Mark 9:19

‘And he answers them, “Oh unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I put up with you. Bring him to me.” '

Jesus goes immediately to the root of the whole problem, unbelief, man's lack in his attitude towards God. The ‘unbelieving' here especially has in mind the disciples, and their failure to cast out the evil spirit, but only as a part of the larger whole, an unbelieving people. In His faith He stood out from them like a sore thumb. Unbelief was specifically connected with that generation because in the main it rejected Jesus present among them, but now even in the chosen few that unbelief was accentuated, because they too lacked full faith.

Yet the disciples had expected to succeed. They had had the faith to try, and were surprised that they had not succeeded. In what then lay their lack of faith? For they had certainly still failed. Perhaps previous success had made them overconfident. They had perhaps begun to have faith in their own powers rather than in the authority of Jesus, for it was because of ‘their little faith' (Matthew 17:20) that they failed. But Jesus does not say so. His point will rather be that this was an unusually difficult case and that the problem lay in the fact that they were not sufficiently in touch with the Father to be aware of what was involved and to react accordingly. They were still essentially beginners in the ‘discerning of spirits'.

As we shall see the story contains a contrast of faiths. The faith of the disciples that had possibly become stale and was failing through lack of sufficient prayer and communion with God. The faith of the father whose faith was weak but persisting. The faith of the crowds was limited to a mild hope and expectation. It was the faith of Jesus which was strong and unfailing because grounded in His union and continual fellowship with the Father.

‘How long shall I be with you?” A hint of deity. As the heavenly One He was among them for a time, but then He would return to heaven (John 3:13). He was conscious that His time on earth as a man was short, and He was finding living in an unbelieving world very difficult.

‘How long shall I put up with you?' Their unbelief wearied Him and hurt Him deeply, especially that of the disciples. It was so inexcusable. How could they not trust the Father? These few brief words reveal how much it continually cost Him to be in an unbelieving world. There is expressed here the confidence of One in Whom there was no weakness or lack of faith, and Who was finding it wearisome to bear the weakness and unbelief of others. It was not an easy path that He trod.

‘Bring him to me.' But Jesus had no doubt about His own success because He knew that His total faith was in the Father. So Hew commanded that the young man be brought to Him.