Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!

 

 And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them.  Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.  And He asked the scribes, "What are you discussing with them?"  Then one of the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and become rigid.  So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not."  He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him to Me."  Then they brought him to Him.  And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.  So he asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?"  And he said, "From childhood.  And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.  But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."  Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"  When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it:  "Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!"  Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him.  And he became as one dead, so that many said, "He is dead."  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.  And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?"  So he said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

 

- Mark 9:14-29 

 

Yesterday we read that after six days (following Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ) Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.  His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.  And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles:  one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" -- because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid.  And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son.  Hear Him!"  Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.  Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.  And they asked Him, saying, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"  Then He answered and told them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things.  And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?  But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him."

 

And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them.  Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.  And He asked the scribes, "What are you discussing with them?"  Then one of the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and become rigid.  So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not."  He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him to Me."   My study bible comments that sickness in Scripture is frequently connected to demonic activity.  The disciples also lacked faith (see Jesus' specific remark in Matthew 17:19-21), but Jesus' remark here seems directed at the father and also the crowd (which included scribes disputing with the disciples).  According to my study bible, it is this greater lack of faith that prevents the boy's healing.  It notes Jesus' loyalty to His disciples, and His way of teaching:  He defends them in front of the multitudes, but later teaches them privately what they lack.  This teaches all of us to first correct people in private (see Matthew 18:15-17).  

Then they brought him to Him.  And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.  So he asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?"  And he said, "From childhood.  And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.  But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."  Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."  Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"  Again, the emphasis here is on belief, on faith.  Let us note both the honesty and humility of this father, who pleas to Christ to "help my unbelief!"  This is the true posture of one who comes to Christ; we recognize where we have come, but also how far we need to go, and the help we need to get there. Love and trust are the foundation of this honesty, which Christ makes possible.

When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it:  "Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!"  Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him.  And he became as one dead, so that many said, "He is dead."  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.  And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?"  So he said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."   Let us note that the disciples who could not cast out the unclean spirit are the nine who did not go up to the Mount of Transfiguration; that is, all but James, John, and Peter (see yesterday's reading, above).  My study bible says that this kind refers to all powers of darkness, and not only to those which cause a particular illness.  It states that the banishment of demons requires faith, prayer, and fasting.   There is no victory in spiritual warfare, it says, without all three.  Beginning with the Didache, the earliest teaching document known to the Church, the patristic teaching is that both the person in need of healing, and the person who performs the healing, must believe, pray, and fast.  

Let us look at the humility of this father.  It is clear, first of all, how much he loves his child.  Most interesting is how Christ approaches him in a very personal, almost tender way, despite His exacerbation regarding a "faithless generation."   The text tells us that Jesus demands that the child be brought to Him, so He is, at this point, some distance from the boy and the center of the confabulation and debate of the crowd.  By having the boy brought to Him, Jesus sets up a dialogue between Himself and the father.  Jesus then proceeds to ask pertinent personal questions about the boy's case and his history of symptoms.  Jesus tells the father, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."  Then the text says that immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"   It is first Christ's setting that enables the father to make such a personal and heartfelt confession, to One who has laid the ground with love, truth, concern, and a personal tenderness that expresses His compassion for this suffering father and son.   It is in this setting of trust and confidence -- two words touching on the deepest meaning of "faith" in the Greek -- that we get to the care of human beings and their healing.  For this becomes a healing not only for the boy, but also for the father.  In some sense, today's passage fully illustrates that the act of healing, as my study bible's note implies, comes not simply in the context that there is one who ails, and the rest are healthy.  Today's reading teaches us that the healing of the young son also depends on the healing of the crowds, but also the disciples, and the father as well.  Because the unbelief of all seems to secure the fact that the boy cannot be healed.  He must be taken away from the crowd and brought to Jesus, away from the dispute and the squabble, and the father must be healed also in order for the boy to be healed.  How is the father healed?  By first coming to Christ, embraced and encircled in Christ's complete love and compassion, and then held in that person-to-person intimate place with Christ,  he may make his honest and humble confession in total trust.  His words, "Help my unbelief" are a statement of humility, of coming to terms with where he is and what he needs to do, and in the context of communion with Christ and in relationship to his son.  This is a profound reality, into which we are all invited, and it is also, in effect, the definition of faith.  The root of the word for "faith" in Greek means trust (Greek: πίστις/pistis).  Christ is the One whom we can ultimately trust, because we can trust His love for us.  He died for us.  In His own words, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends" (John 15:13).  This is the root of everything in our faith, the whole of our source of healing and coming close to God.  It is all in Christ's love, which is the purpose of His life in the world as incarnate human being.  He came so that we know how much God loves us, that coming to God is far, far from condemnation, but rather is blessed in love so that we may begin our healing.  The ones who are "condemned" are those who fail to come to this light, to this love, and so remain apart by their own choice.  This is the only way to understand Jesus' words from chapter 3 of John's Gospel:  "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God" (John 3:18-21).  It is the way to understand Christ's repetition of Isaiah's prophecy (Isaiah 6:9-10).  We must be able to come to Him, we must be able to trust, and then to come to terms with our own need for healing by Christ, as does this father.  This vignette of healing the boy, the dispute with the scribes, the squabble of the crowds that started while Jesus was still on the mount of the Transfiguration, the generation that shows no faith, and all that passes through our vision in this reading, gives us a picture of where we are, and how our faith works.  We don't need to be perfect first, but we do need faith to begin:  that is, the trust in Christ to reveal what we need, the humility to ask for help, and the perfect trust between Creator and creature that is established in God's love.  These are the basics of our life and our faith, and those who cannot understand nor grasp it, those who fear it, those who hate it and revile it, will never come to know it, because they cannot recognize nor intuitively grasp that love nor their own deep need for it.  And yet, this love and trust remain our foundation.  It is the true "bottom line" to who we are.