Like you, I’ve been watching the terrible scandal surrounding the abuse of children by priests in the Roman Catholic church. And the worst part of the scandal isn’t the abuse of children, as horrible as that is. The worst part has the cover up, that rather than stepping in and removing sexual predators from their position of influence, many cases were swept under the rug. Clearly the Roman Catholic church failed its people in this area.
But the Catholic church isn’t the only part of the Christian church to have failed. Church history, for all its high points of courage and compassion, has just as many low points of failure and scandal. For every Christian abolitionist who condemned slavery there were just as many professing Christians who justified the enslavement of people based on their race. For every church member in Germany who resisted Hitler during World War 2 there were other church members who gladly compromised. For all the orphanages, hospitals, and schools created by
Christians throughout the last 2,000 years of history there have been just as many people calling themselves Christians who shed innocent blood. Although the failures of the Church are often exaggerated by critics, clearly even the exaggerations are based on a kernel of truth.
On a more personal level, we can see examples of how Christian churches have failed people. Several years ago I read a troubling book called Exit Interviews. That book was about how many Christians in our culture had abandoned any affiliation with a local Christian church. As I read the stories in Exit Interviews, I saw the church’s imperfections, it’s failure to respond to people’s needs, it’s failure to minister effectively, it’s failure to show compassion or to speak truth when called for. In fact, as I was reading Exit Interviews I realized that one of the stories was about a someone I knew personally. Although the names and places were changed, I knew the person well enough to recognize his story. The person the story was about was one of my seminary teachers. I remember shaking my head, and thinking, "No one’s immune from becoming so disillusioned with the Christian community that they simply quit."
How ought we view failures in the church? How ought we view our own failures here at Life Bible Fellowship Church, as well as the failures of Christians down through the ages? Skeptics of course will point to our failures as evidence that our message is bogus. "A true message wouldn’t lead to so many failures," the reasoning goes. That’s probably why some members of the media in our culture just love to break stories about churches failing. Today we’re going to look at a situation where Jesus’ earliest followers failed.
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament book of Mark called Following Jesus in the Real World.
Since September we’ve been exploring Mark’s biography of Jesus to learn how to be more devoted in our life of following Jesus. Today we’re going to look at what happens when we fail in our life of following Jesus Christ.
1. The Church’s Failure To Deliver (Mark 9:14-18)
Last week we looked at Jesus Christ’s transfiguration, which occurred earlier in Mark chapter 9. In that event Jesus took three of his closest followers--Peter, James and John--up on a mountaintop. On that mountain these three guys saw Christ’s glory explode before their very eyes. They had an intense mountaintop experience, but like all mountaintop experiences, they had to come back down into the valley.
Let’s look in vv. 14-18 at what’s been happening in the valley with Jesus’ other followers while Peter, James and John were with Jesus on the mountaintop. They walk from a mountain of glory into a valley of chaos. A large crowd has surrounded the nine disciples who remained. Throughout Mark’s biography of Jesus the crowd has represents people who are still aren’t committed to Jesus, people who are undecided. The crowds are the seekers, the people who are intrigued enough about Jesus to check Jesus out, but who haven’t yet take the risk of faith.
The teachers of the law are also present. They were the theologians of Jesus’ day, the Bible experts. We’ve already seen Jesus get in a number of arguments with these theologians, and here they’re arguing with the nine disciples of Jesus. In fact, the word for "argue" in v. 14 indicates a heated disagreement.
But when Jesus appears, the crowd immediately abandons the disciples and rushes to Jesus with expectation. Jesus asks what the argument is about, and a man from within the crowd steps forward to explain what’s been going on in Jesus’ absence. It seems that this man has a son who’s been desperately held captive to evil for many, many years. The evil presence in this child looks like epilepsy, but Mark makes clear that this is no normal case of grand mal seizures. Beneath the guise of everyday epilepsy is a power of darkness that’s seized this child and is trying to destroy the child’s life. This desperate father has tried everything to help his son, and out of desperation he brought his son to Jesus.
Since Jesus wasn’t available, his nine disciples who stayed behind from the mountain tried to cast out this demon. Now you might remember that back in Mark 3:15 Mark told us that Jesus gave his twelve followers the ability to drive out demons. This same claim was reiterated in chapter six, that Jesus gave his closest followers authority over evil spirits (6:7). I can just hear them saying, "Jesus isn’t here right now, but we can do it."
