“AND JESUS
SAID TO HIM, ‘IF YOU CAN? ALL THINGS ARE
POSSIBLE TO HIM WHO BELIEVES.' IMMEDIATELY THE BOY’S FATHER CRIED OUT AND SAID,
‘I DO BELIEVE. HELP MY UNBELIEF!” MARK
9:23-24
Jesus comes down from the mountaintop to find chaos at the bottom. The scribes are arguing with the 9 disciples left behind because they could not heal a son possessed by an unclean spirit. The boy would be thrown to the ground, “rolling around and foaming at the mouth”. (Mark 9:20) He had been thrown into the fire to be burned. He had been thrown into the water to be drowned. And the demon had made the boy mute so that he could not even cry out in his pain.
As Jesus hears the story from the father, He states, “O unbelieving: apistos: “unfaithful, faithless” (G571) generation, how long shall I be with you”.
The
father then says to Jesus, ‘…if you can do anything, take pity on us and help
us!’ And Jesus said to him, ‘if You can?’.
“All things are possible: dynatos:
“able, powerful, mighty, strong.” (G1415)
to him who believes.”: pistaeo:
to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in. (G4100). (Mark 9:23)
Jesus
is asking the father to move from unbelief to belief, telling the father not
only is it possible, but the healing will be done with great power and might
and strength as only Jesus can do. But
hasn’t the father already demonstrated faith in the fact that he brought his
son to Jesus to be healed? And when Jesus couldn’t be found, the father then
asked Jesus’ disciples to heal his son instead.
The
father’s response to Jesus: “I
do believe”: pistaeo: to think to be
true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in. (G4100).
Back
to back. Belief mixed with unbelief. The
Amplified Version says it this way: “
Lord, I believe! Constantly help my
weakness of faith!”
This is not a flat statement by the
father, by the way. This is a desperate
plea for help mingled with tremendous emotion here. “The father cried out”: krazo: “to croak the cry of a raven
cry out loud.” (G2896) It is deep
anguish. It is the same word used by the
people shouting to crucify Christ. (Matt 27:23) It is the same cry of Christ on
the cross. (Matt 27:50)
There must have been much
discouragement over the years. The father had been rescuing his son from the
waters and the fires and comforting him after each seizure since his son was
young. Can you imagine his exhaustion of
constantly being on the alert for the safety of his son? Can you see the anguish on the father’s face of
watching his son being thrown to the ground time and time again? Can you touch
and feel the burn scars on his face or hands? Can you hear the boy gasping for
air after the demon tried to drown him? Can you relate to the great
discouragement to bring your son to the disciples and they could not heal
him? We would have quit asking after
experiencing disappointment for so many years, but the father was still asking.
The
father brought all of his unbelief and all of his anguish to Jesus. He held nothing back.
Charles
Spurgeon’s comment on this verse:
“Some unbelief lingered, though faith was supreme.
Learn from this that a measure of doubt is consistent with saving faith; that
weak faith is true faith, and a trembling faith will save the soul.” (Sermon 1033
delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle on January 28, 1872)
God never asks us for mighty faith. Instead He asks us to place our weak faith in
the palm of His hands and He will do the mighty deed through us and for us. Jesus only asked for our faith to be the size
of a mustard seed. (Luke 17:6) It is
noteworthy that a mustard seed is 1/16 of an inch in diameter—smaller than a
poppy seed, a peppercorn, or a clove.
“For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Submitting our
free will is the part we have to play in faith. But then even God takes what we think is ours
and
·
gives us each a measure of faith
(Romans 12:3)
·
increases our faith (Luke 17:5)
·
justifies us by faith (Romans 5:1)
·
introduced us into grace by faith
(Romans 5:2)
·
is the author and perfecter of our faith
(Hebrews 12:2)
“Faith is nothing that we do in our
own power or by our own resources. In
the first place we do not have adequate power or resources. More than that, God would not want us to rely
on them even if we had them. Otherwise
salvation would be in part by our own works, and we would have some ground to
boast in ourselves.” (The MacArthur New
Testament Commentary on Ephesians…page 60)
After the father’s confession of
belief mixed with unbelief, Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit to “come out of
him and do not enter him again.” (Mark 9:25) He then took the boy by the hand and
raised him up. Intellectual argument of
the scribes with the disciples did not heal the boy. Neither did the disciples heal the boy by relying
on their own power instead of relying on the spiritual power of prayer. Only a desperate plea from a father, who only
had a little bit of faith left, and a trust that even then he could confess his
lack of faith to Jesus, was the one who demonstrated belief that Christ was the
one to believe in for this miraculous healing.
How
about you? Are you stuck in unbelief
towards the person of Christ? Then take
a step of faith and trust in Him. Do you
have faith in Christ? Then how many
times have you believed in an all loving, all powerful God, but have not
believed that He can step into your specific , seemingly small situation and
bring wholeness and healing? Or is it
easier for you to believe for others but not for yourself? Recommit faith to
your circumstance. Bring all your emotion and lack of faith to the Father and
He will resupply your faith. “Now faith is
the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. (Hebrews
11:1)
"We are too slow to trust God and too quick to trust ourselves"—Randy Alcorn
