Not a Moment Too Soon (Mark 9:15-29)

NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON (MARK 9:15-29)

There was a devout Christian mother who was always teaching her daughter lessons of faith and trust, especially telling her that she need never be afraid at any time because God was always near. One summer evening she tucked her little girl in bed after her prayers, put out the light, and went downstairs. Then an electrical storm came rolling out of the west with vivid flashes of lightning and a reverberating roar of thunder. Suddenly there was a simultaneous blinding flash and a deafening crash, and when the echoes died away, the mother heard the little girl calling desperately, “Mama! Mama! Come and get me.”

The mother found her trembling, little girl in tears. After she had soothed her somewhat, she thought it might be an opportune time to teach a spiritual lesson, and said, “My little girl, has Mother not taught you many times that you need never be afraid, that God is always near, and nothing can harm you?” The little one put her arms around her mother's neck and said, “Yes, Mama. I know that God is always near, but when the lightning and the thunder are so awful, I want someone near me that's got skin on him.” (from Illustrations of Bible Truths # 231)

Mark 9 tells the story of a father of a demon-possessd man whose dream for his son’s healing almost grounded to a halt but for his awakening to faith. No one but Jesus could help him. Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and commanded the spirit to come out of the boy. How was his faith awakened? What stirs and not sinks a person’s faith? How does faith surface and shine against the greatest odds and obstacles?

Dare to Invite Yourself in Hope
15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. 16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked. 17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.” (Mark 9:15-18)

Sophie Tucker the dog must have nine lives. The grey and black cattle dog fell from a yacht on a rough trip in poor weather. After searching for an hour off the Queensland coastal town of Mackay, the owners regrettably and reluctantly expected the worst, but the dog had a mind of its own.

The determined pet swam six miles of shark-infested waters and landed on an island, where she survived for more than four months on wild goats for food. Before too long, a handful of people living on the island reported seeing a dog running around. When the bodies of several young goats were found, locals contacted wildlife rangers and word of a dog on the island reached the ears of Miss Griffith and her family.

When the owner heard that a dog had been caught in an island, they went to have a look. They waited at the marina as the rangers’ boat came in - and there in the cage was a grey and black dog. Miss Griffiths said, “We called her name and she went crazy - whimpering and banging on the cage, so they let her out and she ran over to us and almost knocked us over with excitement. She was a house dog and look what she's done, she has swum over five nautical miles, she has managed to live off the land all on her own. We wish she could talk, we truly do.”
“The castaway dog who swam SIX miles through shark-infested waters, then survived FOUR months on a desert island,” 07th April 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1167967/The-castaway-dog-swam-SIX-miles-shark-infested-waters-survived-FOUR-months-desert-island.html

The man, first of all, is an uninvited guest who refused to take no or failure for an answer, so he barged in unsolicited and made himself heard. Verse 15 reveals that the multitude is “all the people” - “a great crowd” in Greek, not just any crowd or an average crowd. The only other time a great crowd of this size shows up in Mark is in Mark 4:1-2, where a great crowd forced him to teach the great crowd from a boat. The parallel account in Luke 9:37, too, says the exact thing in Greek, translated as “a large crowd” in English.

The drama heightened and the stakes increased with the debut of the words “overwhelmed” and “ran” (v 15), occurring for the first time in the book. The word “overwhelmed” is exclusive to the book of Mark and no other; it is used three more times in the book to describe Jesus’ “deep distress” in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33) and the women’s “alarm” at the tomb on resurrection day (Mark 16:5, 16:6). It is almost impossible to speak over a large crowd so highly strung. The word “run” occurs two more times only in the Bible, once describing Philip running up to the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:30).The chance of getting an audience and making an impression with the Lord among the excitable, emotional and edgy crowd was downright bleak and impossible. Numbers (large crowd), emotions (overwhelmed) and activities (running) were in convergence that day.

