Mark 9:14-29

11. HEALING THE EPILEPTIC BOY 9:14-29

TEXT 9:14-29

And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great multitude about them, and scribes questioning with them. And straight-way all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. And he asked them, What question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered him, Master, I brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; and wheresoever it taketh him, it dasheth him down: and he foameth, and grindeth his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast it out: and they were not able. And he answereth them and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straight-way the spirit tare him grievously; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long time is it since this hath come unto him? And he said, From a child. And oft-times it hath cast him both into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. And Jesus said unto him, if thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth. Straightway the father ofthe child cried out, and said, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. And when Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him and enter no more into him. And having cried out and torn him much, he came out: and the child became as one dead: insomuch that the more part said, He is dead, But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up; and he arose, And when he was come into the house his disciples asked him privately saying. We could not cast it out. And he said unto them This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 9:14-29

444.

Where had Jesus and the three apostles left the other apostles?

445.

What was it that caused the excitement and amazement when the people saw Jesus?

446.

For what purpose had the scribes followed the disciples? About what were they disputing? Show the futility of such a dispute.

447.

To whom is the question of Mark 9:16 addressed?

448.

What is meant by the words of the father who said his son: had a dumb Spirit?

449.

How do we know this boy was suffering from epilepsy? Cf. Matthew 17:15Are we to conclude that epilepsy is caused by demon possession? Explain.

450.

What is meant by the expression pineth away?

451.

Discuss the inability of the disciples as related to casting out this demon.

452.

Who was the faithless generation of Mark 9:19?

453.

Why the reaction of the evil spirit upon seeing Jesus?

454.

Did Jesus know all about the boy? Why ask the father the question of Mark 9:21?

455.

Did the father have some doubt as to whether Jesus could help him?

456.

Jesus picked up the words of the father and made a special appealwhat was it?

457.

How did the father interpret the words of Jesus? In what sense did he believe? In what sense didn-'t he believe?

458.

Jesus hastened to perform the miraclewhy?

459.

Note how Jesus addressed the demonwhat significance is there as to the powernature and work of demons?

460.

If the boy was dumb how could he cry out?

461.

What is meant by the phrase torn him?

462.

Was the boy dead when Jesus raised him?

463.

What rebuke and lesson for the disciples were in the words of Jesus in Mark 9:29?

COMMENT

TIMESummer A.D. 29.
PLACEAt the foot of the mount of transfigurationin the district of Caesarea Philippi.

PARALLEL ACCOUNTSMatthew 17:14-20; Luke 9:37-43.

OUTLINE1. The place and the people of the healing, Mark 9:14-15. Mark 9:2. The occasion of the healing, Mark 9:16-18. Mark 9:3. The healing, Mark 9:19-27. Mark 9:4. The question of the disciples, Mark 9:28-29.

ANALYSIS

I.

THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE OF THE HEALING, Mark 9:14-15.

1.

The nine disciples at the base of the mount questioning with the scribes; a great multitude gathered.

2.

Many were shocked to see Jesusran to him and greeted him.

II.

THE OCCASION OF THE HEALING, Mark 9:16-18.

1.

Jesus asked about the point of the discussion.

2.

The father with his possessed son said he had asked for help from the disciples but could not get it.

III.

THE HEALING, Mark 9:19-27.

1.

The grief of Jesus because of their unbelief, Mark 9:19.

2.

The son brought to Jesusthe demon convulsed him, Mark 9:20.

3.

The sympathy of Jesusthe desperation of the father, Mark 9:21-22.

4.

All things are possible to him who believesdo you believe?Yea Lord, I believehelp thou my unbelief. Mark 9:23-24.

5.

Because the multitude was about to make a scene Jesus delayed no longer in the healing, Mark 9:25.

6.

The final attempt of the demon to destroy the boy, Mark 9:26.

IV.

THE QUESTION OF THE DISCIPLES, Mark 9:28-29.

1.

In someone's house the disciples askedwhy couldn-'t we do it?

2.

Jesus said, you lacked the proper attitude to exercise healing power.

EXPLANATORY NOTES. 9:14-29.

I.

THE PLACE AND THE PEOPLE OF THE HEALING.

