Mark 9:14-29--Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit

Mark 9:14-29
English Standard Version
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Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18 And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20 And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

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As soon as Jesus came down off of the mountain, He had to settle a dispute between the apostles He had left at the foot of the mountain and the crowd.  The crowd ran to Him because they believed that He could do what His disciples couldn't do and could succeed where they had failed up to this point.  The crowd lets Jesus know that they brought a father brought his demonized son to them so they could cast the demon out, but, so far, they have not been able to cast the demon out.  Jesus had given them the authority to cast out demons and to heal in His name when He sent them out earlier, but both the crowd (especially the father) are exasperated that this is working for them like they anticipated.

The father tells the story about how the demon has plagued the child with convulsions since he was young and how the demon was constantly trying to kill the boy with the convulsions--trying to throw him into the fire to burn him or into the water to drown him.  The demon makes the boy convulse right in front of Jesus and Jesus recognizes that this is indeed the work of a demon and not epilepsy (Jesus healed people with epilepsy and that word is used, and Jesus would not command a demon to come out of the boy if there was no demon in the boy).

Jesus addresses the heart issue of the father, the disciples and the crowd.  They may have been asking for healing, but they did not truly believe the boy would be healed.  The father realizes that he has unbelief in his heart and tells Jesus that he does believe and that he wants Jesus to help his unbelief.  This is a genuine and honest prayer that many of us need to pray in many different circumstances that are beyond our power and understanding.

Jesus spoke and commanded the "mute and deaf spirit" to come out of the boy (apparently the demon also made the boy unable to hear and speak), and Jesus added the command that the unclean spirit was never to enter the boy again.  This is the first time that we've seen such a command in Scripture that not only frees them from bondage in the immediate future but also frees this boy from ever having to deal with this demon ever again.  That's certainly a different kind of power and authority that the people had not seen before--not even the religious leaders who exercised demons could command the demons in this way.

After the demon came out of the boy, the boy appeared to be dead--Mark has been good at telling us when someone was actually dead and Jesus resurrected them, so I assume he's saying the crowd was mistaken here and the boy was simply in a deep sleep after the convulsions that he had.  Jesus was able to take the boy by the hand and get him to rise up, and then he was taken back to his house.

The disciples then wondered why they could not cast the demon out of the boy.  Jesus tells them that this kind can only be cast out with the help of prayer and fasting.  He doesn't explain why that is, but Jesus knew that this demon was too strong for them, but no demon was too strong for Him as He made all the angels and demons, and they recognize Him as their Creator and future Judge.  When Jesus speaks, the demons listen and obey--even Satan obeyed Jesus when Jesus said, "Away from Me."