The man’s cause was not helped by a breakout of theological proportions, with the scribes or teachers of the law and the disciples engaging in a full-blown argument that also occupied Jesus’ attention. “Argue” is also translated as “question” (Mark 8:11, Luke 22:23) and “debate” (Mark 12:28, Acts 9:29) in the Bible. This word is used in the context of an intense and a passionate dispute, not a minor or lightweight skirmish, including the Pharisees “questioning” Jesus (Mark 8:11), a scribe “debating” Jesus (Mark 12:28). Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria “arguing” with Stephen (Acts 6:9) and Saul debating with the Grecian Jews (Acts 9:29). Since the word shows up three times in the chapter (vv 10, 14, 16), the man’s chance of getting heard was slim and slipping. He was caught between a great crowd (v 15), the scribes (v 14) and the disciples (v 14), yet the man managed to make his way through, make his presence felt and make his case matter.

Praise the Lord, He is occupied with the crowd but never distracted by the crowd. He is aware of our needs, our cries, and our presence.

Dare to Ignore Others with Honor
19 “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” 20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the boy's father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. (Mark 9:19-21)

It was high noon in midtown Manhattan. The streets were buzzing with activity—crowds of people scurrying to lunch, car horns honking, brakes screeching, a siren wailing. Two men were making their way through the throng of noon-time lunch-goers. One was a native New Yorker, the other a Kansas farmer on his first visit to see his city cousin.

Suddenly, the farmer stopped and said to the city dweller, “Hold on! I hear a cricket!” His cousin replied, “Are you kidding? Even if there was a cricket around here, which isn’t likely, you would never be able to hear it over all this noise.”

The farmer remained quiet for a few moments, then walked several paces to the corner where a shrub was struggling to grow in a large cement planter. He turned over several leaves and found the cricket. The city dweller was flabbergasted. “What great ears you have,” he said.

“Not at all,” the farmer replied. “Your ears are as good as mine. It’s a matter of what you’ve been conditioned to listen for. Here, I’ll show you.” Whereupon, he pulled a handful of coins from his pocket and let them clink to the sidewalk. As if on signal, every head on the block turned. “You see,” said the farmer, “you hear what you are tuned in to listen for.”

Next, the father did the impossible by ignoring the disciples’ failure and pressed on for an audience with Jesus when the disciples were stuck. When the supply was failing and the suppliers were wanting, what did he do? He went to the source. The students failed, but not the Schoolmaster. The pupils failed, but not the Principal. The learners failed, but not their Leader. He was not insulted, indignant or irritated; Jesus question was directed at the disciples (v 16) but the man answered. He did not wait for his turn; he grabbed the opportunity and ran with it.

Note that the disciples did not notify Jesus; the father had to do it himself. They did not review or revisit his case but kept their ineffectiveness and incompetence a quiet matter. No reason was given in the text why they did not disclose the matter to Jesus, but the reason given in the text was why they failed - the absence of prayer (v 29).

Maybe the disciples thought Jesus could care less or was not bothered. Maybe they were distracted by the lively debate with the scribes. Maybe they were more interested in pointers from Jesus to set the scribes straight and prove them wrong. The point is they had no time for the man and had given up on him, but they were not without resource, which the father knew. The father had two choices – to scram or to stay; he chose the other. He did not wait for the crowd to thin out or for the debate to die down.

What the father did definitely caught everyone’s attention, because the account is recorded in all the gosels – Matthew (Matt 17:14-20), Mark and Luke.

Dare to Implore God in Haste
22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” 23 “'If you can'?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He's dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. 28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn't we drive it out?” 29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” (Mark 9:22-29)

Three pious Jews wanted to spend the high holy days with a famous rabbi. Without food or money or horse, one of them disguised as a rabbi to obtain food at the next village from rapturous villagers who greeted them with excited cries of joy. When the meal was done, however, the innkeeper approached the “rabbi” and pleaded with him pray for his dying son.