Mark 9:14-15. The time was the day after the Transfiguration (Luke), and the place was the foot of the mountain. Early in the day, probably, Jesus and the three came down, the three burdened and uplifted by their glorious secret; thinking, perhaps how Moses with shining face, and Joshua, came down Mount Sinai. It is to Peter, who was one of them, that we owe the mention of what he saw in coming down. (Instead of he, the revisers, on manuscript authority, read they.) It was an excited throng listening eagerly to the discussion of scribes (not the scribes) with the nine apostles and any other disciples who may have been present. How vivid is the picture of the effect of Jesus-' approach!the excitement, the amazement, the instantaneous turning away from the one object of interest to him.Greatly amazed, or awestruck; not, so far as we can judge, from any peculiarity in his appearance, as if some light of the glory were still shining in his face, as when Moses drew near to Israel at the foot of the mountain (Exodus 34:29-35), for, if that had been the case, we should certainly have heard of it; and such a shining, too, would have defeated the purpose of concealment. Rather was it because he was the person of whom they were talking, and they were at once delighted and impressed by a certain sense of solemnity by the appearing of him who had never failed in a work of miraculous healing.The eager interest with which they all turned from futile discussion and failure to the Mighty One appears in their running to meet him.

II.

THE OCCASION OF THE HEALING.

Mark 9:16-18. But he cared for his own and came down like a father to his children in trouble, asking the crowd, and especially the scribes, what they were discussing with his friends. He knew their weakness, and saw that they were perplexed and defeated. They were saluting him with welcome after his absencenot the nine only, but the multitudewhen he broke in with his question.

The answer came from the most interested, and the one who had the best right to tell the story. One of the multitude. Matthew says that he came kneeling, and Luke that he cried out with his request.I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spiriti.e. a spirit that makes its victim dumb; so in Matthew 9:32; Matthew 12:22. When Jesus addressed the spirit (Mark 9:25), he spoke to it as dumb and deaf, perhaps because of what he had observed in addition to what the father told him.The additional symptoms described in Mark 9:18 are those of violent convulsions, and plainly they are those of epilepsy, which in this case was complicated with insanity. Luke uses the word sparassein, to convulse, and Mark, at Mark 9:20, the stronger compound word susparassein. Matthew says that the child was lunatic, or epileptic; but he adds that the lunacy was the work of a demon. More particularly, when the demon seized the boy he tore or convulsed him, or, as some explain it, threw him to the ground; and then he foamed and gnashed his teeth, and the consequence was that he pined away or was steadily wasting. These are the symptoms of epilepsy, which was well known among the ancients, and was regarded by the Greeks and Romans as a sacred disease, brought on directly by supernatural power and of evil omen. The word lunatic, or moonstruck, is applied to the victim in this case, as often, probably because the attacks were associated with the recurrence of the full moon. The questions, both physiological and psychological, that are connected with the subject of demoniacal possession are full of difficulty; but nothing is more certain than that our Lord on many occasions, and most emphatically on this, recognized the presence of a personality distinct from that of the victim and commanded it away.

The man said, I have brought unto thee my son.i.e. to the place where he supposed that Jesus was, because his company was there; brought him, apparently, half in hope and half in despair; this was the last resort, and he came to it without much faith.But Jesus was not there; probably the man came in the cool of the morning, when Jesus and the three were about coming down from the mountain. And I spake to thy disciples, that they should cast him out; and they could not, In Luke, I entreated thy disciples. Their inability is often explained by the fact that Jesus was not with them, but they had cast out many demons in his absence when he sent them forth for such work (chap. Mark 6:13). Then, however, they were sent; and perhaps the lack of the consciousness of mission now embarrassed them. The three leading apostles, too, were absent, and perhaps the company at the foot of the mountain felt itself to be really the less, though actually the larger. No doubt, also, the severity of the case gave them pause. Their confidence was not strong enough to bear the sense of publicity and of being tested that came with the challenge; for the scribes at once followed up their failure; plying them with questions that must have made them most uncomfortable. The penalty of unbelieving fear is confusion. (See Jeremiah 1:17.) Nor was there much to help them in the faith of the father.

III.

THE HEALING.

Mark 9:19. He answereth him, and saith. The revisers-' text, more correctly, He answereth them and saith. Not to the afflicted father, but to the inefficient disciples.O faithless generation! Not now of little faith; in Matthew and Luke, Faithless and perverse generation. Here expressly, as in chap. Mark 8:18 implicitly, he ranks his own disciples with the generation to which they belong, since he finds in them the ordinary unbelief. They ought, he implies, to have been able to cast out the evil spirit. Perception of the sadness of the case probably repressed their faith; but it ought to have aroused their compassion, and their compassion ought to have increased their sense of the possibility of healing through the grace of Christ. Our Saviour is exacting in the expectation that his friends will be in possession of the spiritual gifts and graces that he offers them. His almost impatient question means, How long shall this generation, whose unbelief I am learning so thoroughly, vex me so? How long must I live among the faithless?But he ends with Bring him unto me. The Mighty One now takes hold where the weak have failed.

Mark 9:20. The sufferer was brought, but the sight of the great Healer maddened the malign spirit; so that the boy went into a violent convulsion and wallowed foaming on the ground. Was it the dumbness of the victim that prevented such confession as that of chap. Mark 1:34; Mark 3:11; Mark 5:7? There was no confession, and no vocal objection or entreaty on the part of the spirit.

Mark 9:21-22. The sad sight arrested even the Healer's mind in the midst of his act of mercy. Compassion was prompting the act, and one would think compassion would urge him on to finish it. But nowhere does the true human thoughtfulness of Jesus appear more plainly; he looked on pityingly while the boy suffered, and compassion even stopped him for a moment while he tenderly inquired how long the infliction had been upon him.The naturalness of this pause is inimitable; and not less so is the father's answer, We can hear in it the tones of anxiety and despair, and of eagerness for the utmost that can be done. Ofor froma child. Then, apparently, the boy had passed beyond early childhood, though in Mark 9:24 he is called by the diminutive name paidion, a young or little child.And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters to destroy him. But it has been baffled thus far. This demoniac had more watchful friends than the one at Gergesa (chap. Mark 5:3), who had no home but in the tombs. It was but too common in ancient times so to turn maniacs loose, and this boy was fortunate above many in having care and protection.For healing at the hand of Jesus the father had strong desire, but very little faith. If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us, counting himself in with the child as calling for the gift, but looking upon this as a kind of forlorn hope, concerning which he had as much despair as confidence. The disciples had failed; it was supposed that the Master had more power, but who could tell? If thou canst do any thing was much as he could say. Was not this one of the faithless generation? But there was more excuse for him than for the disciples, who had seen so much.

Mark 9:23. As by the revisers, the word believe should be omitted. It was doubtless added by copyists, though very early, to complete an imperfect construction and explain a sentence which without some help they could not understand, With the word omitted, Jesus took up the father's words, If thou canst do any thing for us, or rather, merely, If thou canst, indicates, moreover, that the quoted words form grammatically a part of his sentence. We have not an indignant exclamation, as if he had said in amazement, If thou canst! and we have not a question, as if he had asked, Do you say, If thou canst? rather did he mean, As for that if thou canst of thine, that ei dune, all things are possible (dunata) to him that believeth. The play upon the words (dune, dunata) cannot be reproduced in English, except very imperfectly, but it is something like, As for that if thou canst of thine, all things can be to him that believeth. By this he means, You have inquired about ability and whether any help is possible, but you have misplaced the question. The question of ability is in you, not in me. Faith is the secret of ability and of possibility. The power is sufficient on my part; is it on yours? I can give, but can you receive? Yet the thought is expressed, not so much reprovingly as cheeringly; for the conclusion is not a severe one, but rather the hopeful announcement of the boundless breadth of the possibilities of faith. This is another way of saying, Believest thou that I am able to do this? but with a gracious hint that the man will do well to believe. So does the great Object of faith love to encourage faith. He loves to be trusted.

Mark 9:24. The father's answer was a cry strong and eager, but the words with tears are of doubtful manuscript authority. Lord should quite certainly be omitted, and the insertion of thou, which in the Greek is unexpressed, misrepresents the rapidity of the man's utterance in the eagerness of his impassioned prayer. I believe, help my unbelief. The saying is commonly, perhaps, taken to mean, I believe, but I desire to believe more worthily; increase my faith. This makes help to mean remove or abolisha sense for which no good support can be found. If the man had meant to ask that his faith might be rendered equal to the occasion, one would not expect him to ask it in this ambiguous way; and especially is it certain that he would not use the same word, help, that he had just employed in quite another sense.This word is repeated from the former prayer, have compassion on us, and help us, and naturally means, as there, heal my son. So the thought is, I believe, and yet my faith is scarcely worthy of the name; I hardly dare to call it faith or to plead by it as a believing man. Yet do not wait for something better, but grant my prayer, even to this faith which is no faith. I do believe; but if my belief is no better than unbelief, still heal my son. Do not sternly judge my faith, but help me as I am. There is no contradiction here, and scarcely even paradox, but only deep sincerity in the beginnings of faith, joined with the eagerness of strong desire for a special gift. This is an early Just as I am, and a very rich and suggestive one. If the man had paused to study his own faith and to make it sufficient, and withheld his prayer till he could make it satisfactory, would he more have injured himself or grieved the Master? He was pleasing Jesus best when he ventured wholly on him, trusting all the defects of his faith to the mercy from which he was imploring help. Just as I am is the word most acceptable to him.

