17th Sunday after Pentecost (Prop 19 – B)
Mark 9:14-29
September 15, 2024
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The text I have chosen for this morning’s sermon is the Gospel from St. Mark.
For a period of about four months after I graduated from college, I was licensed to sell mutual funds and investments. Obtaining my license was easy, the job not so much. I learned quickly that it takes a special kind of person to be in sales, and I’m not that kind of special person. In four months, I made ninety dollars from my one client, a friend, who I’m pretty sure invested out of pity. I was terrible at cold calling, and when I did get an appointment, I experienced only rejection. I just couldn’t do it. Surprisingly though my failure didn’t bother me because I knew, from the beginning, that I wasn’t up to the job.
In the Gospel we witness some disciples who weren’t up the job of helping a desperate father. When Jesus arrives on the scene, He finds His disciples in a heated debate with some Jewish religious leaders and when He inquires a man answers, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” They had tried to help the poor father and his helpless son, but they couldn’t. Your heart has to go out to this poor dad! How awful it must have been to watch a demon cause his son to convulse and foam at the mouth You can hear the heartbreaking anguish in the man’s voice as he appeals to Jesus.
Without a doubt, the disciples would have been moved by the father’s appeal when he first came to them, and they tried to help. It wasn’t like the situation was unprecedented either. Not long before today’s events, the disciples were sent out on their own to preach repentance, while healing the sick and casting out demons. Without doubt, they had tried and tried again, but nothing had happened. How hard it must have been for the disciples to face the fact that they weren’t up to the job.
This is one of those places in Scripture where it’s made clear for us that no matter what trouble there is in this world, whether it’s a sickness of the body or mind, or destructive weather like tornadoes, hurricanes, and drought, or even global pandemics, you can be certain the devil and his crew are at the root of it. It was just two weeks ago that Paul reminded us that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly placesWe know there is a real spiritual world, and that Jesus is the Lord over it all.
The problem wasn’t that the disciples misdiagnosed the boy’s condition. Their problem was the same as the poor father’s when he stood before Jesus and said, “If you can do anything.” It’s a problem of faith. It’s understandable though, right? If the disciples can’t do anything, maybe their master can’t either. And while you and I may never actually say “If you can” to the Lord out loud, we certainly act like it when we allow the troubles and trials that we face in this world to weigh us down and rob us of our peace. We say “if you can” when we forget or don’t believe that we have a Lord and Savior in Jesus who can do anything.
All of us will, if we haven’t yet, face times when we aren’t up for the job, when we’re lacking the inner strength and fortitude to handle our problem. In these instances, the Lord’s purpose is to strengthen and deepen our faith in Him who is able – in Jesus. The Lord reveals this to the disciples when He answers their question about why they couldn’t cast the spirit out, and he says, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” To be clear here, Jesus is not telling the disciples that they need to add something else to all their own efforts to make the exorcism work. It’s actually the opposite, He’s telling them to let their efforts go and rely completely on the Lord and his strength. Prayer is approaching Him with empty hands, trusting Him to work on our behalf. We don’t accomplish anything by simply praying, like one might say abracadabra or shazam, rather God does great things through our prayers. Prayer is not so much an act on our part as much as it is a total letting go on our part. The Lord’s direction to the disciples to pray is a call for us to turn to the Lord beforehand so that we may approach things not in our own strength but only with His power. What the Lord showed them in all of this was that they while they are unable, He is able to do all things through them.
Yes, beloved, all of this is about faith, as Jesus himself says to the boy’s father: “All things are possible for one who believes.” Faith or believing, however, we must understand, does not find its power in itself. No, the power is always in faith’s object and faith’s object alone, in Jesus. The trust of my heart does not accomplish anything; it’s Jesus, in whom my heart trusts, who does it all. The Lord is not telling his disciples that if they commit their minds and hearts to something and then pray a whole lot about it, it will happen. No, He’s telling them to let it all go and leave it in His hands, in the truth that He is able, even when they are not.
The trouble with our sinful hearts isn’t that we don’t trust Jesus, we think that He’s not able, that we think He’s not up to the job. Again, we may not outright say it, but our lack of faith and trust reveal our thoughts. But as the Lord in mercy helps the father and delivers his poor boy before our eyes in the Gospel today, He’s at work to deepen and strengthen us in faith and in the truth that He’s more than able to deal with anything and everything we face in this sin-troubled world. God’s love, forgiveness, and help aren’t based on the weakness or strength of our faith but solely in the merits of Christ. He’s at work to strengthen and grow the weak faith that lives in each of our poor sinful hearts by drawing our eyes away from ourselves and what we are not able to do to Him who can and has done all things well.
An interesting detail in the Gospel is after the demon left the boy, the people thought he was dead. But Jesus lifted him up by the hand. The devil and his demons may leave us tormented, beaten up, and as good as dead, but the Son of God has come into this world to take us by the hand. In Baptism and the Lord’s Supper He lifts us up. Here in His house and with His gifts Jesus is directing your eyes and hearts to His cross, where He won an eternal victory over sin, death, and hell for you with His bitter sufferings and death. No one else was able, capable, or up to the job of saving you, only Him, and still today He is more than able to take care of all things for you because He’s the only one up for the job.
Amen
Now the peace which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen