Mark's Gospel

Mark 9v9-32 - Power depends upon Prayer

August 2003. Not a very remarkable month – unless you lived in continental USA. Do you remember hearing about the astonishing power failure cascade across several states in Northern US and Southern Canada? From Toronto to New York, from Ottawa to Cleveland, nearly 50 million people were affected. Nine nuclear reactors had to be shut down because of the power outage.

The catastrophe was not due to a failure in the power generation systems, it was a problem in the power transmission systems. Former US energy secretary Bill Richardson said “we’re a superpower with a third world grid” and the reason for that was that the responsible companies were not investing in their transmission infrastructure.

Now I’m not talking about this because I want to discuss US energy policy! But the idea of a power failure because individuals had not been taking the necessary preparatory actions seemed rather appropriate when looking at this passage in Mark 9!

I want to concentrate on the portion of today’s passage which runs from v14 to v29, which the NIV titles “the healing of a boy with an evil spirit” – although it is neither the boy nor the spirit which are of key significance in this passage. I’d like us to focus on two key players. First the disciples who were waiting at the bottom of the mountain, and secondly on the desperate father

The disciples are surrounded by a large crowd - including onlookers and scribes of the law – that group of Jewish authorities who were always looking for an opportunity to put Jesus down or oppose him. Here they had a wonderful opportunity in these hapless 9 disciples who were unable to exhibit the power that Jesus’ followers were alleged to have. Typical of the most rabid of opponents of Jesus they seem unconcerned about the poor child whose health was being sought, only with the opportunity for argument. They seemed to be on winning ground though. After all…

The disciples seem to be powerless. (v 18 the father says ‘I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not’). We know from Mark 6v13 that the disciples have been able to drive out evil spirits before, why were they powerless this time?

I can’t help thinking of the words of Ps 127 which says “Unless the LORD builds a house, they labour in vain who work on it”. The disciples are powerless when they are apart from Jesus.

It seems to me that the same argument of the teachers of the law could be levelled against many churches today – possibly levelled at many of us today. “Your master Jesus could allegedly do all kinds of marvellous things! Why can’t you? Christians are supposed to be able to cope – why can’t you? Christians are supposed to behave like this, do things like that! What is one of the most persistent complaints that people raise against Christianity? I always used to hear this one: “the church is full of hypocrites” i.e. people that don’t live up to the beliefs that they proclaim.

Is that true in your experience? As a church we rejoice, and rightly so, at the way that God has opened doors for us and blessed us in many, many ways – yet there are still some areas in which we wonder “where is the power of God?”

• Where is the power of God to enable us to live up to the Christian principles that we believe in?
• Where is the power of God to spread the gospel and see lives changed?
• Where is the power of God exhibited in those spiritual gifts that we read of in the New Testament which we don’t see in evidence?

In v28 the disciples asked Jesus privately “why couldn’t we drive it out?” i.e. “why were we powerless, why couldn’t we do it?”. Jesus replies “this kind can come out only by prayer”. I don’t think that Jesus was talking about a specific prayer (such as the handwritten prayer of exorcism which you can find in the historical archives of the Royal College website, believe it or not!) but more the general necessity of prayer. This gospel has already told us many times about Jesus’ prayer life – often getting up before dawn to go off and pray.

Prayer is needed to overcome powerlessness

The disciples were powerless when they were apart from Jesus. How very true that is for us today too. You may have seen the sign outside some churches “Seven days without prayer makes one weak”. Funny and so, so true.

It is through prayer, more than any other activity, that we come into Jesus’ presence. That we spend time with Jesus. Acts 4:13 says of the Jewish leaders “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

It is as we spend time with Jesus that we will start to see his power exhibited in our personal and corporate church life more and more.

But Gods power depends not just upon Prayer – it also depends upon faith. Let’s look at the father of the boy in this story.

Put yourself in his shoes. He has a beloved son, yet for years (since his childhood) he has been rendered mute and subject to terrifying fits which have nearly led to his death time and time again. Nowadays families raise tens of thousands of pounds to send their sick children for experimental therapy in US clinics. Two thousand years ago his hope was centred on something considerably less substantial.

He had heard that Jesus could help. So he brought his son to see Jesus and his disciples – but he only found the disciples who said all the right things and did all the right things… but nothing happened. His son was not healed. His hope faded that little bit more.

But a kernel of faith remains, and when he encounters Jesus himself he cries out for mercy – doubting that there can be any help (he says ‘if you can’) but hanging on to that one last hope. And Jesus responds with those amazing words “Everything is possible for him who believes”.

Immediately the boys father exclaims “I do believe, help me to overcome my unbelief!” What wonderful words! And without fuss or bother Jesus commands the spirit to leave the boy, lifts him up and gives him back to his father. Jesus doesn’t say “you haven’t got enough faith”, nor does he say “Ok, I’ll help you to have more faith and then I’ll heal the boy”.

The tiny mustard seed of faith that the man had – holding on by his fingertips as it were – is enough for Jesus to work with.

I wonder how many there are today who sought the help that Jesus can give, yet when they tried Jesus’ people, his disciples, the church… they ended up disappointed. Their problems unresolved. Yet despite failures of the church and Gods people, Jesus has never yet failed anyone who has come to put their trust in him – even if their belief is ever so small and fragile.

In Ron Dunn’s book “don’t just stand there, have faith” he mentions how often Christians face a mountainous problem, whip out their faith, measure it and think ‘gosh, my faith isn’t up to that task’ and turn back… missing the point that it isn’t faith that enables us to overcome challenges – it is the person that we put our faith in.

If we are wondering where the power of God is in our life and in our church life, we have to look at the transmission systems. The source of the power of God is unchanging and eternally reliable. But are we prepared as individuals to make the investment in time which is needed to build our relationship with Jesus?

The US energy grid failed because those people with the power to decide hadn’t made sufficient investment.
We will only see the power of God at work in our church and in our own lives if we decide, we choose to invest more of our time in prayer, invest more of our time in getting to know Jesus.

Seven days without prayer makes one weak. And you are the only person that can do something about that. Will you?

 

Alex White