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 becomes 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, and Jesus' own prophecy of His Passion) 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?"  Here Jesus has returned (with Peter, James, and John) from the Mount of Transfiguration.  Coming to the rest of the disciples, He finds a dispute happening, with a great multitude around them, and also scribes in some sort of confrontation, disputing with the disciples.  Jesus surprises the crowd by returning, and they run to Him to greet Him.  We note how Jesus turns to the scribes to ask what they're discussing, intervening for His disciples.   

 

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 becomes 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."  The father responds to Jesus' question that was directed to the scribes, and describes seizures which his son has, and also that the son is mute.  This shows that the father is eager for help.  But Christ responds by directing all attention to the lack of faith involved in this failed healing.  My study Bible comments that while the disciples also lacked faith (which we read a little further on), Christ rebukes the man for placing the blame on the disciples, while it was his greater lack of faith that prevented the boy's healing.  So, effectively, Jesus is defending His disciples in front of the crowds, but later He will address their own lack of faith in private.  Moreover, we might consider that this exclamation of impatience with a faithless generation may be directed at all the crowd, including the scribes.  As we have sin, even a community's faith or lack of it has an effect upon healings and other signs Christ performs.  Christ's command to "bring him to Me" indicates that Jesus has not returned to the crowd but remained further away, where some have run to greet Him.

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."   We see the response of the spirit that is harming the boy, once he is brought close to Christ.  It's interesting that Jesus interrogates the man to find out how long the boy has been afflicted; the answer of the father gives us to understand the cruelty of evil, that it seeks to destroy him.  His cry for compassion and his deep need for help shows his love and desire to help his son, even identifying with his son ("help us").  He seems to express that Christ is his only hope.

 

 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!"  The father shows with tears his desperate desire to help his son, and his feeling of helplessness. But now he also expresses his understanding of Christ's direction to him -- and that he knows he needs help with his little faith.

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.  The text affirms to us that Jesus has kept the father and child away from this unbelieving crowd in order to heal him.  It also shows again the cruelty of the demons.

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."  Jesus teaches the disciples another important lesson about faith, and the efforts we make to shore it up.  My study Bible says that this kind refers to all powers of darkness, and not just those which cause a particular illness.  The banishment of demons, it says, requires faith, prayer, and fasting, as there is no victory in spiritual warfare without all three.  Beginning with the Didache, it's been taught that both the person in need of healing and the person who performs the healing must believe, pray, and fast. 

If we look at today's reading in stages, we see an interesting evolution in terms of the approach to the ailment of this boy whose father seeks his healing.  Jesus has just returned from the Transfiguration, together with Peter, James, and John.  So it is the other nine disciples who are found in a dispute with some scribes, with an onlooking crowd surrounding them.  Perhaps we first have to consider that Jesus lived in a time period where there were events of spectacle, but they were held in open theaters and stadiums as part of pagan religious festivals.  This was true of the ancient plays and events such as the ancient Olympic games, as well as the Roman spectacles such as chariot races and gladiatorial bouts.  But at this time, there is no common entertainment such as television or the internet or the radio.  So, we might presume, that each time there are any public disputes mentioned in the Gospels, they become an event which people gladly watch.  This is true of Christ's disputes in the temple with the religious leaders during Holy Week, as it is also true of this particular healing and others.  In this case, however, we can consider that the crowd is either unbelieving (as Christ has begun to acknowledge in His ministry in various places) or cynical or perhaps just watching for spectacle.  The scribes, of course, are eager to see Christ's ministry fail at this point, as Jesus has already become a rival to the religious establishment in their sight.  In the middle of the crowd is this exasperated father who seeks a cure for his son.  He seems to feel entirely helpless to the demonic power that afflicts the boy.  Whether we wish to attribute this disease to pure physical ailment or not (modern people might identify this illness as epilepsy), there remains a sense in which it is an evil affliction, and we can't mistake the torment and destructive power of what the boy is put through.  The word in Greek for evil is one with the word for "pain" at its root; this can also mean a kind of suffering under laborious hardship.  In any case, we can see the symptoms in this suffering child and father.  One sense we get of the father is his feeling of helplessness, and also desperation.  How many parents of suffering children go through such turmoil?  People desperate for help to save a loved one can experience the same things this father expresses for us of humanity suffering for their loved ones in the same way.  He turns to Christ as One who might help, as he has already brought the child to Christ's disciples.  But Jesus reframes the problem here from one of simply finding help to one of encountering and engaging the difficulties of faith -- and this becomes an important question for us when we find ourselves under the similar circumstances of seeking help and care for loved ones, or even for ourselves.  For faith always plays a role, even under modern circumstances with scientific medical advances, therapies, and new discoveries happening every day.  For faith plays a great role in our persistence and especially with regard to our hopes and how we perceive circumstances and even opportunities for new outcomes.  In this case, of course, Christ can effect a healing, and this particular healing is framed in terms of spiritual battle.  As my study Bible puts it, when Jesus tells the disciples that "this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting," it refers to all powers of darkness.  So we must once again think about the historical practices of Lent in the Church in this context.  What struggle are you engaged in?  Is there a form of evil -- something punishing and cruel, overly laborious, extremely painful -- with which you are wrestling?  Do you need help for a loved one and don't know where to find it?  Faith comes in for all of these circumstances, because in faith there is hope and a needed light cast on our circumstances.  All problems will not be resolved as we would choose ourselves, and all outcomes are not guaranteed.  Death is a fact for our world.  But faith opens doors of many needful things; in it is hope, and in it is love.  In the kindness held in our faith is the acceptance of compassion and grace, and the light of Christ that opens our eyes to things not previously known or considered.  The struggle for faith, in this perspective, becomes the central struggle for the world.  In today's reading, we see that even for the disciples, this is the key to the path they are on.  To engage in the prayer and fasting Jesus teaches here is to seek new ways of seeing a situation, new strength, the courage to face the challenges that come our way and to seek new answers we hadn't anticipated.  Like the Syro-Phoenician woman, prayers once helped me repeatedly approach a doctor who finally saved my mother a great deal of discomfort when no one else would.  Continual prayer gave me strength to face circumstances in which my resources were gone.   And such efforts help others as well, not only ourselves.  We should always remember that Christ's teachings do not simply enforce for us the supreme value of faith and the need which we have for faith, but also that He may help increase our faith when we need it.  Like the father in today's reading, we may start with a little faith, but there is also help for our unbelief in the struggle against a world of cynicism that too easily accepts what is evil as the final word.  Christ has assured us that He has overcome the world (John 16:33); He invites us in to join His victorious struggle for faith.