Faith in the Valley

On Monday, January 27th, two days before we ended up in the Emergency Room with Michael, I began reading my sermon text for what I thought I would be preaching the following Sunday. What I didn’t know at the time was that I would have three weeks to meditate on this particular text.

In Mark 9:14-29 Jesus and Peter, James and John have just returned from the mount of transfiguration to other nine disciples at the bottom of the mountain. While Jesus and “The Inner Circle” were quite literally experiencing a physical, emotional, and spiritual mountaintop experience, the remaining nine disciples were dealing with a difficult situation down in the valley.

They had been brought a demon possessed son (the Bible does not tell us exactly how old he was). And for reasons that the disciples could not wrap their minds around, they were unable to cast the demon out. The scribes just so happened to be on hand. And when Jesus arrived on the scene, the Bible tells us that the scribes were questioning the nine. This was no doubt a taunting type of questioning. The scribes had rejected Jesus and sought to undermine Him whenever they could. So when they witnessed His disciples fail in their attempt to cast the demon out, they pounced. Satan is called the accuser of the brethren, and here the Jewish religious leaders were acting as the mouthpiece of Satan, hurling taunting questions and insults and the hapless disciples.

When Jesus asked what was going on a man shouted out that He had brought his demon possessed son to the disciples, but they were unable to cast it out. And as the father described his son’s condition what stood out to me was this man’s helplessness. The demon had possessed the son since the time he was a small child. On several occasions, it had tried to kill him by throwing him in a fire or attempting to drown him in water. And as I read this man’s account of his son’s horrible situation, I identified with his helplessness.

While disease and demon possession are two very different things, disease is a result of the curse on man for his sin. And a demon is a former angel who has been cast out of heaven and condemned to eternity in hell. Michael’s battle is with a disease that I am utterly helpless to do much about. There in nothing I wouldn’t give to take his suffering for him, but I can only sit by and watch as he is given high doses of destructive drugs to kill a disease that would kill him otherwise.

In verse 22, the father says to Jesus, “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” This questioning request was almost insulting to Christ. At this point in His ministry, Jesus had already cast out hundreds of demons, and his works were known far and wide. The fact that this man came to him questioning if Jesus could really help his son prompted Jesus response, “If thou canst? Believe! All things are possible to him that believeth.” The man through tears cries out, “Lord I believe! Help thou mine unbelief!”

I cannot count how many times in recent days I have found myself having a similar conversation with my Savior: through my tears praying “Lord I believe! Help my unbelief, help my doubt, forgive my sins of worry and fear!”

The man’s faith was faltering, yet he still got his miracle. Jesus turned and cast the demon out of the man’s son. You see, even faltering faith is blessed by God if it is in the right object. At the close of Matthew’s account of this story, Jesus said this to his disciples: “If ye have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, ‘Remove hence to yonder place;’ and it shall remove. And nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

On two separate occasions in Scripture, Jesus talks about faith the size of a mustard seed doing the miraculous. On both occasions Jesus is asked for increased faith. And in response, he talks about the miraculous power of TINY faith. Tiny faith moves mountains! And I always used to think that the message to the disciples was that their faith was even less than that of a mustard seed. But I think that is missing the point. I believe that Jesus’ message to his disciples was: “You don’t need stronger faith. Because even tiny faith in me is powerful enough to do the miraculous. It is not the size of one’s faith that moves mountains, but an almighty God of the universe who does the miraculous in response to tiny faith.

The disciples failed to cast out the demon because their faith was in their own skills and previous experience in casting out demons. They never prayed or fasted. They never acknowledged their dependence on God. They acted on their own and fell flat on their faces. And yet the father’s weak, faltering faith in Jesus resulted in the demon being cast out of his Son. This was not because the father’s faith was strong; it wasn’t. It was because his faith was placed in Jesus Christ. Tiny faith moves mountains when that faith is placed in Jesus Christ. I have come to daily commit Michael to his loving Heavenly Father’s care. Even though my faith is not always strong, it is in the right object. I am trusting the Lord to heal my son understanding that he is and has always been God’s from the beginning.