Mark 9: 14-29

The July issue of Fortune magazine this year carried a cover story titled "God and Business: The Surprising Quest for Spiritual Renewal in the American Workplace." In one article, Andre DelBecq, a business administration professor, stated that "There were two things I thought I’d never see in my life: The fall of the Soviet Empire and God being spoken about at a business school."

The Princeton Religious Research Index reports a sharp increase in religious beliefs and practices since the 1990s. When the Gallup Poll asked Americans in 1999 if they felt the need to experience spiritual growth, 78% said "yes," up from 20% in 1994, and nearly half said they had occasion to talk about their faith in the workplace within past the 24 hours.

According to James Maas’s book, Power Sleep, at least 50% of America’s adult population is chronically sleep-deprived. An even greater percentage reports trouble sleeping on any given night. And the number of people who report trouble sleeping has risen 33% over the last five years.

Why does such sleep deprivation occur for people when it is stated in Psalms 127, verse 2, "For so He gives His beloved sleep?" Sleep deprivation only goes to show that people of today suffer from problems that afflict their spirits. Although we may enjoy physical comforts and plentiful material resources, we are mentally denuded and spiritually anxious and unstable. As one executive in the Fortune article said, "We got to the top of the ladder and find that maybe it’s leaning against the wrong building."

Although this new trend of seeking spiritual fullness is good, the problem lies amongst us, the Christians. Many people call themselves Christians; yet, there are very few ‘real Christians,’ the people who truly practice what they believe and preach. Like the quote from the Second Epistle of Timothy, chapter 3, verse 5, there are too many Christians who "having a form of godliness but denying its power." Therefore, too many Christians fail to conquer the power of sin and Satan, living in a life of despair, dearth and defeat. Why do we fail to become victorious Christians, with the ability to defeat the powers of demons and sins? In short, our failure to gain victory can be attributed to our inability to experience the power and abilities of the Gospel, the holy words that grant us our daily salvation. Because we cannot or do not experience God’s surprising abilities, the powers that save us and preserve us from the grips of death and sin on daily basis, we are Christians only in name, unable to become true Christians who possess the requisite qualities of life and abilities.

Today’s scripture contains the words that Jesus gave to His powerless and defeated nine disciples. These words are so important that they are recorded again in Matthew, chapter 17, verses 14 through 21, and Luke, chapter 9, verses 37 through 43. Among the Diatessaron, the Gospel of Mark was the first gospel written; in light of this fact, the recorded accounts in Mark are considered to be the most accurate, credible, and authentic. The account of Jesus imparting these crucial words to His nine disciples, although it is recorded in the other two gospels mentioned above, is recorded in the greatest detail and length in Gospel of Mark. Today’s scripture is an account of Jesus healing a boy who had been possessed by the demons and who was afflicted with epilepsy.

The focal point of today’s scripture, however, lies in the fact that before Jesus cures this boy of his affliction, the nine disciples attempt to heal the boy themselves and ultimately fail. Let’s look at how the nine disciples became defeated, incapable and powerless Christians.

First, we need to compare our Lord, who ascended a mountain and underwent a glorious transfiguration, with the incompetent and defeated disciples. The account of Jesus healing the boy of epilepsy appears right after the account of Jesus’s ascent of a mountain with His three favorite disciples, Peter, James, and John to undergo a holy transformation and converse with gargantuan Old Testament figures such as Moses and Elijah. The authors of the Diatessaron purposely juxtaposed these two accounts in their order of appearance in the scripture to vividly contrast the ‘glory and powers of Jesus’ with ‘the incapable and defeated nine disciples.’

While Jesus goes to the high mountain to undergo a glorious and mysterious transfiguration, changing into the form heretofore unseen in this world, the nine disciples whose faith do not match up with those of the three disciples, Peter, John and James could not cure the demon-possessed boy. Hence, they become the object of ridicule and derision of the boy’s father, the scribes, and the multitudes present. Verse 14 of today’s scripture states that the scribes and the disciples were in dispute. As a group in general, the scribes did not approve of and disagreed with Jesus’s work; therefore, the fact that the disciples of Jesus could not heal a demon and epilepsy-stricken boy became a good, opportune target for criticism and derision. The scribes, upon watching the nine disciples fail while Jesus was away, must have thought that they hit the lottery by getting a great opportunity to embarrass and criticize Jesus and His followers. Likewise, if we, as Christians, do not lead clean, moral, and capable lives befitting of our religion, the people with anti-Christian sentiments will criticize, deride, and embarrass us. To reiterate, if we do not lead straight, moral Christian lives, those who do not believe in Christianity will embarrass us.

Let’s take a look at verses 17 and 18 and concentrate on the message of these verses. The father of the boy, who was possessed by a mute demon and stricken with epilepsy, is ridiculing and laughing at the incompetence of the nine disciples. "So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast him out, but they could not." According to the scripture, this boy’s father is delineated as a man who did not yet have a deep faith and trust in our Lord. In today’s term, this man was a novice Christian. This assessment is vividly illustrated and supported by verse 22 by the doubtful tone in his voice and spoken words when asking Jesus to cure his son of these afflictions. "But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."

This man came to Christ half out of faith and half out of doubt, the uncertainty in Jesus’s ability to cure his son. If we do not lead able and capable lives as Christians, we too will be embarrassed and ridiculed by the novice Christians who lack deep faith. Therefore, the higher our position in the church, and the longer we have professed to be Christians, the greater the caution we must exercise in order not to become a incompetent and false Christians, the object of ridicule among all those who lack faith.

