All things are possible

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.”

There’s so much to get to in this passage of scripture, so many talking points! The possibilities of faith, the development of faith, demonic posession and the power of prayer.

So Jesus is coming back down off the high mountain, probably Mount Hermon with Peter, James and John. They’ve just seen Him transfigured before their eyes, remember. They have seen Moses and Elijah show up with their naked eyes! Peter was ready to make tents for them all to stay in. It was in a way a little foretaste of heaven, and now they descend to find a very earthy scene! There is a commotion, arguing, there is trauma, there is pain.

Jesus sees that the scribes have come and are arguing with the disciples, and as the crowd rush to greet him he asks what they are arguing about.

A man from the crowd speaks up before the disciples or the scribes get a chance to answer Jesus and explains what the commotion is all about. He has brought his son who has a mute spirit which torments him, violently throwing him down and causing seizures. He says that he has asked the disciples to cast out the spirit but they couldn’t. In fact, in the Greek he really says that they didn’t have the power to do so. The scribes are revelling in their failure.

The scribes saw the disciples failure to cast out this spirit as a failing in Jesus. You know that’s how the world looks at the church, the world looks at the short comings of the disciples of Christ, it sees her moments of weakness, her failings and projects them onto Christ and judges Him to be of no value. It’s an easy trap to fall in to, to let disappointment with the church cause you to walk away from Jesus, we all know people who have done this. As the saying goes; ‘if you ever find the perfect church, dont join it; you’ll only ruin it!’

There will always be failings in the church this side of glory, but that doesn’t mean that the church is a failure! Remember, the disciples had cast out loads of demons previously, but this one was different.

Jesus asks for the boy to be brought to Him, and he has some harsh words for the crowd too!

Mark 9:19 ESV

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.”

This sounds rather brutal if directed at the poor father who has just brought his son to be healed! You have to have some level of faith to bring your son to Jesus’s disciples to be healed, so it doesn’t really make sense that Jesus is calling the father ‘faithless’, nor does it really make sense for it to be directed at the disciples. For me it seems more fitting that it is directed at the unbelieving scribes.

As they are bringing the boy to Jesus, the spirit sees Jesus and immediately convulses the poor lad and throws him to the floor. Jesus asks the father how long this has been happening and the father says, from childhood, and adds that the spirit has tried to kill the boy by throwing him into fire and into water on occassions. How traumatic!

Some scholars over the years have attempted to naturalise this account by saying that the boy had epilepsy. The symptoms mentioned certainly seem like epilepsy, but whatever name you might want to give the condition there is no getting around the biblical text, this was not caused by a sickness, this was not a natually occuring condition, it was the work of an evil spirit. This is important to acknowledge. If there were people in Jesus’s day who were actually posessed by evil spirits, mute spirits, deaf spirits and demons, then we can be sure that there are people today who are suffering in the same way. The Bible is always careful to distinguish between naturally occuring medical conditions and conditions brought on by demonic activity and we should do the same. As a Christian i have encountered people who I believe were being influenced by a demonic spirit, and when you encounter it, there’s no confusing it with a natural sickness, believe me!

This evil spirit had entered the boy as a small child and begun to wreak havoc. This shows us the importance of praying for our children and teaching them to trust in God from an early age. If a child can be filled with an evil spirit then they can certainly be filled with the Holy Spirit!

The father of the boy then says to Jesus ‘but if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’

Matthew 8:2 NIV

2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

The leper had doubts about Jesus’s willingness to heal, the father doubted His ability to heal.

There is a textual variant at this point (where manuscripts differ), the majority reading is ‘if you are able!’ , imagine the air quotes! a remark on the man’s lack of faith. The minority reading is ‘if you can believe’ found in the KJV, this reading sounds more like an exhortation to the man to believe. Either way, both readings exhort faith in the man.

Jesus says ‘all things are possible for one who believes’. Wow, the endless possibilities of faith! What is possible? All things are possible. For who? For the one who believes.

it is not the Lord that prevents his benefits from flowing to us in large abundance, but that it must be attributed to the narrowness of our faith, that it comes to us only in drops, and that frequently we do not feel even a drop, because unbelief shuts up our heart - Calvin

This isn’t all things as in ‘literally anything is possible’. Like, if I believe hard enough I can become a bird and jump off my roof style! But this is ‘all things within the realm of God’s promises.’

English Standard Version Chapter 17

For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Jesus is saying here that belief in Him creates a world of endless possibility where seemingly immovable obstacles like mountains can be moved. Mountains of impossibility cannot resist the power of faith in a believers heart.

The man cries out ‘I believe, help my unbelief!’ How can someone believe, but also not believe at the same time?! How can faith and unbelief live simultaneously in the same heart? We all know how, because if you’re a follower of Christ you know the truth of this man’s statement by experience. You believe that Christ is the saviour, but you doubt His love for you. You believe His love for you, but you doubt His ability to provide for you. This is the way that scripture always speaks of faith, as something that grows, that matures, that needs feeding. Faith doesn’t come to you fully formed, it comes as a seed that needs to be cultivated.

And see how this man knows where to get help with his doubt; Jesus. Wherever we are experiencing unbelief today we can call on the Lord to help us. He is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2)

Jesus then casts the unclean spirit out and the spirit cries out and tries one last attempt to harm the boy before leaving. A demon, or an unclean spirit is always intent on bringing harm to those they attack, whether physical, emotional or spiritual, and they often save their worst for when they fear that the person is going to meet Jesus; go to church, or hear the gospel, or hang out with a Christian friend.

But again, there is no fanfare or failure with Jesus, the spirit leaves the boy and Jesus raises him to his feet.

Then the disciples get hold of Jesus once they are out of the crowd and are keen to know why they weren’t able to cast the demon out. They had done it before, why couldn’t they cast this one out?! Jesus answered ‘this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer’, some manuscripts included ‘by prayer and fasting.’ But what did Jesus mean ‘this kind’?

Well some see this as speaking of the different kinds of evil spirits; demons, unclean spirits, fallen angels. And certainly there are levels in the demonic relam just as there are amongst the host of heaven.

Ephesians 6:12 ESV

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

It could be that Jesus was meaning that this spirit was a higher ranking demon or spirit that required a different level of spiritual obedience to cast out.

Another way of seeing this is that Jesus is alluding to the fact that the spirit had been with the boy for a long time and therefore would be harder to cast out.

Either way, it’s true that not every demon or unclean spirit is the same and some are more powerful than others. Even though these spirits must all submit to Christ, there are some that are more resistant than others. We know from the story of the story of the sons of scheva

Acts 19:13–16 ESV

13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

So messing about with demons isn’t something you do lightly. Playing around with the occult isn’t a game. To engage in this level of spiritual warfare you must be under the power and authority of Christ, be filled with the Spirit of God and maintain dependence on Him through prayer and fasting.

So in conclusion; we know that Jesus is Lord over all spiritual forces and powers, there are none that can withstand Him. And we as His church have been given His authority and His Holy Spirit to overcome these spiritual forces that are at work in our city. Though we may not always be successful, just like the disciples, we are growing and exchanging our unbelief for faith as we look to Him. We also see that the possibilites of faith are endless. God’s mighty power is brought to bear by simple faith in our hearts! Where do we need to see God’s power move? Will we believe? Do we need help with our unbelief today?

Pray