14 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.
17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
19 “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
Read Mark 9:14-29 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
When reading the different gospel accounts, I am always amazed at how certain gospels give details that other gospel writers leave out. In this well known event, Jesus succeeds at casting an evil spirit out when the disciples could not. The disciples had been able to cast out demons in the past, however, in this case, they were unsuccessful.
However, while three of the four gospels record this event, only Mark includes a key pivot point between Jesus talking to the father and healing the boy. Without this detail, it would seem as though Jesus performed this healing out of frustration, but with this detail, we see something interesting. In the first half of verse 25, Mark tells us what pushed Jesus to act, “When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit.”
Word travels fast and it seems that whenever Jesus was going to be near someone who needed to be healed or helped, there was a crowd present. Seeing a crowd racing towards the scene to witness this miracle, Jesus knew the time was short. Jesus performed miracles to help individuals and families first, and if He was able to do so apart from the crowds, He seemed to prefer it.
By this point in Jesus’ ministry, He had gained the reputation of miracle worker, but the downside of this is that the people were beginning to only see Jesus as a spectacular “man”, and not as a representative from God who was giving glory to God. In other places, Jesus pulls the individual He wants to heal away from the crowds because He knew the crowd’s intention would be to glorify Him over giving glory to God. Jesus came to give glory to the Father and He wasn’t looking for glory from humanity. Jesus knew that with this large crowd present, less glory would go to the Father because the hearts of these people were only interested on praising the man Jesus.
Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus cast out the evil spirit at the right time, because Luke 9:43 begins by telling us, “And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.” Jesus healed the boy at just the right moment to keep the glory pointed towards God – any later and the opportunity may have been missed.
This leads me to the key idea: If Jesus was more focused on giving glory to God the Father and not on receiving glory or praise for Himself, shouldn’t we, as His followers living centuries later, be focused on the same thing? When doing things for God, perhaps we should be more interested in how our actions give Him glory, regardless of the number of people present.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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