by Susan Sundwall

When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

"What are you arguing with them about?" he asked.

A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 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."

"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."

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.
Jesus asked the boy’s father, "How long has he been like this?"

"From childhood," he answered. "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."

" ‘If you can’?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

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."
The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He’s dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn’t we drive it out?"

He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:14-29[margin], NIV).

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Read that Bible passage with a wide-open mind and then place yourself in the sandals of the poor man whose son is in torment. Think of the hope he must have had when he approached Jesus’ disciples. Perhaps he thought, surely I can find help for my son among the disciples of the Great Healer. It’s possible he was terrified of the demon that threw his son to the ground, foaming at the mouth.

The embarrassment and shame of a public display in front of friends and neighbors may have kept him and his son in a cave of despair and isolation. Fear and shame are powerful repressive forces.

So imagine this father’s disappointment and chagrin when the disciples were unable to drive out the offender. And further to have to bear the indignity of the teachers of the Law and the disciples arguing about it! Maybe it crossed his mind that this miraculous healing stuff wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

So along comes Jesus. The noisy chatter surrounding the boy piques His curiosity. He inserts Himself into the situation and stands to accuse everyone involved of being faithless. What was the problem after all? Simply tell the demon to leave.

Okay, this is where our own annoyance may start to creep in. Does Jesus have any clue about how hard it is to have faith sometimes? Especially when the learned men are standing by with criticism and the ever-present Law, ready to destroy every good work with a cutting remark or some overlooked tenet in the rules. But something else is at play.

The Other Demon 
     A close look at our Bible verses reveals there is another “demon” at work here—one that you and I may be all too familiar with. Its name is “doubt.” It is fed by fear and confusion. It wasn’t just the poor boy who had Jesus’ attention. He had walked smack into a bunch of grown men in the midst of a …ahem… hissing contest.

The deadly spirit within the boy felt disinclined to be removed from its comfortable home. Doubt, after all, was a kindred spirit and was obviously in control of the situation. These two demons would not be removed by anything ordinary.

As He claims the center of attention in this story, Jesus is exasperated. It is helpful to realize that He had just come from the mountaintop “transfiguration” (Mark 9:2-13), and then was suddenly plunged into the pig slop of a failed exorcism. The words He uses to address the crowd are harsh, even judgmental. But look closely because Jesus was about to give instructions for the atomic bomb of all prayer methods.

The Right Tool
     You can kill a fly with a good fly swatter. But flies, which we could say are what the disciples were used to dealing with, are not on the same level as an epic disease or a loathsome demon. I’ll propose that Jesus entered into the fray with more than even the biggest hammer in His carpenter’s bag for this demon. Discover the gripping prayer guidance that Jesus offers in these verses:
1. Lift up your head, as the crowd did, and look at Jesus. Keeping your eyes on the Master assures that doubt and confusion will be cowering in the corner.
2. Learn from His rebuke of unbelief. Notice that Jesus didn’t ridicule the belief the boy’s father already had, He simply helped the man expand his understanding of what belief could accomplish in prayer.
3. Fast (that is, take some time away from food). Self-denial allows us to focus on the purpose of our prayers.
4. Be patient. Sure, you might become weary as Jesus sometimes did, but He reached out to touch, teach, and heal anyway, and He gives us the strength to do the same.
5. Understand that the enemy will fight you. Prayer must be persistent. Persistence is the necessary long fuse on our bomb.
6. Be encouraged by the explosive power in the believing prayer.
7. Speak your belief out loud as the boy’s father did. Acknowledge the weakness in your own unbelief, as well.
8. Finally, let the answer to your prayer happen in the way God chooses for it to happen. Jesus took hold of the boy and lifted him up to wholeness. Let Jesus lift you up to whatever wholeness is the true answer to your prayer.

I don’t usually recommend messing around with the actual words of scripture, but on occasion a word substitution can be an eye opener. Peter tells us, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8, NIV). Substitute “doubt” for “devil” and you’ll see my point.

Let yourself believe in the extreme love of the Lord who reaches out to us in the most exasperating times and always wants to heal us. You will come to know that He will even hurtle through your doubts, unbelief, and annoyance to do so.