Help Mine Unbelief
Mark 9:17-26
And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to Thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto Me. And they brought him unto Him: and when He saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And He asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said unto him, If Thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him.
Jesus had just performed the miracle of His Transfiguration and came down from the mount with three of His disciples; Peter, John, and James and found His other nine disciples in an argument with the teachers of the Law. The people who were there to watch the exchange were overwhelmed with wonder from Jesus and greeted Him, and Jesus asked the teachers of the Law what the argument was about.
The answer came from a man who told Jesus he had brought his son to His disciples to cast out a spirit that had possessed his son. The father told Jesus the spirit had made his son mute and whenever it seizes the son, he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. He explained he brought his son to the disciples to cast out the spirit but they could not. After Jesus asked how long the son had been possessed, the father said since childhood. The father explained the spirit would often put his son into fires or water in attempts to kill the son.
Jesus rebuked the crowd, calling them an unbelieving generation. He asked how long would He stay with them and how long should He put up with them. This He directed at the entire nation of the Jews. They all, with a few exceptions, heard the Word of the Gospel, the very saving Words of Faith, with ears that did not hear. The number of disciples, not just the Twelve but all who listened, were small and the number of believers smaller still. Even His hand-picked Twelve, who on at least two different occasions were told they had the authority to drive out demons, could not perform this act.
Jesus asked for the boy to be brought to Him and when the spirit saw Jesus it threw the boy on the ground and into convulsions. The father said to Jesus “but if Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” Jesus replied “’If Thou canst’ believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” This caused the boy’s father to cry out with tears in his eyes “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!” Jesus saw another crowd of people running to the scene and Jesus commanded “Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.” With this the spirit shrieked and left the boy. A bit later the disciples asked Jesus why they could not dismiss the spirit as He had done. Jesus told His disciples “This kind of can come forth by nothing but prayer and fasting.”
This morning I don’t want to talk about the possession per say but rather what the father declared. The father of the boy said to Jesus “but if Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.” Jesus said “If I can help?” Jesus then said “believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” Which caused the father to give his heartfelt reply “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” He came to Jesus with the belief that the Savior could get rid of the spirit that possessed his son. Jesus was gone so he asked His disciples to help who fail to get rid of the spirit. Undaunted, when Jesus returned the rest of the Twelve, he was the one who told Jesus what the argument was about, the tone of his explanation indicated that he wanted Jesus to perform the miracle.
But then the father’s unbelief came to the surface and said “if Thou canst do anything”. He wasn’t asking for Jesus to decide to help, he doubted Jesus could help. Think about it, this man brought his son, described in the Bible as a boy, so not an adult, and yet when asked how long the son had been possessed the father replied “Since childhood”, so his son probably was in his early teens. The father would have fought to bring his son to Jesus. He either tied and placed his son on a horse or wagon or physically drug his boy to Jesus. This is not the action of a man who would have his doubts starting out, yet when face to face with the Lord the man did not fully believe.
And he wasn’t unique in the Bible. The first name that probably popped into everyone’s mind is “Doubting Thomas”. One of Jesus’ chosen Twelve, who had witnessed the miracles Jesus performed, said after he was told of Jesus’ resurrection “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.” There is also Abraham, still called Abram at the time, who twice told his wife Sarai to say she was his sister so he would not be killed by those who found Sarai desirable. This was after Abram was told he would be the father of a great nation but many years before his son Isaac was born. How can you be the father of a great nation when you’re dead? There are many others but those two will do for an example.
This could be why the disciples could not exorcise the spirit. They had done this before with Jesus’ consent but now they were operating on their own. The father came searching for Jesus but the disciples took it upon themselves to perform Jesus’ deed. “But what if it doesn’t work again? I’ll look foolish,” that first disciple might have thought. And each failure would create greater doubt in the next attempt. By the time they were done I don’t think the disciples had the ability to dismiss a child to a toy store. Jesus said in Mark 11:23 “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” But the disciples doubted, they had unbelief.
It is this way with all of God’s people. We have our doubts. We have doubts with our faith and we have doubts about God. We at times have doubts God cares for us, we can doubt He listens to our prayers, we can doubt He takes part in His creation anymore, and at times we might even doubt His existence. This doubt against God is part of everyone and has been ever since Adam and Eve first disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Because of this action sin has infected the thoughts and souls of everyone. And it is sin that attacks our belief in God. Our sinful nature is an enemy to God and it will assault our faith and cast unbelief in our minds. It is this reason that people will sometimes pray “God, if You love me please show me by [doing some action].”
“If You love me?” People, people, people, how much more proof do we need? It was because of our sinful natures that Jesus came to earth to be that final, perfect sacrifice of God. He came to us as one of us, God the creator became one of the created. He was born to a human woman, in a very unceremonious birth, attended by shepherd and stable animals. He was taught to be a carpenter by His step-father. During His three year ministry He was hassled by the priests and scribes, the very ones who were supposed to have pointed Him out to the masses. He spent His entire ministry helping those who were hurting and in need all the while not requesting anything for Himself. Jesus even said of Himself in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” The Lord came to us not in the form of God to be worshipped but in the form of a servant, to serve.
The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, served His creation by offering Himself as the final sacrifice for the sins of all people. All people have sinned; all people have gone against the God and His Word, doubted God’s way and followed their own. Romans 3:10 reads “There is no one righteous, not even one”. Our righteousness, our holiness, is gone from us and we can do nothing on our own to get it back. God knows this and planned for our salvation. The Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, came and offered Himself to be stand before the Father in our place. Jesus claimed the sins of all people, every sin that has ever and will ever be committed and stood in for us to suffer the punishment we rightly deserve; the punishment of death and hell. With His resurrection, Jesus’ sacrifice freed us from ourselves and all our doubts should be silenced.
“Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” Isn’t this a wonderful prayer? With this we ask God to help us overcome that sinful part of us that wants to doubt the Lord’s goodness and mercy. We ask for God’s help in overcoming the unbelief and fears we have about His existence. We ask God to keep us close to Him, keeping our belief in His strong, keeping our saving faith not bound to our sinful unbelieving side. There is an episode of Star Trek in which aliens transported Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov to a planet the aliens set up like the O. K. Corral. As time approached for the famous gunfight to occur, McCoy tried to make a knock out gas to put the other side to sleep, but the gas did not work. Spock surmised that the doubts of the crew kept the gas from working; to survive the shoot out, they all had to believe the bullets shot at them would not hurt them, but any doubts would kill them. The disciples’ doubts kept them from casting out the spirit, and our doubts will keep us from moving mountains. Unfortunately, our sinful nature will keep doubts constantly in us, and mountains will never move.
Jesus came to us to help remove the fear and doubts of our lives. God wants us to fully and completely believe in Him and His promises and His ways. Unfortunately because of the sin that taints our souls we will not and cannot ever reach that state. If we could achieve that faith we could move mountains and unclean spirits would obey our commands immediately and without questions. God has given to us this great and saving faith and we pray daily for God to help and strengthen this faith, but also in our prayers should be “help mine unbelief”. Amen.