Mark 9:25-27. The excitement was rising, and it was time that the scene should be brought to an end, more especially as the father was now ready in heart to receive the gift for which he prayed. The form of exorcism employed in this case was the most elaborate and solemn of all that are recorded in the Gospels. Thou dumb and deaf spirit. So addressed with reference to its work upon the child, the effects of its agency.I charge thee. I is emphatic in the GreekI, thou knowest who, as the spirit knew at chap. Mark 1:24. The emphasis upon the pronoun is our Lord's solemn self-assertion in the spiritual realm.Come out of him. The customary command; but the addition, and enter no more into him, is found here alone, It is pleasant to think that this exceptional command sprang from our Lord's perception of the exceptional severity of the case, and the more than usual interest that he seems to have taken in it.The rage of a hostile will when compelled to yield vented itself in the final cry and convulsion; for here also the word is convulsed. rather than rent.How intensely vivid is the narrative in Mark 9:26-27the prostration of the child, the whisperings of the spectators, the kindness of the Healer! He took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. Luke, and he alone, notes the amazement of the beholders at the mighty power or majesty of God. The same word is used in 2 Peter 1:16 of the glory or majesty which the three disciples had seen in Jesus on the very night before this healing.This is one of the many cases in which we would be thankful to see what has been hidden, and know the subsequent relations of this father and child to Jesus. Did the child appreciate the Healer and grow up into a holy Christian manhood? Were all the demons exorcised in his soul? Did the father grow in faith, as one ought after such a beginning?

IV.

THE QUESTION OF THE DISCIPLES.

Mark 9:28-29. This final reference to the failure of the disciples is omitted by Luke and given more fully by Matthew who adds here a saying about the power of faith similar to that which followed the blighting of the fruitless tree (Mark 11:23). When he was come into the house, or home, to the temporary home that the company had in that region.Why could not we cast himrather, itout? The question had already been answered by the exclamation, O faithless generation! in Mark 9:19, but they were not quick to take reproof, and this inquiry was one of the many illustrations of their slowness, with which he had to be patient. Yet perhaps unbelief never fully understands its own failures, but supposes there must be some reason for them to be sought.This kind (of demons) can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting (some manuscripts omit and fasting)i.e. This is an extreme case, one that can be made to yield only to faith nourished by the earnest use of all the means of strength, Prayer is recognized as the first great spiritual agency; and if the reference to fasting is genuine, our Lord associates with prayer self-denial, regarded, evidently, as the fitting means of attaining a holy self-command. Fasting in itself, considered as an end, would certainly command his instantaneous and unutterable contempt, as did the many performances of a similar kind that came under his notice; and fasting in general received from him such comments as showed that he esteemed it not very highly. But prayer and self-control go harmoniously together as the means by which an efficient faith may best be sought. (W. N. Clarke).

FACT QUESTIONS 9:14-29

498.

What is the peculiar value of Mark's narrative of the healing of this demoniac?

499.

How is the genuineness of this record observed? Why is this important?

500.

How would any shining or glow on the face of Jesus have defeated the purpose of concealment?

501.

Why were the people so eager and happy about the appearance of Jesus?

502.

Who was best qualified to answer the question of Jesus as of Mark 9:16?

503.

Specifically describe the illness of the boy.

504.

In what sense was the boy moonstruck?

505.

Describe the characteristics of epilepsy.

506.

Our Lord on many occasions, and most emphatically recognized one fact about demon possessionwhat was it?

507.

In what sense had the father brought his boy to Jesus? Hadn-'t the disciples cast out demons before? (Mark 6:13) Why not here?

508.

Jesus classified His apostles with others in calling them a faithless generation. Why? Cf. Mark 8:18.

509.

Why didn-'t the evil spirit confess the deity of Jesus? Cf. Mark 1:34; Mark 3:11; Mark 5:7.

510.

What caused Jesus to pause in the midst of healing the boy to ask a question of the father?

511.

If the demon cast the boy into water how is it he did not drown?

512.

Show how there was more excuse for the faithlessness of the father than for the disciples.

513.

Explain just how Jesus used the words of the father: If thou canst.

514.

The answer of the father is commonly understood to mean: I believe, but I desire to believe more worthily; increase my faith.but this is not the true or whole meaningwhat is the meaning?

515.

Show how the expression Just as I am fits the father.

516.

What word was emphasized in the charge of Jesus to the evil spirit? Why?

517.

Why did Jesus use the wordsand enter no more into him.?

518.

Show how intensely vivid the narrative is in Mark 9:26-27.

519.

What was the reaction of the healingi.e. on the beholders?

520.

Why did the apostles ask about their inability? didn-'t they already know it was because of unbelief?

521.

What are the efficient means by which faith may best be exercised?