Mark 9:17
Satan knew too well the intent of Jesus. Specifically to the lying serpent, God had promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15; Revelation 12:9). Satan knew his time and dominion were under threat for the woman’s seed was now in the fallen world. His activity was feverish and he was exerting himself in all spheres to his utmost. Jesus had confronted Satan in Peter’s strong resistance to Jesus’ telling then of his rejection and death. Jesus then gave Peter, James, and John a brief but powerful experience of heavenly glory. By God’s power, Moses and Elijah appeared in recognizable form and conversed with Jesus. Jesus for a moment shed the emptiness of his humiliation and manifest something of the startling and enchanting brightness of his divine nature. Moses had witnessed a semblance of such glory (Exodus 33:23; 34:6–8) and Elijah had been swooped into heaven without passing through the veil of death (2 Kings 2:11). From satanic attack (8:33), to heavenly fellowship (9:4), and now back to the fallen world to confront another evil work of Satan and human unbelief, Jesus continued his walk to the cross. Every singular pronouncement of power over the strongest of demons showed the absolute security of the final triumph in the cross (Colossians 1:13; 2:14, 15; Hebrews 2:14, 15). In this context of both embattlement and assured glory, Jesus confronts a particularly vicious demon on the one hand and unformed ideas of faith on the other.
I. Perplexed disciples were unable to cast out the demon (14–18). This led to a squabble with the scribes.
A. The disciples had entered into an argument with some scribes. We are not sure of the nature of this argument other than a challenge the scribes might have presented to the disciples when they were unable to cast out the demon.
Perhaps they were confused about this in light of the power granted them in their recent preaching tour (6:13). The scribes found an opportunity in this to claim that Jesus was only a fraud, and they were deceived.
B. The crowd’s amazement at Jesus’ appearance and their running to see him probably indicates that the discussion was more about Jesus than about the desperate condition of the boy.
“We don’t get it. We could do this before!” “Yeah, that charlatan who does not obey the traditions of the elders is like Pharaoh’s magicians, He can fool people for a while, but finally his spell fails.” “No. He is indeed the Christ and soon will reign.” “That is blasphemy to call this Nazarene carpenter the Christ.” Jesus asked his disciples, “What are you discussing with them?” The disciples may have faltered in giving an account of the discussion because of some perplexity, but they were rescued by the voice of the assaulted child’s father.
C. The father described the condition of his son (17, 18).
He gave five symptoms: In addition to being mute, he is slammed down, foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and goes into a catatonic state. The demon exerted destructive power over body and rationality. Not only can the child not speak, but violent and debilitating force over the child’s body has been secured by this demon. In Matthew 17:15 the father calls this child a “lunatic.”
D. The father brought his son to Jesus, who was away on a “high mountain,” and in his absence asked the disciples to cast out the demon. When they could not, this led to confusion on their part, distress on the part of the father, and probably chiding from the scribes.
E. Jesus looked at all of them with an amazed incredulity.
How could all the people gathered there still be without understanding about the role of the Messiah and that he was indeed the one who had come to overthrow Satan and his kingdom? He alone could rescue fallen man from his bondage to the curse of sin and the dominion of the prince of the power of the air. When he uttered the words, therefore, about the “unbelieving generation” he did not exclude any of those around.
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- The disciples made the mistake of assuming that their recent power over demons was perpetual; the power was resident in Christ alone and had been granted from him for the specially assigned mission in which Jesus “gave them authority over the unclean spirits” (Mark 6:7). They did not perceive that only Christ possessed the authority and would accomplish the mission assigned him by the Father to dispossess Satan of his captives.
- The father showed ambivalence in belief by asking the disciples to cast out the demon as if they possessed the same authority as Jesus. His desperate condition arising from his son’s complete dominance by this malignant spirit brought him to be willing to cast around for help anywhere.
- The scribes indicated unbelief for their constant refrain of doubt and challenge to Christ even in the face of his mighty works and his profound teaching. They were supposedly the most astute of scripture scholars but did not grasp that the Scriptures were about Jesus and his redemptive mission.
II. (Verses 19b–24) – Jesus gives instruction as to the character and power of faith by presenting a challenge to the faith of the father. Upon Jesus’ command, “Bring him to me!” the father brought the son to Jesus.
A. When the man brought the boy to Jesus, the demon immediately began to dominate him with extreme physical manifestation.