So this man brought his terrorized son to Jesus’ disciples and they failed. As this father reports their failure, I can picture the nine disciples hanging their heads in humiliation. Perhaps they even blamed each other for the failure, if Thomas had just been more focused or if Andrew hadn’t stayed up so late hte night before. Maybe they tried to explain their failure away, that it was really the father of the boy’s fault, or that it wasn’t really demonic possession at all. But when all was said and done, this man came to them for help, and they didn’t deliver.
And I’m sure that’s why the theologians were arguing with Jesus’ disciples, because this failure was further proof in their minds that Jesus was a fraud.
Here we find something that’s still true today: AS FOLLOWERS OF JESUS, WE SOMETIMES FAIL TO DELIVER CHRIST’S MINISTRY EFFECTIVELY.
It’s hard for us to admit, but it’s true that sometimes we don’t deliver. People come to our church to find Jesus, and sometimes all they find is us.
A person brings a skeptical non-Christian friend to church, hoping that friend will discover Christ. But in my sermon that day I say something that totally alienates the friend, something that turns her off and closes her to anything else I said. Their friends walks out of church never to return again.
Or married couple ventures through the doors of a church to find community with others facing the same struggles they’re facing. They’re lonely and yearning to make a connection with people that will enrich their lives. But no one even says hello, when they try to get involved they’re ignored. The church fails them and they end up looking elsewhere for community.
Or a man fighting an addiction to speed comes through the church doors looking for a place of recovery, but ends up relapsing instead.
A married couple comes to strengthen their failing marriage, and things get worse.
And when these things happen, like the first followers of Jesus, we hang our heads wishing that we’d done better. Yes, let’s admit it: We do fail more often that we realize. People to come to us to discover Christ and for whatever reason we don’t deliver.
2. Our Failures, Christ’s Abilities (Mark 9:19-27)
Look at Jesus’ reaction in vv. 19-27. I don’t think Christ’s words in v. 19 are directed to his disciples, but they’re directed to the crowd. Jesus’ disciples had many shortcomings, but for all their weaknesses, they had come out from the crowd and taken the risk of faith. They might be slow to learn and dense about spiritual things, but they do trust in Jesus. But in the crowd, full of desperate people and skeptical theologians, all Jesus sees is unbelief.
Jesus asks that the boy be brought to him, and as the boy is led to the feet of Jesus, he goes into a violent convulsion. This is the last story of Jesus casting out a demon in Mark’s biography. If you’re curious how demonic activity is different from mental illness, I’d encourage you to order the tape "Occupied Territory" on Mark 5:1-20 or you can read it on our web site. I’m not going to talk more about that today because I addressed it a few months ago.
The desperate father asks if Jesus can do anything. Clearly these are the words of a man at the end of his rope and willing to try just about anything, no matter how farfetched it seems. By now he’s figuring his trip to the outskirts was a waste of time because Jesus’ disciples weren’t able to help. But his passionate love for his son leads him to stay; just perhaps Jesus might be able to do something.
Jesus senses that the man’s faith hasn’t yet flowered. He asks, "What do you mean ’if’? All things are possible to him who believes." Now Jesus is not saying here that it’s the quantity of our faith that determines the miracle we receive. There are lots of groups that teach this idea, that if you can muster up enough faith you can do anything. Maybe you’ve heard the saying, "If you believe it you can achieve it." That is not Jesus’ point here.
This father’s problem isn’t the amount of his faith, but the location of his faith. Jesus isn’t saying that faith can accomplish anything; he’s saying that people who have faith don’t set any limits on what God can and can’t do (Garland 355).
I find this father’s response in v. 24 to be one of the most profound statements in the Bible: "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief." Both faith and doubt were present in this man’s heart at the same moment, as it often is in our hearts as well. He has a tiny bit of faith, but it’s battling with unbelief. Bible scholar James Edwards this about the man’s response here:
"True faith is always aware of how small and inadequate it is. The father becomes a believer, not when he amasses a sufficient quantum of faith, but when he risks everything on what little faith he has, when he yields his insufficiency to the true sufficiency of Jesus" (Edwards 280).
Jesus commands the evil spirit to leave the boy. The spirit shrieks, causing the boy to convulse. Then the boy slumps on the ground looking like he’s died.
