Read Matthew 17:14-21
We’ve done this once or twice before, we read the account that Matthew recorded in his gospel, but I actually want to go base the beginning of our time today out of Mark’s account of the very same circumstance. Mark includes most of the same elements, but adds a bit more detail, and then we will work our way back to Matthew a little later. So, let’s go read Mark’s account.
Read Mark 9:14-29
So obviously last week we saw Jesus up on the mountain with Peter, James, John, and Moses, and Elijah. We talked about His transfiguration, this kind of pulling back of the curtain to reveal a little bit of His true glory. And so, it’s after this, after Jesus came down off of this mountain that He comes walking towards the rest of the disciples. There are huge crowds gathered around the disciples at this moment, the scribes are apparently trying to argue with them about something, but as Jesus approaches the crowd seems to notice collectively and begin to run towards Him.
And Jesus, as calm and collected as ever, goes up to the scribes and is like “So what are you guys talking about?” And unfortunately, we don’t get to hear their response. I think they are learning not to challenge Jesus directly, as He is pretty good at making them look foolish, but they certainly were trying to challenge the disciples about something.
But again, we don’t get to hear their answer because a man from the crowd interjects and tells Jesus that he has brought his son to Jesus for help.
Read Mark 9:17-18
In Matthew’s gospel the boy’s condition is translated as epileptic, but this isn’t epilepsy like we know it today. The original language word that is used here is most accurately translated as the word “moonstruck”, which used to mean like madness, or crazy, or things like that. Even that word has changed and now it’s used for people falling in love. But what this Father is saying is that his son is afflicted with madness, he’s not under control, and he doesn’t speak, that there is a spirit inside of him that causes him to be thrown into the fire and into the water, he foams at the mouth, he grinds his teeth, he becomes rigid at times, maybe like paralysis.
This man’s son is going through a lot and obviously he is going through a lot too in trying to care for him. This father had already approached the disciples for help, but what does he say at the end of verse 18?
“So I spoke to Your disicples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”
Last week I closed with the statement that “God is awesome beyond our comprehension, and no person is at His level”. This right here is clear evidence of that. The disciples, try as they might, could not accomplish what they were trying to do at this moment. They couldn’t cast the unclean spirit out of this boy. And you hear Jesus’ response in verse 19:
Read Mark 9:19
Jesus’ response speaks to a weakness still of their faith. These were His disciples, but they hadn’t got it all yet. It hadn’t all sunk in. Even they weren’t perfect in their faith yet. Jesus knew that He wasn’t going to be with them forever, and I’m sure He wanted them adequately prepared for Him leaving. But in this moment, Jesus is just like, bring the boy directly to Me.
And as the boy neared Jesus, as he saw Jesus, the unclean spirit inside of him recognized Who it was dealing with, and it tried to make a last-ditch effort to hurt the boy and caused convulsions and sent him to the ground foaming at the mouth. This demon knew that its time was up at this point. And even with this happening, I love that Jesus didn’t just wave His hand or something and the demon was gone, no, Jesus stopped and talked with the father, He asked about the situation, He listened to what the father had to say. He responded personally and with care towards this father and son.
But I want us notice something at the end of verse 22. The father is answering Jesus’ question and he makes this statement:
“But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
BUT IF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING
I think this man is grasping at straws here. Maybe he has heard of this One that apparently has the power to heal people, and when everything else has failed, he grabbed his son and took off to find this Guy. But then he gets there, and he doesn’t find the Guy, but instead finds His followers. And then His closest followers, His disciples, try as hard as they can, and they aren’t able to make any headway on healing his son. Maybe he’s at the end of the road, nothing is working out, maybe he doesn’t have any real idea of Who Jesus is, but maybe …
IF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING … then please do it
He seems unsure and that’s probably completely understandable, but Jesus tells him in verse 23:
Read Mark 9:23
“If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
Jesus is kind of challenging this man to have real faith in Him. This reminds me of the situation that we looked at in Matthew 15 when the gentile woman came to Jesus asking Him to heal her daughter. In that situation, Jesus kept putting up these little hurdles for her faith to kind of jump over, and become more real, and more focused on Him, and Jesus did heal her daughter. And I’m sure that cemented her faith in Him forever. And so, Jesus tells this father, that if he believes, that it is possible.
The father hears this, he understands what is being asked of him, and then he gives one of the most honest and transparent responses of all time, to Jesus. What does he say there at the end of verse 24?
“LORD, I BELIEVE, HELP MY UNBELIEF”
Man … that response always gets me. This man cuts straight to it, he’s like, I believe, at least part of me does or wants to, but there’s also doubt or unbelief in me too. But notice very clearly what he said. He asked Jesus for something in that statement too. He asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief. That is such a great learning moment for us as we sit here today. Maybe we believe, maybe we still struggle with doubts, maybe like this guy it’s a combination of both. We’ve probably all struggled with doubts at different times and in different situations, and yet God is still there and ok for us to go to Him even with our doubts. Jesus didn’t correct this guy. He wasn’t like, oh really, you have doubts? Well, I’m out then. No, He understood the man’s heart, He knew that he wasn’t perfect, His disciples weren’t perfect either, but in this moment, He helped this father’s unbelief by doing the unbelievable.
He rebuked the unclean spirit, He commanded it to come out and never again enter the boy, the spirit audibly cries out and causes more convulsion, but then leaves and then everyone thinks that the boy is dead.