Second, Jesus scolds His faithless disciples and the father of the demon-possessed boy at the same time. This means that our Lord will scold and chastise both long-standing Christians and fledgling Christians, who just embarked on a life of faith, regardless of their ‘tenure’ as Christians. Jesus shows His frustration with the masses by saying, in verse 19, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear you? Bring him to Me." This frustration, while targeted for the masses present the spectators, the scribes, the father of the afflicted boy, and the nine disciples can be construed as Jesus’s indirect yet blatant chastisement of the nine disciples for their lack of faith. At this point, Jesus prepares to show the masses four things: 1) lack of faith of the multitudes, the people of this world, 2) the pitiful and sorrowful spectacle of the nine disciples, who cannot perform any deed without Jesus being present next to them, 3) the fact that Jesus’s patience with incompetent disciples has a limit, and 4) the capability and powers of Christians by having the boy brought to Jesus.

Jesus scolds long-standing Christians like the nine disciples, who by the virtue of their association with Christ should have a fair degree of faith and the novice Christians alike for not having faith. To the father of the boy who states "if You can do anything," Jesus curtly replies to him in verse 23, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him to believes," commanding this man to have a greater, firmer faith. Jesus is proclaiming that if this man had faith, not only would he able to cure his son, but that he can accomplish anything he sets out to do. Therefore, for those of us with ‘novice’ faith in Christ and God, we must concentrate and work on ‘growing’ our faith, to believe firmly in the abilities of our Lord to rescue us from sins and death.

Third, abilities of true Christians are derived from prayer. The demon-possessed boy, who suffered from severe bouts of epilepsy, gets cured through his father’s faith. As long as the boy was under the possession of the demon, the boy himself could not trust and have faith in our Lord. When the father of the mute and deaf demon-possessed boy brings his son to Christ, Jesus chases the demon from the boy and cures him of all afflictions with a single phrase of command. Throughout this whole healing process, we can see that the faith of the boy’s father increases constantly.

First, out of hope that perhaps the disciples of Jesus can cure his boy, he seeks out the disciples to ask them for their help. This is the normal and general first step in which the novice Christians seek help and guidance on embarking on a life of faith from those who believe in Christ and God, rather than going straight to the living God. After being disappointed by the inability and incompetence of the nine disciples, the father of the boy shows a more mature faith by approaching Jesus and asks Him for help. When dissatisfied and disappointed by the people who believe in Christ, people of faith must return to the Lord Himself. Although this man approached Jesus, he did not have 100% faith in Christ and His abilities; rather, at this stage, the father of the boy is an ‘almost Christian,’ who trusts Jesus only halfway and has about 50% faith in Him.

This man still shows a novice side in his faith by asking, "if You can do anything," showing that he does not yet completely trust the Lord and that he still has a ways to go before becoming a mature Christian. Lastly, the father of the boy becomes a real, or mature, Christian, one who trusts the Lord completely and unconditionally, and one who depends on and leaves everything up to the Lord. When Jesus, in verse 23, states that "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes," the man replies in verse 24, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" Through this reply, the father of the boy is showing the utmost faith and trust in our Lord. All novice Christians must arrive at this stage, which will give them the ability to say, "Lord, I believe. Please help my inability to believe," having the utmost faith and trust in our Lord.

The responses of the disciples to Jesus, after all these accounts take place, warrant our attention. In verse 28, the disciples, after Jesus had come into the house, "asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast him out?’" The disciples, who had been publicly humiliated and embarrassed in front of the multitudes, are humbly asking Jesus, in private, as to why they had failed in healing the boy. If we, up to this point, have led a life of failure as Christians, we must, in a private forum with our Lord, humbly ask for the explanation and reason behind our failure and defeat.

In verse 29, Jesus briefly states that the reason for their failure is the lack of prayer on part of the disciples. In some texts and scriptures, Jesus is said to have responded by saying "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." Regardless, in Jesus’s response, "Prayerlessness results in powerlessnes," lies the focal point of today’s scripture. In order for us, the Christians, to become true and competent Christians, we must have the faith, which will lead us to believe "all things are possible to him who believe," and pray earnestly to reaffirm our faith. Only earnest and true prayers will make us capable and competent Christians, those who can overcome the sins and deaths and become victorious in our daily lives.

Eddie Smith is the North American Director of the Prayer Track for the AD 2000 and Beyond Movement. He tells about a time when he went to a denominational assembly and the meetings, which were taking place in a huge, cavernous hall. The time came to take a lunch break and he finished his lunch early; he then made his way back to the auditorium where all the sessions were held. The lights, however, turn turned off for some reason. It was dark. Eddie would later recount that he began to cautiously make his way across the auditorium floor when all of a sudden, he stumbled over something. The something, however, was not a thing; it was someone. Dr. R.G. Lee, who was the keynote speaker for that afternoon, was lying face down on the floor of the assembly hall, praying.

Eddie Smith made his way quietly out of the hall and into a lighted corridor where he encountered two convention workers who asked him if he know how to get the power back in the auditorium. Eddie Smith would later say that at that moment, he stopped, thought for a second, and said, "Yeah. There’s a man in there, R.G. Lee; and he knows where the power is."

Abilities and competence of true Christians are derived from prayer, our conversation with the living God. If you have led a life that is a failure and incapable according to our Christian standards, connect your electrical power plug of prayer to the electrical outlet called Lord our God. Abilities and competence of true Christians will flow forth from that outlet. Amen.