Mark 9:14-29-- Unseen Resources

When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. And He asked them, "What are you discussing with them?" And one of the crowd answered Him, "Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it." 

And He answered them and said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!"  

They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" 

And he said, "From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" 

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." 

When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!" But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not drive it out?" And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."

This is Mark’s second story that strongly connects faith and healing—the first being the dual story of Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage (Mark 5).  The boy was being violently attacked by a demon.  The man asked the disciples to cast the demon out (which, supposedly, they have already done—Mark 3:14-15), but they couldn’t do it.  Jesus immediately speaks of the disciples lack of faith.  

In the discussion with the father of the boy, Jesus discovers that the man is hedging his bets—he wasn’t fully sure that the boy would be healed.  Jesus confronts this and makes a general statement—“All things are possible to him who believes.”  This statement would be repeated to the disciples later.   On the surface it would seem to be that any statement of faith would be fulfilled by God.  But Jesus is assuming an object of belief—God’s promises.  So the more complete statement would be, “God will do anything for one who shows faith in his promises.”  This statement is confirmed by almost every healing in the book of Mark.  

The boy’s father replies with remarkable humility that he has faith, but his faith is limited—he requests assistance to fill out the rest of his faith.  

Whether this statement was acceptable to Jesus or not, we never find out, for Jesus heals the boy in a hurry before the crowds arrived.  The boy had another seizure and he seemed dead, but again Jesus rose him up, and he was not dead.  This makes for another possible “rising from the dead” in Mark.  

The disciples are also asking how to fill out their faith and heal the boy.  Jesus replies that their faith would be strengthened by prayer.  Prayer and faith are connected in other places in the gospels (Mark 14; Luke 18:1-8)

The faith that Jesus confirms is not speaking the doctrinally correct words, or belonging to the right church, or expressing our love of Jesus with enough conviction.  Faith is not belief, not an intellectual assent to a spiritual truth.

Faith is resting in the palm of God.  It is being at peace with a God-directed way of life.  It is speaking what God assures us can be spoken.  It is reliance on the resources of God which cannot be seen.  Faith is stepping on the unseen bridge which Jesus assures us is there.

Faith doesn't just change our minds, it changes our actions.  Faith doesn't make us more religious, but more loving.  Faith gives us access to a whole realm of resources we can use to help others that most people can't see.  Faith isn't the backlog of the weak, but the support of the stronger.  Faith is the assurance that God is at your back, because you rely on Him.