Mark 9:14-29
September 15, 2024
There are a lot of things happening in our world today in which there doesn’t seem to be any answers: Why did we get so much rain late last week, while California is struggling with wildfires? Why was there another school shooting, this time in Georgia, a few weeks ago, despite all of the security measures we try to put in place? Why does war continue in Israel and Ukraine? Why is there so much anger with drivers on the road, with people waiting in lines, or with certain groups during an election season?
There are many people who think they have all the answers, who are anxious to offer their explanations to these tough questions, but the bottom line is they really don’t know. As Christians, in these situations and others, we look to God for answers; but it seems like we don’t get any clear cut answers from Him these days concerning some of these issues. So when this happens, it is very tempting to give up on God and to go looking for answers in different places.
Our Gospel lesson for today is a reminder to all of us that we don’t have all of the answers. We may think we know it all, but that is far from the truth. We see a man in this text who brings his son to Jesus and explains that his son is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of his speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground, he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and becomes rigid. He asked the disciples to drive out the spirit, but apparently they couldn’t do it. I’m sure this man was like any parent, who would go to great lengths to help his child, but so far, nothing had worked. I would guess that disciples must have felt very confident when the man brought his son to them. They already had experience healing people in Jesus’ name, so I’m sure they thought, “Demon possession – no problem, we can take care of this.” But this time it did not work. So imagine how heart broken this father must have felt, especially knowing that the disciples had healed others in the name of Jesus, but were unable to heal his son. Imagine the bruised faith this father must have had after going to the disciples with hope that they could do something, only to see them unable to heal his son. As a result, this father really had no reason to have faith that anything could work.
There’s a lot of disappointment in this story and I think at every turn we can easily see ourselves. The text begins with Jesus and 3 of His disciples – Peter, James, & John – coming down a mountain and as they make their way down they see the theologians of Jesus’ day arguing with the other 9 disciples. I would guess that they were probably mocking the disciples for their inability to heal the boy. I could see the theologians saying something like, “Well, we’re not so powerful now without your teacher, Jesus, around are we?” The disciples also appear to be very disappointed and confused at this moment as they cannot seem to figure out why they couldn’t heal the boy. At the end of the text they asked Jesus, “Why couldn’t we cast that demon out?” In a sense what they are asking is, “Why didn’t it work for us? We followed all of the steps and procedures You taught us, Jesus.” Jesus responds by saying that this kind of demon can only be driven out by prayer, meaning the power to heal was not in them or in some formula, it was found in Jesus. When the disciples failed to heal the boy, they should have gone to Jesus immediately in prayer, but instead they looked at themselves for answers. Jesus was certainly disappointed with the disciples. He was now into His third year of instructing them, He had spent a lot of time with them, and He wondered out loud when they would ever learn.
But just imagine the pain and disappointment that the father is experiencing as the disciples and theologians are arguing with each other, and as Jesus expresses His frustration with the disciples. This father already has the pain of knowing that while he has done everything possible to care for his son, there is one thing he cannot do – he cannot heal him. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year he watches this thing, this spirit, eat away at his son’s life and he cannot stop it. If you have ever sat by your child’s bed through the night when he/she is terribly sick, wondering if healing and morning will ever come, then you know how this father felt. If you have ever spent an evening praying for your wayward son or daughter, desperate with fear that they won’t come home or terrified what will happen if they do come home, then you know the fear, desperation, and uncertainty of this father as he brings his son to Jesus and asks, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
But Jesus realizes that this man has a deeper problem that He needs to address first. He says, “If you can? All things are possible for one who believes,” meaning the question is not what Jesus can do, but does the man believe in Jesus as His Savior and God. Jesus doesn’t say this to be mean to the man. He says this because He knows it will bring out a confession of faith and a confession of sin from the man – both being what the man desperately needs. The years of emotion, all of the hopes he had in the past, all of the helplessness he had experienced finally came out of him as he cries out, “I believe, help my unbelief.” And Jesus immediately responds to the man’s battered faith in love as He heals the man’s son, indicating that the man’s doubt and uncertainty did not diminish His ability to help.
And the same is true for us. The fact that we struggle with doubt and uncertainty does not put us beyond God’s reach to care for us. God will never turn away from us, even when we are weak and question Him. So what does God say to those of us who have doubts and uncertainties? What does He say to those of us who have been disappointed when fellow Christians let us down? What does He say to those of us whose problems are hopelessly complex? What does He say to most of us, whose problems are the every day kind: the car, the children, our spouse, the job, and the old routines of ordinary life? Jesus simply says, “Bring all of those doubts and challenges to me, no matter how big or small they may be, spend time with me in prayer, because where you are weak, I am strong.”
We all have doubts in our lives. We’ve all had hopes built up and then crushed in our past. I’m sure we’ve all wondered at times if God hears us when we call to Him. The man’s words, “I believe, help my unbelief,” I think are words we can all understand, because they are our words. They are words we would probably like to shout at times, but are afraid of what others might think. The questions fill our minds from time to time: Is it OK to admit that I have doubts? Is it OK to say I need help with my faith? Is it OK to be completely open with my struggles. The answer is Yes.
This is life, this is what the journey of faith looks like sometimes. There are plenty of examples in the Bible of people who followed God, then turned away from Him, but then were led by the Holy Spirit to turn back to God and were restored; and then they did it all over again, and again, and again. David was a powerful king in the Old Testament who wrote in the Psalms, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever.” But earlier in his life he wrote in the Psalms, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me in times of trouble? Every day I have sorrow in my heart.” David struggled with this faith. He had questions and doubts, but he kept bringing them to God. The disciples in our Gospel reading had been bold witnesses for Jesus, but when they faced difficulty and uncertainty, instead of taking the time to seek Jesus and bring those struggles to Him in prayer, they looked to themselves for answers.
If you feel that all you have to offer God is a beaten faith, filled with doubts, that will not affect what God has to offer you, because Jesus never has doubts about you. He never has questions about what you are worth to Him. He knew what it would cost to make you His child. He knew the price He would have to pay. He knew how far you would wander from Him. He knew how much you would sin. But He also knew that He did not want to live without you, so He died on a cross for all of your sins. But He rose from the dead and He says to each of us, “Come to me with all of your doubts, I will carry them, as we walk this journey of life together.”
