Don’t give up
Luke 9:37 – 43a
Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H Koplitz
Luke 9:37 On the next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large
crowd met Him. 38 And a man from the crowd shouted, saying, “Teacher, I beg
You to look at my son, because he is my only son, 39 and a spirit seizes him and he
suddenly screams, and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth;
and only with difficulty does it leave him, mauling him as it leaves. 40 “And I begged
Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not.” 41 And Jesus answered and said,
“You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and put up
with you? Bring your son here.” 42 Now while he was still approaching, the demon
slammed him to the ground and threw him into a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the
unclean spirit, and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. 43 And they were
all amazed at the greatness of God
In Luke’s gospel chapter 9 starting on the 37th verse, we have an abbreviated story that
we can find in Matthew and Mark’s gospel. In Mark’s gospel, we have the full narrative
of what was going on. For some reason, Luke decided to abbreviate, and in certain
ways, made it more difficult to understand. But we’re going to look at it and see what’s
most important that Jesus is trying to tell us.
The story is about a father who brings his only son before Jesus, who is suffering from
epilepsy. We know that it is epilepsy because we get a description of what was
happening to the boy. And before I say a lot more about this narrative, I have to tell
you that people did not understand some of the medical conditions that occurred. In
this case, epilepsy was known, however in Jesus’ day the cause of epilepsy was attributed
to demons possessing the person. Therefore, the crowd that surrounded Jesus to see
the healing believed that the boy had been possessed by demons.
There were people known as healers in those days that certain roots mixed would calm
down the effects of epilepsy. Perhaps Jesus also used these roots to help this boy.
However, from the crowd’s point of view, it didn’t matter how Jesus cured the boy.
What mattered was he cured the boy, thus ridding him of the demons. So, we have a
narrative that tells us that Jesus’ disciples could not cure the boy, but that Jesus could.
The disciples did not have a lot of experience in healing people. Jesus sent them out on
a mission before this narrative, and they did what they could. However, they were only
partially trained. Therefore, when we find out in Luke’s gospel that at this point, they
were unable to heal the boy. Many times, interpreters would say they didn’t have enough
faith yet. I would say instead that they weren’t fully trained. They needed more
education.
Let me ask you this. Would you go to a doctor who wasn’t quite a doctor yet because
they hadn’t finished medical school and expect to be fully healed? Of course not. You
would want to go to a doctor who graduated from medical school and did his or her
residencies and their internships and knew their stuff. The disciples were men who did
not yet graduate from the school of Jesus. Therefore, they couldn’t cure the boy because
they weren’t fully trained yet as to how to handle that situation.
If you look at it that way, we see a different approach to the narrative. One of the things
that caught my attention when reading this narrative is that even though the disciples
failed to cure the boy, they did not give up. Instead, they were eager to learn why they
didn’t do it. Have there been any opportunities in your life where you couldn’t do some
tasks, and you gave up instead of trying again.
I bet if you think back, and I’m going to go way back to when we were little kids, that
there was a point where you did not know how to tie your shoes. Even though your
parents or your brother or sister showed you how to do it, you couldn’t do it. Did you
give up, or did you keep working until you figured out how to tie that shoe?
Now, maybe that’s part of the problem with kids growing up today. Now you’re
probably thinking, Mike, what do you mean by that? I do remember that when my
grandchildren were young, instead of giving them shoes to tie, they were able to buy
shoes that had Velcro, so they didn’t have to tie them. They only learned to tie their
shoes when they outgrew Velcro ones. So eventually, they did learn how to tie their
shoes, but for a period of time they gave up trying to learn it.
Jesus was only on the earth teaching these men for three years. There was no time for
them to say I’ll wait for a few years and try again. Instead, they came together,
understood their failure, and they went out and got more training from Jesus and then
went out and helped people. So, after Jesus’ death the disciples were able to do the
things that Jesus taught them to do and one of them, of course, was healing people.
When you fail at something, no matter what it is, do you quit or do you get determined
to become good at whatever that is. It is sometimes too easy to say I just can’t do it. It
was easy for me when I first got married to say to my lovely bride, I really don’t know
how to do the laundry properly because I was never taught to do it. During college, I
would just put all the dirty clothes together and throw them in the machine and pushed
the start button. What I learned is it can be a lot more complex. So, for years I didn’t
do laundry because I didn’t know how to do it, and I didn’t bother learning on how to
do it. Then I got a bit older and a lot smarter and learned how the laundry should be
done, and now I take care of myself.
Each of us can learn how to do things. Now let me refer to Jesus for a moment. Have
you ever gone out and talked to a friend or family member about a discipleship to
Christ? If you have, and you are successful the first time, fantastic, however most of us
are not successful the first time. Do you then give up? If the answer is yes, then you
need to take the lesson here of the disciples who went out to help people and found
out they couldn’t do it until they had more training. Perhaps, all you need is more
training on how to tell people about our faith in Jesus Christ.
Talk to people who have done evangelizing and find out how they do it. Learn how to
go out and express your faith in God through Christ to others. As you learn, you will
find that you will have more successes. Don’t ever give up on trying to help people to
find God. Remember, you’re working for Christ and that is a very honorable thing to
do.
