Nine of Christ's disciples had failed miserably, and in full view of the crowd. It was severely embarrassing, and the episode as told in Mark 9 is one of the most dramatic moments in the gospel story. We identify with those nine for often we too have failed to help people in distress as we have wanted to do; our prayers have appeared to be unanswered. We have fasted and prayed in behalf of people dying of cancer ... and they have died. We have prayed for alcoholics, and ... they have gone on drinking. We have pleaded for wayward youth, and they have ... still wandered.
Jesus has been glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration--wonderful mini-vacation, visiting with Moses and Elijah. Heavenly light. But now He returns to His daily life of ministry for suffering people. The nine disciples He had left in the valley have prayed for the demon to be cast out of a suffering boy, and to their acute shame, nothing has happened. Jesus told them that their problem was their "unbelief," and that "this kind" of demon problem can be healed only by "prayer and fasting" (vs. 29). We empathize with them. The demons in effect tell us as they told "the seven sons of Sceva," "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?" (Acts 19:14, 15).
A very thoughtful writer has suggested that their "unbelief" was actually a lack of "sympathy" with Jesus in His work. Their faith was not childlike, it was childish. And the question arises: are we today mature enough in our thinking to "sympathize" with Jesus in His heart-burdened work He is doing on this grand Day of Atonement? Or are we infants still absorbed in our natural spiritual egoism, concerned just for our "reward"?
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 16, 2005B.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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