Read the end of verse 26 to verse 27
I believe that the father’s unbelief was probably getting worked on in this moment. Since birth his child had been suffering, almost dying at times, he looks to everyone to actually be dead after all of this, but then Jesus stoops down, takes him by the hand, begins lifting him up, and then after all of these years of this father trying to care for his son, he gets to see his son standing on his own, healed by the power of God. He came into this situation struggling between faith and unbelief, and it doesn’t say, but he had to have been changed as a result of this.
Up to this point, we have mainly focused on Jesus’ interaction with this father and son. But there are a couple practical things that I want to understand in regard to this.
For one, just in case there is any confusion, not all illnesses or diseases or mental health issues are the result of unclean spirits or demons or evil. But apparently, it is possible for that to be the case, as evidenced in this passage. And secondly I want to careful not to hear Jesus’ statement that “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” and immediately come to the conclusion that if I just believe enough then God will immediately and always fix everything I ask of Him. Notice even in Jesus’ statement, that He says, that it is possible, not guaranteed, and if we look to other examples in scripture, we see that God doesn’t always choose to heal or fix the situation. I want to take a look at one of those together.
Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
This is the Apostle Paul speaking. The guy that God used to write at least thirteen of the books in the New Testament. He says that he has what he calls “a thorn in the flesh”. There are so many speculations as to what Paul’s “thorn in the flesh was”, some have tried to say that it was temptation, or a chronic eye problem, malaria, migraines, epilepsy, or a speech disability. The fact of the matter is that the Bible never explains what it is. But what we do know is that Paul was struggling with something. Maybe it was physical, maybe it was mental, regardless it sounds like it was bothering him quite a bit.
There are many out there that will claim that if you just have enough faith that God will automatically heal or fix your issue. This situation alone with Paul should completely discredit that way of thinking. I don’t think any of us are going to say that Paul didn’t have enough faith or that Paul just didn’t believe enough. Paul was confronted directly and miraculously by Jesus personally on the Damascus Road. Paul has been literally transformed from a murderer of Christians to one of the foremost leaders of the movement. And this man said I have “PLEADED WITH THE LORD” that He would take this problem away. But God didn’t.
Instead, God left it there as a really important lesson and kind of a grounding element in Paul’s life. He says in verse 9 that God taught Him, that His grace was sufficient for Paul, even with the problem still there. And that His power (God’s Power) was perfected in Paul, because of Paul’s weakness as a result of this issue. He then makes the point, that basically my mind is changed now, and I will boast in this problem, in my weakness, in my distress, in my persecution, for Christ’s sake. Because in my obvious weakness it all the more puts His power and His glory on display.
I believe Paul’s understanding here is basically the core element of the lesson that the disciples hadn’t learned yet back in this situation today. Let’s go back to the Matthew passage together in Matthew 17.
Read Matthew 17:20-21
At the beginning of our time today, we found out that the disciples had failed to cast out this demon. Jesus tells them here that it was because of their unbelief. And you know I look at this and obviously they must have believed in Him, at least to an extent. I would think a pretty far extent after everything that they had seen and been a part of. But apparently, they aren’t that much different than the father was, they believed, but they still struggled with some unbelief. And Jesus here reiterates what we saw in Mark that if you believe, all things are possible, again possible, but not guaranteed.
Our belief and our wants and our desires, don’t dictate the outcome of things. Our belief is to be placed fully in Him, and part of that belief is trusting Him, as He acts, according to His plans and purposes, for His glory, and ultimately for our best.
His plan from what we looked at today was to heal the boy, but then as we looked at another passage, His plan was also to not heal Paul. And Paul learned that that was ok and actually grew to see God more glorified even through his struggle.
Jesus’ disciples at the end of this passage, asked Jesus, why they couldn’t cast out the demon? And Jesus responded in verse 21:
Read Matthew 17:21
Maybe part of the disciple’s unbelief problem, was too much belief in themselves. Jesus told them that prayer and fasting would have been necessary for them to overcome this. Prayer and fasting are both completely God focused activities, or at least they should be. Prayer and fasting should take the focus completely off of us and put it directly on Him. And apparently that was the weak link in the disciples attempts at that point. In prayer I can speak to the very God of everything, I can worship Him, I can talk to Him, I can ask things of Him for myself and for others, I can even ask Him to help with my doubts and unbelief. But we go to Him, because He is awesome, but also because He is able, to do what we never could. He is God and we are just people.
And Jesus also mentioned fasting. One of the things that Jesus said before “follow me”, was to deny yourself. Fasting is a literal form of denying ourselves, even weakening ourselves, to rest more in His strength.
But please recognize once again, that praying and fasting isn’t like putting money into the God vending machine. Praying and fasting more than anything deepens our relationship with Him, they humble us and cause us to rely on Him more, they even weaken us to magnify His strength, and ultimately, they help align our heart and our perspective with His.
He will act according to His plan, but through prayer and fasting we can come closer and understand and stay in step with His plan.
So absolutely pray about things, I even encourage you to fast occasionally if you haven’t, and I believe that through these things that we will see God work and we ourselves will grow. Grow in an understanding like Paul gained, to see that even if God doesn’t answer every request, that His purpose and His goodness still absolutely carries through.
Jesus basically makes the statement that prayer and fasting were absolutely necessary to deal with this difficult situation. We need to remember that as we seek to grow and will at times face difficult moments in this life. We could try to tackle everything ourselves, but like the disciples, we will absolutely fail at times. Or we can go to the Lord in seriousness, in prayer, even in fasting, ask Him to work, ask Him to help us understand, and trust Him and His plan, even if it is different than ours.