Thoughts for the Day

When Jesus came to the disciples, he saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw Jesus, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. He asked them, ‘What are you arguing about with them?’

Someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.’ He answered them, ‘You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.’ And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it threw the boy into convulsions, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.

Jesus asked the father, ‘How long has this been happening to him?’ And he said, ‘From childhood. It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You spirit that keep this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!’ After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘This kind can come out only through prayer.’

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

I once worked with a colleague whose husband suddenly began to 'black out' a number of times each day, often having no warning. He would frequently end up in hospital where they could find no cause for it, and once he woke in the police station where he was accused of being drunk. The description in Mark's Gospel of the illness of what looks like an epileptic boy is just as graphic. In the past he has landed in the fire, as well as in water.

We need to notice a few things about this episode: Jesus is returning from the glory of the mountain top where God has spoken, saying, "This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!". Now he descends to the chaos of the valley where the disciples are unable to heal a boy. Exasperated Jesus cries "You faithless generation". This criticism is not just aimed at the disciples to whom Jesus had given the power to heal, but also at those who brought the boy to Jesus, and especially to his father. Jesus has been unable to carry out his work where people lack faith, as in Nazareth, and when Jesus says "All things can be done for the one who believes" they awake in the father a moment of revelation, and he cries "I believe; help my unbelief!"

Jesus' final comment about the need for prayer should speak loudly to us as well. Putting it baldly: Faith is belief without concrete proof, but can prayer start to apply our limited (and often intermittent) faith and gives us hope, as we too cry "Help my unbelief!"

Lord God,
we profess to have faith in You,
and we can continue with this belief
until life gets difficult,
then our confidence can diminish.
Help us to pray regularly,
and strengthen our faith
so that when the cold winds blow
we shall not be affected
but will be safely protected.
Amen.