I wonder what went through this father’s mind in that brief moment? Here he’d risked everything on Jesus, trusting in him, and now his son lie on the ground appearing to be lifeless. Instead of getting better, it appeared as if they’d gotten worse and this spirit had finally succeeded in destroying his son’s life.
But as that moment passed, Jesus took the young boy’s hand and helped him to his feet. He stood up free, for the first time in many years, free.
Jesus’ disciples may have failed, but Jesus didn’t. WE SHOULDN’T CONFUSE OUR FAILURES WITH CHRIST’S ABILITY.
The Bible calls the Christian Church the body of Christ, but we dare not believe that we are Christ. You see, we represent Jesus, we witness to Jesus’ power, we tell people about Jesus’ love, but we’re not Jesus.
Now that might seem obvious, but sometimes we act as if it isn’t so obvious. I think this is especially true among men and women who God calls to become pastors and leaders in his church. Pastors continually complain that church members have unrealistic expectations of them and their families. Last year about 40% of pastors in America seriously considered leaving pastoral ministry, and the number one reason was unrealistic expectations from church members.
Maybe you heard the joke about the perfect pastor. The perfect pastor is 30 years old but has 40 years of experience. He condemns sin but never hurts anyone’s feelings. He works tirelessly at the church, but has a strong marriage and model children. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work.
Why do people sometimes put such unrealistic expectations on pastors? I believe it’s because they want their pastors to be Jesus to them. They can’t see Jesus; but they can see their pastors, so they want their pastors to represent Jesus to them in a way that goes way beyond what any human being could ever achieve. And unfortunately many pastors are just insecure enough to try to be people’s savior. Many pastors get a messiah complex where they believe that it all hangs on them, that the church’s failure or success is their responsibility.
We should have high standards for our pastors, but we can’t expect them to be Jesus. We must never confuse our failures with Christ’s abilities.
3. Only By Prayer (Mark 9:28-29)
Now the scene shifts to a private discussion between Jesus and his disciples in vv. 28-29. Here they finally muster up the courage to ask, "What went wrong?" After all, Jesus had given them authority to cast out demons, so why didn’t it work this time? Jesus’ response is that their failure was a failure of prayer.
Now v. 29 is one of those rare instances where there’s a big difference between different translations of the Bible. The translation I use--the New International Version--as well as most other translations like the New American Standard Bible translate v. 29 as, "This kind only comes out by prayer." But the King James Version and the New King James version translates it as "prayer and fasting."
The King James Version is an English translation of the Bible that comes from England in 1611 by a team of scholars. The New King James Version is an updating in language of that same 1611 translation.
How do we account for this difference? Let me try to explain it. Remember that the New Testament wasn’t written in English, but it was written almost 2,000 years ago in Greek. We don’t have the original book of Mark that Mark himself wrote back then. If that bothers you, you’d be interested to know that we don’t have any original writings written from the ancient world. We don’t have the original Republic written by Plato, the original Iliad written by Homer, and so forth. Time and weather has taken its toll on these ancient writings, rendering them to dust. So the way scholars reconstruct an ancient writings for us to read today is by comparing all the various copies with each other, and then using principles to reconstruct a facsimile of the original. Now with the New Testament writings this is a huge task because archeologists have discovered literally thousands of manuscript copies of the New Testament. Most of these manuscript copies are fragments of books. Others are some actual book length copies as well. Scholars sift through these later hand written copies to reconstruct the original document, which is why we can read writings from the ancient world, whether it be the Bible or the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Homer, or Cicero.
Now as you might imagine, the closer you get to the original writing of Mark, the fewer manuscript copies there are. This is simply a function of time, that the further you go into the past, the fewer manuscript artifacts there are. The closer you get to our present day, the more manuscript copies there are simply because they’re less old. This is also because people became more and more careful about preserving these manuscript copies in ways that would last through the centuries.
Now the King James Version of the Bible is based on what some people call "The majority text" of the Greek New Testament. The "majority text" is simply a reconstruction of the Greek text of the New Testament that goes with whatever’s in the majority of the manuscript copies say, no matter how early or late these various copies are. I’m simplifying the process a little, but that’s basically how it’s done. The King James Version of the Bible was based on this "majority text." That approach made sense in the 17th century when King James I of England commissioned the King James Version to be translated.