The two men motioned to the shocked counterfeit rabbi for him to continue with his act. In the morning, the grateful innkeeper loaned horses to the men who were eager to leave. After the blissful holy days under the famous rabbi were over, the three companions had to return to the same village to return the borrowed carriage and horses.

Terrified, the mock rabbi resumed his disguise. Approaching the village, he saw the innkeeper running toward them, waving his arms furiously. To the pretender’s surprise, the innkeeper embraced him with joy, exclaiming, “Thank you, rebbe. Only one hour after you left our village, my son arose from his bed well and strong.”

The two companions looked with astonishment at their phony “rabbi” companion. When they were alone, they questioned him. “What did you do at that boy’s death bed?” He replied, “I prayed, ‘Master of the universe, please; this father and son should not be punished just because they think I’m a rabbi. What am I? I am nothing! A pretender! If this child dies, his father will think a rabbi can do nothing. So, Master of the universe, not because of me, but because of this father and his faith, can it hurt that his son would be healed?’”

As you might know, Mark used the word “immediately” 43 times in his gospel, in contrast to the most occurrences of the word elsewhere in the gospels – five times in Matthew, twice in Luke, three times each in John. In fact the occurrences in Mark (43 times) are more than three times the sum of the rest of New Testament occurrences altogether – 43 times in Mark and 13 times elsewhere. The prompt action of the father in the unfavorable setting and surroundings is the best evidence and exhibition of his faith. Note how he had to exercise and extend his faith. First, “as soon as” or “immediately” (Mark 9:15) when the people saw Jesus they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to meet him. If that not was not enough, the evil spirit “immediately” threw the boy into a convulsion upon seeing Jesus (Mark 9:20), but to the father’s credit, he responded to Jesus “immediately” (Mark 9:24). The difference between the demon’s action was out of fear and the large crowd’s action for fun, but the father’s immediate action was in faith. The first was alarm before Jesus, the second was attracted to Jesus and the third was assurance in Jesus.

In the corresponding account in Luke, the father pleaded not just once, but twice (Luke 9:38, 40), the only person twice associated with the word “plead” in Jesus’ ministry. In Mark’s account here, the father cried for “help” not once, but twice, too (Mark 9:22, 9:24). This “help” plea occurs merely three times in the gospels, the other time uttered by the Canaanite woman Jesus credited with great faith (Matt 15:25). In fact, the word”help” ties and compares the man to the great faith of the Canaanite woman. How is the father’s faith similar to the Canannite woman’s great faith? There are at least five similarities besides the starting point of pleading for “help”: (1) both have children (v 17 – father, Matt 15:22 – Canaanite woman), (2) they acted “immediately”( v 24, Mark 7:25), (3) they asked for “mercy” (Matt 17:15, Matt 15:22).

NIV’s interpretation of verse 23’s “'If you can’?” – with a question mark - is very weak. NASB and RSV translates it as “If you can!” with an exclamation mark and KJV “If thou canst believe,” with a comma. The first translation as a question poses a challenge to Jesus, the second one portrays Jesus’ challenge to the father. The father humbly took the unbelief upon himself (Note: the words are not from Jesus), even though I am sure Jesus meant the disciples’ unbelief. The “unbelief” of verse 19 shares the same root word with “unbelieving” in verse 24, but Jesus was addressing the disciples because the two “you” in verse 19 is plural.

Jesus saw the potential and not the poverty of the father. How? Well, he never speaks to one without faith. Jesus always converse with all the biblical characters that had faith in Him (Matt 8:10, 9:2, 9:29, 15:28, Mark 10:52, Luke 7:9, 7:50).

Conclusion: Are you easily disappointed, discouraged and defeated? It’s been said, “Suffering is a comma, never a period.” An exclamation or a question mark. Is your faith distracted by the circumstances, the complications and the commotions around you? Is your faith awakened by Chrsit, assured and abiding in Christ?