(Sketchy title, yeah? Read on to know what I mean)
And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 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.”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.” 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. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 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.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 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.” 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.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” (Mark 9:14-29, ESV)
This must've been such a stressful situation to be in, especially for the disciples who got suddenly bombarded by this huge crowd. And too bad for the disciples who couldn't do anything but embarrass themselves in front of this crowd by doing nothing to cast the demon out of this boy. But Jesus comes to not only save the day again, but prove a point... again.
After being told that His disciples couldn't cast the demon out, Jesus calls both the crowd and His disciples out on being a part of a faithless generation. At first read, I thought His whole "how long" spiel was a bit dry, but it echoes the same burden that the prophets probably felt when they declared the will of God to a people that didn't bother to listen.
The moment the spirit sees Jesus, it immediately convulses the boy, knowing that it's screwed. So it tries to create as much of a mess as possible before it's done for. Notice, however, the complete lack of dualism in this encounter? The demon sees Jesus, and therefore, does everything it can before its time is up. This is nothing like how the world sees God and Satan. For some reason, there's always this battle between good and evil, light and dark, God and the devil. But here, there is no battle, no conflict, no struggle. The demon knows that it's going to lose.
The father then begs Jesus to have compassion and heal the boy, asking that if Jesus can do anything, then He can heal his son. Jesus responds to his need with an exhortation, "All things are possible for one who believes." The man's "if" is not a question of whether Jesus could do it or not, but it was a reveal to this man's personal doubts. That's why Jesus exhorts him to have faith.
This man responds that he indeed DOES believe in Jesus' power, but asks Jesus to help his unbelief. He acknowledges Jesus as powerful, but admits that he has his weaknesses, and asks Jesus to give him the heart to believe and have faith.
The thing is that it takes faith to say something like that. It takes faith to admit that you have little faith. If you had no faith, then you wouldn't be able to recognize your lack of it, because pride would take over. But even the smallest bit of faith reveals our dark corners and blind spots, and we can then admit to them.
Now, it's interesting that Jesus calls this demon mute AND deaf, considering that all that these people knew was that this was a mute spirit. This demon apparently caused the boy to be deaf too? Or maybe this demon was just deaf itself. Either way, it proves that Jesus knew this demon. This is apparently in contrast to most contemporary Jewish exorcists, who believe that you needed to know the name of the demon to exorcize it. So if the demon was mute, you would never know its name. But the fact that Jesus knew that this demon was both mute AND deaf, something that the others did not know, goes to show the authority that Jesus has over this demon, and that either way, Jesus was going to make this demon know His authority. So He demands the demon to leave, and it ups and goes.
With the demon having left, the boy is left on the ground, seemingly dead. He ONLY moves when Jesus takes him by the hand.
I feel like this is symbolic to how God saves us. He calls us to have faith in Him, to which we die to our old and even "demonic" ways, and then Jesus comes and takes us by the hand, and brings us back to life. This whole process goes to show how we really have no part or say in our salvation. So much so to the point that the Bible says that even the faith to believe in Jesus was a gift to us, so that we literally have NOTHING to boast about.
Likewise, the father of this boy can't boast that it was his faith that made Jesus save his son, because even he knows that the heart to believe and have faith has to be given to him by Jesus Himself. He totally depended on Jesus to take care of his doubts and his son.
Unfortunately, this dependence is something that the disciples lacked. When they asked why they couldn't cast the demon out, Jesus tells them that only prayer could've done the job. Prayer and faith were what, apparently, the disciples lacked. Despite the fact that Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits earlier in Mark, it is evident that their authority can only be enacted through faith and prayer, through a close relationship with God. But their obvious disappointment in themselves is a sure sign that they did not trust God. It reveals that in that situation, they trusted themselves.
We have to be like the father of the son in this story. We have to know that our faith and our heart to believe is a gift from God Himself. It takes faith to know that we don't have faith. We have to ask God to help our unbelief.
I have to ask God to help my unbelief. I shouldn't be disappointed in myself when something goes wrong, because then it shows that I trusted myself too much. I have to start asking God to give me faith to know that His promises are true, that they will be brought to life, and that He will carry me through.
The exact same thing goes for you, the reader. Trust God's promises for you, and ask that God would give you faith, to help your unbelief. Have faith to know that you have unbelief. Don't trust yourself to do what God can most certainly do perfectly and timely. Desire a relationship with God first, before you start asking Him to hear your requests. What God has enabled us to do can only be done in faith. Apart from faith, what we have is disappointing and sad and useless.
Have faith to know that you don't have faith.
-simon
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