But as more and more copies of manuscripts were discovered in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, scholars began to rethink how to reconstruct the original Greek text. You see, modern scholars give more weight to earlier copies, even though there were fewer of them, because they are closer to the original. So even if a reading occurred in the majority of texts, if that reading didn’t occur in the earlier copies, scholars viewed majority reading as something a well meaning scribe had added later.
Now back to our text in Mark 8:29. The majority of Greek copies contain the phrase "prayer and fasting," but most of the earliest copies simply have "prayer". That’s why all modern English translations except the King James Version and New King James Version drop the word "fasting" from v. 29, because they think it was added later by a well meaning copyist.
Now if you’re like me, it’s hard to imagine these nine disciples confronting a demonic spirit and not thinking to pray. That seems odd to me, that Jesus is telling them that the reason why they failed is that they didn’t pray. I think that this suggests that they viewed their authority over demonic spirits as something that they automatically possessed. When Jesus gave them that authority, they figured it was theirs now, to use at their disposal. They thought it was like a button they could push out at will. They didn’t understand that their spiritual authority flowed from Jesus, that they didn’t possess it. Can you see the difference? They viewed the authority as their own possession, but Jesus intended them to view it as a gracious gift that flowed from Jesus to them. Instead of viewing it as if they owned it, they needed to view it as stewards, managers of what Jesus had entrusted to them.
So by directing them back to prayer as the key to using this authority, Jesus is directing them back to a relationship of dependence on him. Here we find our final principle. OUR FAILURES REMIND US OF OUR NEED FOR TOTAL DEPENDANCE ON JESUS.
You see, Jesus isn’t presenting prayer as a method for dealing with demons. He’s not saying that if they had just strung together the correct sequence of words, that it would’ve driven out the demon. Their problem is that they were relying on techniques, that they weren’t relying on Jesus. Prayer here simply stands here for a life of dependence on God. That’s what prayer is at its heart, an acknowledgement that we can’t handle things on our own, that we need God’s guidance and strength. To pray is to admit that we aren’t independent, that we don’t have all the answers. Which is probably why a lot of people prefer not to pray.
As a church, we don’t possess Christ’s ministry, but we’re stewards of his ministry. It’s not ours to dispense at will in any way we see fit, but it’s a ministry that continually flows through us when we’re dependent on God. That’s such an incredible reality to keep straight in our minds, that we don’t possess Christ’s ministry, he does.
As people come through our doors as a church, many come crying out for help. Some come deeply mired in hopelessness and despair, hoping to find something real to hang on to. Others come with relationships in a shambles, a marriage that’s hanging on by a thread or with a child that’s in rebellion. Others come because their pursuit of success has left them empty.
As these people come through our doors, they come hopeful that they’ll encounter Christ. They come hoping that this isn’t just a religious club, but that there’s something real and authentic here.
And sometimes they do encounter Christ, as hopelessness dissipates, replaced by a hope anchored in Christ, as relationships are healed, as people discover a sense of meaning and purpose that gives their lives significance. That kind of stuff happens a lot around here, and when it does happen, we rejoice.
But sometimes it doesn’t happen, and when it doesn’t
it’s a reminder to us that apart from Jesus we’re just as powerless as the first disciples. You see, we’re tempted to look for the right technique, the right strategy, the foolproof structure to always deliver on people’s hopes as they come through our doors. But Jesus won’t let us rely on anything other than himself. He wants us to continually know where our source of ministry comes from, that it’s not our elder board or our staff, it’s not the fact that we’re a purpose-driven church or that we have a vision statement, it’s not because of our facilities or our excellent volunteer leadership base.
It’s because of Jesus, plain and simple. God allows our failures to remind us of our need for total dependence on Jesus in all we do.
Conclusion
The church does fail sometimes. It’s happened historically, down through the ages. It happens in our community, as Christian congregations struggle to live consistently with the teachings of Jesus. And it happens in our own congregation as well, as we muddle along at times, seeking to follow Jesus but doing so imperfectly.
It should encourage us to know that the earliest followers of Jesus experienced failure as well. When the rubber of real life met the road of ministry, sometimes they couldn’t deliver as well. We shouldn’t confuse our failures in ministry with Christ’s abilities, and each failure should drive us back again to total dependence on Jesus.