He threw him to the ground in a convulsive state, caused him to roll around, while foaming at the mouth. This verified the father’s description for the observers and served to seal the testimony of the futility of any power less than that manifest in the demonic control of the child.
B. Jesus asked another question in order for the doubting observers to know the longevity of this possession and that every contrivance to this point had been impotent.
This had been happening since childhood. The attempt was to bring him to a point of death by throwing him into the fire to burn to death or into the water to drown. Indeed, the thief has come to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). The father was desperate and asked Jesus, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (22).
C. Seizing on the words, “If you can do anything,“ Jesus tested the father’s faith.
Did he or did he not believe that Jesus had authority and power to cast out this evil afflicting spirit from his son? Was this a move of desperation only, or was it in a genuine faith that Christ alone had this kind of goodness and authority?
D. The father clearly saw the importance and pertinence of Jesus’ challenge.
He was not offended but encouraged and emboldened. He knew that he had come to Jesus with genuine confidence in his ability to help his son even in the face of such a radical force of evil. At the same time, his desperation had led him to impatience and an effort to seek help from the disciples instead of Jesus. Perhaps also he wondered if the case were so severe that his son was beyond help. So the answer, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”
E. The emphasis here on faith highlights the unique place that faith has in uniting the sinner to Christ for the benefits wrought by him in redemption.
It is no exaggeration to say that “All things are possible to him who believes.” This does not point to the degree of faith as the thing that accomplishes all things, but the purpose and redemptive work of Christ that opens the windows of heaven and gives all possible blessings of heaven and eternity to the saved sinner. By faith, we access “All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1:3); all things are ours, for “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17, 18). In this life too, “God works all things together for good to those who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
III. (Verses 25–29) – Jesus overwhelms the most potent forces of evil.
A. To keep that growing spectacle from becoming larger, Jesus quickly rebuked the unclean spirit commanding him to leave and never to return to the boy (25).
B. The exorcism had such a powerful physical impact that the boy lay on the ground like a corpse.
The crowd thought he was dead. The child was alive, but so subdued had he been to the power of Satan that the departure of the demon temporarily left him without any animating principle.
C. Jesus, in control of all of it from the start, lifted the boy by the hand. In one sense, the boy indeed was dead and subject to all the horrors described in Ephesians 2:1, 2 —
“And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” Jesus had given the boy new life, free from the obvious terrors of demonic control and, in light of the father’s confession, probably a new birth into true spiritual life.
D. The disciples, quizzical as to their inability to cast out the demon, learned that not all demons are the same.
This kind comes out only by prayer, but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit, I myself command you, come out of him and do not enter him again” (25). By this Jesus again indicated that his power in the realm of spiritual reality is immediate. His awareness of, access to, and expression of the Father and his will are natural and without fluctuation. One may conceive also, in light of the mysterious personhood of Jesus, that he was always conscious and perfectly manifested the absolute dependence of humanity on the power and decree of God. In his human nature, Jesus was the man of unblemished faith. His knowledge of the Father’s will was perfect, his trust in the Father’s goodness unwavering, and his pursuit of obedience to the Father uninterrupted.
Jesus said “All things” -it has to be true-
On this fallen earth, can we escape strife?
The god of this world put back in his place?
Trespass forgiven? Can death be made life?
He who believes
Solace receives.
The teller of lies, the taker of lives,
The robber of speech and rational thought-
Can he be subdued? Can he be thrown down?
Can freedom from him be forced or be bought?
Those are reprieved,
Who have believed.
The rebel ‘gainst God thrown out of heaven,
Spoiler of Eden and all Adam’s seed-
Hostile deceiver, wanton destroyer-
Can his human prey find help for their need?
Those are relieved,
Who have believed.
He touched human dust as He did at first.
Jesus by his word as well as his hand
Stalked the destroyer, destroyed his domain,
Prompted convulsion by His strict command.
Gracious relief,
To weak belief.
Sin has destroyed us, wrath will consume us;
Blind lawless passions provoke Holy God.
Christ obeyed for us; in his own body
Gained our forgiveness absorbing God’s rod.
Belief will bring
Ward from sin’s sting.
The heart stops beating, the brain stops thinking;
The life that once surged is put in the grave.
Corrupted to dust, but still promised life,
Jesus is risen and certain to save.
He who believes
True life receives.
The end we deserved – the mis’ry of hell-
Unending sense of omnipotent wrath;
Jesus on our part, left without mercy,
The curse satisfied, blazed salvation’s path.
Final relief
Granted belief.
