Luke 9:37-45--Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit

Luke 9:37-45
English Standard Version
​
Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit
37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. 40 And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42 While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 And all were astonished at the majesty of God.

Jesus Again Foretells His Death​
But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

As a reminder, this is the day after the Transfiguration, which only Peter, James, and John witnessed.  We have just had the most "mountaintop experience" and the first thing that confronts them when they come down off the mountain is that they encounter the crowds, and specifically the father of boy being tormented by an unclean spirit (a demon).  This is a story I heard about a lot as a kid because I had (and sometimes still have) epileptic seizures and people have tried to read into this story that all seizures are caused by the work of demons.  We'll see other places in the Bible where it will say that someone with epilepsy was brought for healing and it says that they were healed, but the text here wants us to know that there is a demon at work and that demon is intentionally trying to kill the boy.  These are no normal seizures.  I bring this to your attention because neither the father nor Jesus are confused about the source of these episodes, and Jesus is going to speak to the demon and cast the demon out.  It would be wrong of us to read this text to think that the father didn't know any better and didn't understand what epilepsy was, and just blamed the seizures that he couldn't explain on a demon.  If that were the case, would Jesus go along with that story and pretend to cast out a demon that wasn't really there?  I doubt it.

So then, we must be careful when trying to blame something like seizures on a demon when it may simply be a physiological issue, but we must also not deny that the demons of the spiritual realm may be given permission by God to touch someone's body, but the demons have no power to take the person's life without God's approval (see the beginning of the book of Job about this).  Is is possible that someone's infirmity may have a spiritual component to it, or it may not.  Either way, the answer is to trust Jesus for healing whether the issue is spiritual, physiological, or some intermixing of the two.

Let's also not be so quick to blame the person who is disabled as being weak in faith or doing something to invite the demons in.  Mark 9:14-29 gives us some indication that this has been happening to the boy for a long time, but has been getting worse and worse as the child has gotten older.  So, we cannot say that this boy was responsible for what was happening to him-the spirit may have very well been trying to torment the father (the mother isn't mentioned, but if she is still there, I'm sure she was tormented too).  He wants to fix this issue that his son is going through, and he even tried to bring his son to Jesus' disciples, probably during the time that they were sent out with special power, but they could not heal this boy.  In fact, the father is not sure that even Jesus can help the boy and there has been some argument and disagreement among the crowd and the disciples while Jesus has been up on the mountain about this incident and exactly why the disciples couldn't heal this child.

Jesus tells the father that anything is possible for those who believe (which is why I think this was a test of faith for the father).  The father responds with, "I do believe, help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24).  I bring this up, though not in today's passage, because both Matthew and Mark tell us that Jesus uses this as an opportunity to teach the people that even a little faith (put in the right object) can put great things into motion.  The disciples will ask why they couldn't cast out the demon, and Jesus will respond to them in Matthew 17:20 by saying, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”  So, there is something that is to be said here in this story about faith--both of the father bringing the child and of the disciples, and faith was lacking in both places and it was preventing the demon from listening, even though they may have been doing the same things and been saying the same words that Jesus had once said.  The demons do not respond to some magic incantation, but it is a miracle that happens to reveal to the person who was demonized, all who knew the demonized person, and all those who were watching the demonized person get healed that the gospel message they were preaching was authentic and had real power to save and convert people.  If it has power over these evil spirits, then it certainly has power to change a man's heart and nature.

With all that said, that's not the part of Jesus' response to the disciples and the father that Luke focuses in on.  All Luke records is Jesus' rebuke of calling both the disciples and the father a part of a "faithless and twisted generation" and Jesus asking rhetorically how much longer He would have to bear with them.  He knows the answer is not much longer but He wants them to understand that He's been teaching them for quite some time now and they have been pretty thickheaded and Jesus is a little exasperated, though we also know that some things are being hidden from them at this time.  With that said there must have been some expectation that they would see and understand this much because of Jesus' reaction.  We see a side of Jesus here that we don't often see where Jesus doesn't lash out at them in anger, but it's okay to have emotions like this and express them in a way that is still not sinful.  This was meant as a rebuke to everyone there that they were focused on the wrong thing--most likely the disciples were focused on something they could do and take credit for while Jesus was up on the mountain.  A sort of, "If He can do it, we can do it too" type attitude, and there are going to be some things that Jesus is going to have to do that they will boldly say that they would go through with Him, but they will abandon Him because it was not their purpose to die for the Jews or the Gentiles (we're going to get there next as that's the next thing on Jesus' mind after this event and I think that's the connection).

As mentioned before, Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit and casts it out.  We read in Matthew and Mark that Jesus says something to the disciples about "This kind can only be cast out by fasting and prayer," but Luke just wants to make it clear to us that the man brought his son to Jesus and Jesus healed the boy.  The boy was immediately and totally healed, and everyone that saw it was amazed and was giving glory to God--that should be the effect of all miracles.  The focus should be that God gets the credit and the glory.  Not only is His name magnified, but so is His message, which is what is going to come next.  Are the people really ready to hear what Jesus has to say to them?

Jesus does not lose the opportunity and turns to the disciples to tell them, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”  This was not a message for the crowds, but it was not something restricted to just Peter, James and John.  Remember that Peter, James and John had just heard Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus about how He was going away soon, and they may have had some question about this.  Jesus answers the questions that were probably rolling around in their heads that they were afraid to ask, but He gives the answer to all the disciples, yet not all of them had the same context to have understanding.  While Peter, James, and John probably should have understood better what Jesus was saying, Luke tells us that none of them did understand.  Can't you understand why Jesus might be a little exasperated? He wants to direct their attention towards the cross that He's been talking about ever since He started His earthly minister and called them to be disciples, and they still don't understand what He's talking about.  The text does tell us though that it's not really their fault for not understanding though because the understanding was not given to them and in fact was hidden from them because it was not yet the right time for them to understand this.  However, they were afraid to ask Him about it--I think that was their mistake.  They probably did not want to be rebuked again like Jesus had just done in front of the crowd.  The were embarrassed and all just decided to save face and keep their mouths shut.  Don't do that in your Christian walk.  Admit when you don't know something and go to the person that disciples you to ask them to help you find answers from the Bible.  If the answers aren't obvious from the Scripture, it's okay to ask God to help you understand by the work of the Holy Spirit, but we may have to understand that God doesn't have to answer all of our questions (see the book of Job about that) and we must trust that He's given us everything that we need to know even if that isn't everything we want to know.  It's okay to not have all the answers all the time, but do know that in situations like this, the answer may be to tell the father to wait for Jesus.  His timing will be perfect, and so is the healing that He brings.

---