The Healing of a Boy With an Evil Spirit
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 “O 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 him 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 evil 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.”
30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
My Understanding: Most of us have not had to deal with being demon possessed to where a demonic spirit threw us into convulsions and we had no control over our own bodies, and subsequently we were in great need of a miracle of deliverance. So, we may not identify with this boy or with his deliverance. Yet, the Bible tells us that we are born into sin and if we are not serving the One true God, we are serving Satan, sin is our master, and we are its slaves. A slave is one who is dominated, controlled and ruled by another. And, a master is one who controls or influences, has authority over and has ownership of his slaves. So, as sinners outside of God’s saving grace, we are just as much in need of God’s healing touch of deliverance from the control of Satan over our lives as this boy who was demon possessed.
The father of the boy brought him to Jesus. He said to Jesus, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus responded by saying, “If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes.” And, that is true of what it takes for us to be delivered from bondage (as a slave) to sin and from the control sin (our master) has over our lives, in the flesh nature. Not one of us is too bad to be saved or is beyond hope of salvation. We are all sinners. There is not one of us who is righteous in our own merit. And, we are all in need of God’s amazing grace in delivering us from slavery to sin and in setting us free to live for God.
Jesus had the authority to command this spirit to come out of the boy, because he was/is God and because he was speaking under the authority of Almighty God, who alone has the power to deliver from the evil one. Jesus also had the authority to take away our sins because he was/is God, because he became a man and suffered as we suffer and was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin, and because he was our perfect Lamb who died on the cross, taking upon himself all our sins, crucifying and burying them with him, and then because he rose from the dead, triumphing over our sins so we could go free.
When the evil spirit came out of the boy, the boy looked like he was dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and the boy stood up. When we come to Jesus Christ and by his grace he sets us free from our sin, we die to our old way of life and we leave our sins behind. Then Jesus raises us to a new life in Christ where we are no longer controlled and ruled by sin, but where the Spirit of God now lives within us and has rule and dominion over our lives; to where we now obey God instead of obeying sin (see Romans 6).
The unbelieving generation Jesus was referring to in this passage of scripture were those in the crowd, but in particular his disciples. He was chiding them for their lack of faith in God’s power to deliver from the evil one and for their spiritual slowness. Yet, “unbelieving generation” is a phrase that can be applied to our day and time and to those who lack faith in God to believe that he can deliver from bondage to sin and to believe that he can truly set someone free, transforming that person into a completely new individual. When we believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and we truly believe that he has set us free from sin, then it should be evidenced by how we live our lives.
If we continue to live in sin and to be controlled by sin after we have made a confession of Christ as Savior, then the question begs to be asked, “Did we really believe?” The disciples could not cast out that demon because they lacked the faith to believe the demon could come out of the boy. When we say we believe and yet we continue to be controlled by sin, we also are lacking in faith to believe that Jesus Christ can truly set us free from the control that sin has over our lives. Thus, we need to repent of our sin, we need to turn away from it, and we need to turn toward our Lord Jesus and to walk in faith and obedience to Almighty God. This is what it means to truly believe in Jesus Christ with the kind of faith that delivers from sin. If we do not have that kind of faith, then we are among the unbelieving generation Jesus is speaking about who need to understand what it means to believe, and to know and understand that God has the power to transform lives.
The father of the boy said, “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” I like that. I have, at times, prayed that prayer to God. It is an honest prayer. And, it speaks volumes about this man’s faith to believe in what God could do to deliver his son from this evil spirit. He recognized that he had limited faith. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing the message of the gospel, and the message is heard through the word of Christ (see Romans 10:17). This man probably had limited knowledge and understanding of Jesus and maybe had only heard about him by word of mouth, so limited knowledge of the word of Christ possibly contributed to his diminished faith, yet he acted upon the faith he had and he asked the Lord Jesus to increase his faith, so that was true faith in action.
I think we often get this idea of faith as something where we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that we are sinners in need of a Savior, and that he died for our sins and thus has the power to free us from the ultimate penalty of sin, which is eternal separation from God and eternal torment in hell. Yet, faith means putting everything on the line for God. We may not come to Christ with enormous knowledge, but if we come to him with child-like faith that says, “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief,” that is genuine believing faith, because it completely puts our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to change our hearts, minds, way of thinking, behavior, actions, etc. It invites Jesus Christ to move us in a new direction with our lives and expresses a desire to no longer walk in the unbelief we had previously been living under. That is what it means to repent and that is what it means to have believing faith; obedient faith that submits to our Lord and that surrenders our wills to him, and that puts a new song in our hearts.
There’s a New Song in My Heart / John W. Peterson
There’s a new song in my heart
Since the Savior set me free;
There’s a new song in my heart,
‘tis a heavenly harmony!
All my sins are washed away
by the blood of Calvary;
O what peace and joy nothing can destroy:
There’s a new song in my heart!
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