on the crowd that had gathered, or even on the entire nation of Israel – it doesn’t matter. The rebuke is a general rebuke on any and all who fall into periods of unbelief and lack of faith. But after the rebuke, He emphatically says, “Bring the boy to Me!”

Oh my! Can you feel the emotions that the father is probably almost drowning in at those words? Jesus wants me to bring my boy to Him! Are you there? Have you transported yourself and your loved one to this scene? Are you hearing Jesus emphatically say to you, “Bring your loved one to Me!”?

Mark 9:20

This demon does not want to leave willingly. I can put myself in the place of this father as he is watching this demon yet again have his way with his precious son – even in the presence of Jesus. I can’t even begin to imagine the thoughts that are swirling in this father’s head.

Mark 9:21

Instead of immediately casting out this demon, Jesus calmly asks this father a question. There’s no panic in his voice, no sense of urgency, and no shock at what this demon is doing to the boy.

Mark 9:22

The father answers and then adds his desperation and his fears. He says to the son of God, “But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”

Don’t you dare get sanctimonious and be harsh on this father. Don’t think to yourself that your faith would have been any stronger. Until you have been beaten down time and time again waiting for God to answer your desperate pleas, until your hope has almost been lost, until your faith is running on fumes, do not think critically of this father’s exhaustion and exasperation. The stress and the tears and the despondency and the years have taken a massive toll on this father. Nothing has worked and there has been no relief for years on end. He doesn’t have it in him anymore to fully believe, as much as he wants to fully believe.

Mark 9:23-24

“I do believe; help my unbelief.” Lord, I believe as much as I can possibly believe at this moment, but I need Your help to believe beyond this limit – this limit that I have left. I simply don’t have anything left. I need Your help. I need You to fill my tank. I’m sitting on empty and have no means to fill the tank on my own.

This desperate and utterly exhausted father is spent. There is not a shred of pride remaining. He doesn’t care who is watching. He is not trying to keep up appearances. He is essentially face down on the ground, exposed and raw before Jesus, before the other disciples, before the scribes, and before the crown, proclaiming for all to hear that his faith is utterly insufficient.

Mark 9:25-26

Again, I cannot begin to fathom what this father is going through at this moment. Listening to divine authority in the words of Jesus, authority he had never heard before. Then hearing a demonic shriek come out of his son and watching him in terrible convulsions. And then seeing your son so motionless on the ground that people begin to say that he’s dead.

Mark 9:27

He got up. My boy is up, and he is whole again! I find myself wanting more of this account. I want to read about the father hugging his boy and weeping great tears of joy. I want to see the boy leaping and jumping and shouting. But this is the end of the account in all three of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Jesus cast out the demon, takes the boy by the hand and raises him up, and gives the boy back to his father. The rest is left to our imagination.

But we can all feel it, right? We can all place ourselves in that story and feel the joy if the same were to happen to our loved ones and whatever issue that has plagued our hearts. We don’t need to know the rest of this story we simply want to experience the rest of our story.

Mark 9:28-29

Beloved, the answer is prayer. And quite honestly, only prayer. Matthew’s account emphasizes faith, as it is there that we have one of the mentions of having the faith the size of a mustard seed. Matthew’s account also mentions fasting, but that phrase does not appear in most Greek manuscripts and seems most likely to have been added by one the scribes who were given the responsibility of copying the Scriptures. Luke’s account skips this discussion with the disciples, so we are left with the simplicity of prayer, and prayer alone.

And I know that some of you if not all of you are saying to me in your mind, “But I have prayed, and I have prayed for what seems to be forever, but still no results.”

I wish that I had a one-size-fits-all answer for you, but I don’t. Our passage does not mention anything about this father being a praying man. We know that his trial had lasted for years. We know that his faith was spent through the years and we know that he made the effort to bring his boy to Jesus. And, even though not included in this passage, we know that God is sovereign and omniscient. We know that our ways are not God’s ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

Something else that we can glean from this account is to fully surrender our loved ones to Christ. To stop trying to control things. To stop attempting to figure things out. To stop analyzing and stop suggesting to God how He should deal with our issues.

We can also ask God to help us with our belief. We know from this account that prayer is the primary focus, but faith and belief do play a role, and it seems that we require more faith than we can muster on our own.

We can also glean from this account that things may seem to get worse before they get better. I trust that I was able to at least give you some sense of the roller coaster of emotions and the utter confusion of mind that this father experienced before Jesus fulfilled his request.

I can’t tell you why God moves in such ways at times, we simply are not told why. The account of Job gives us some insight. Job didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes and there is no indication in the Book of job that God ever gave him the details. Sometimes our struggles are for someone else’s benefit.

The final word is to bring the boy to Jesus and pray. Or bring whoever your loved one is to Jesus and pray. And then pray some more. And then pray some more, all the while asking for more belief and more faith. Don’t give up, no matter how dark. Don’t lose hope. Pray.

Let’s pray.