There was a very riveting incident that occurred when Jesus and his disciples came off the mountain from where they had just experienced a visitation from Moses and Elijah; it is with the boy who was possessed with an evil spirit.
“It happened on the next day,
when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met him.
Behold, a man from the crowd called out, saying, “Teacher, I beg you to look at
my son, for he is my only child. Behold, a spirit takes him, he suddenly cries
out, and it convulses him so that he foams, and it hardly departs from him,
bruising him severely. I begged your talmidim to cast it out, and they
couldn't.” Yeshua answered, “Faithless and perverse generation, how long shall
I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was still
coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him violently. But Yeshua
rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back to his
father.”
What
catches the interest of many people that are familiar with this narrative is
how the disciples of Jesus could not cast the demon out of this boy: “I begged
your talmidim to cast it out, and they couldn't” (9:40). There are others who
are confused at why Jesus spoke so abruptly to his disciples for not being able
to cast the demon out: “Faithless and
perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? (9:41).” At
certain times when I study this passage of Scripture I come up with this
question: ‘What would Jesus say to some in this generation who cannot even cast
out a virus from their own body let alone cast a demon out of a little boy who
is being overpowered by an unseen force from the underworld?’ — My question may
be answered in this article.
The
manifestations of the demon in this little boy are not unlike the
manifestations we have witnessed in certain people who are diagnosed with
epilepsy: “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by
an evil spirit that won't let him talk. And whenever this spirit seizes him, it
throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his
teeth and becomes rigid” (Mk. 9:17-18, NLT*). Anyone who has experienced
someone in an epileptic seizure has witnessed that person not able to speak as
their whole body begins to convulse violently, sometimes foam comes from their
mouth and sometimes not, their body becomes as straight as a board and they
grind and gnash their teeth so rigorously that if you do not get something in
between their teeth they can cut their tongue. The one suffering from this
seizure will usually fall to the floor because they have no control or balance over
their body. The experience of witnessing this situation can be quite disturbing
to someone who is not familiar with
someone who loses all control of their body like this, which maybe the possible
reason why the disciples of Jesus were unable to deal with the situation they
faced with this little boy (9:40).
Which
disciples exactly were the ones who could not cast the demon out of this mans’
boy? We can figure that it was not Peter, James or John, for they had just come
down off the mountain where they experienced the transfiguration of Jesus
(9:37), so it must have been at least two from the rest of the chosen group of
twelve. The reason I assume they were from the group of twelve is because the
seventy two other disciples that Jesus sent out were after this incident with
the little boy and his dad. The seventy two that he sent out seemed to have no
difficulty in casting out demons, unlike the small group from the chosen
twelve, for they came back from the places they were sent with the report: “Lord,
even the devils are subject unto us through thy name” (Luke 10:17, KJV). It had
to be at least two disciples from the chosen group of twelve because that was
the Lords’ practice to send his disciples out in pairs (Mk.6:7; Lk. 10:1; Acts
13:2; 15:27).
So
who was this pair who could not cast the demon out of this little boy? We do
not know because there is no record of who they were. It is easy to speculate
that one may have been Thomas; because he even had trouble believing that
Christ was raised from the dead until the Lord gave him physical proof. Thomas
may have had trouble believing the demons were subject to him like they were to
the group of seventy two and his twelve associates, even though he had been
given authority over sickness, disease and all demons (9:1-2). Maybe the other
likely candidate who was unbelieving and could not cure this mans’ boy was
Judas Iscariot, because at this point in time he was still walking with the
chosen twelve. I considered Judas Iscariot to be one of the two whom Jesus
spoke so abruptly to in this incident when I started to meditate on this
passage of Scripture; likely because of the history that is recorded of him.
Were Thomas and Judas Iscariot partnered up together? Were they both walking
with doubt in their hearts to the authority and power that Jesus had anointed
them with?
The
boys’ father in this narrative portrays a man who is deeply in love with his
son, his “only child” he says. Matthew records that he came to Jesus and
kneeled down before him which would be a gesture not only of respect to Jesus
but also a posture to garner the Lords’ complete attention. It is his son, his
only child, who is bound by the forces of the evil one; and he knew that this
man called Jesus could possibly deliver him from this dark power. The man was
hoping earlier that the Lords’ disciples could cure his boy but they had
failed: “I begged your talmidim to cast it out, and they couldn't” (9:40). I imagine
that this father was so frustrated at this point that he would do anything to
see his little one who captured his heart set free. Marks’ narrative gives us
more detail about this incident and records that this demon would throw the boy
into fire and water to kill him, in chapter nine, verse twenty two. In the same
verse we see that Mark writes that the man demands of Jesus: “But if you can do
anything, have compassion on us, and help us” (Mark 9:22b, HNV).
As
said, the Lord had anointed his disciples to cure those with disease and
sickness, and to drive out demons from people like this little boy (9:1-2), but
these disciples whomever they were could not do it. Jesus “gave them power and
authority over all devils” (9:1, KJV), and that included this deaf and dumb
spirit that had overpowered this boy’s body, but they could not deliver this
boy and set him free. This is why Jesus was stern with them: “Faithless and
perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you?” (9:41). Therefore,
why could they not do it, why could they not perform the mighty works of God
and cast the devil out of this boy? The answer is in the text: “Faithless and
perverse generation.”
Jesus
was upset at these disciples who failed to cast out the deaf and dumb spirit
being from this little boy and set him free. He was upset because they were
faithless (ἄπιστος) {apistos}, meaning they did not believe that they could
cast this wicked spirit out of the boy; possibly because the manifestations of
this spirit from the underworld was frightening to them. Remember the
manifestations of this spirit can be somewhat disturbing to the faint of heart
with the violent convulsions, the foaming at the mouth and the grinding of the
teeth together — if this was the case than they were functioning in a spirit of
fear instead of a spirit of faith. Did Jesus not give to them the power and
authority to do works of miracles, to cast out demons and heal the diseased,
did they not believe him? If they did believe him and act on his word they
would have driven this demon out and healed this boy, just like Jesus did after
he rebuked the evil spirit (9:42), and just like the disciples had done weeks
previous in the villages (9:6). I wonder if these two disciples in this
narrative were part of the same teams that went out healing people in verse six
— they may or may not have been.
After
Jesus cast the demon out of the boy and healed him, these disciples who could
not heal the boy went to the Lord and asked him why they could not cast it out,
where he answered them: “Because of your unbelief” (Matthew 17:20, KJV).
Whether the disciples were afraid of the situation they faced with the
manifestation of the deaf and dumb spirit that overpowered the boy, or there
was some other reason for their failure, the real answer to why they could not
cast this foul spirit out was because of their unbelief. If it were not so
Jesus would not have said it. He said they were perverse (διαστρέφω) {diastrephō},
meaning they were turning away from the direction he was leading them in. Their
faith was becoming corrupt; it was disintegrating to the point where they could
not even deliver this boy from this spirit. He goes onto explain that if they
have faith they only have to speak to a literal mountain, speaking of the
mountain he had just came off from with Peter, James and John, and the literal
mountain will have to do whatever they command it to (Matthew describes this
best). He said to these “faithless and perverse” disciples that if they have
faith: “Nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20, KJV). Just as
Jesus said to the boys’ father: “If you can believe, all things are possible to
him who believes” (Mark 9:24, HNV). The way I see it, nothing means absolutely
nothing is impossible, if we believe. If we don’t believe than maybe Jesus has
the same attitude with this generation as he had with the two disciples in his
generation, who could not cast the demon out of this little boy. What do you
think?
