Friday, September 18, 2015

“Jesus- I Believe, Help My Unbelief” Mark 9.14–29, Sept, ‘15 Series B




1.                              Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  In our Gospel lesson today taken from Mark 9:14-29 we see that Jesus descends from the Mount of Transfiguration and meets a defiant demon, an anxious father, an astonished crowd, and despairing disciples. Even today, despair threatens to overwhelm our faith by pointing out how we fail to change or improve in our Christian lives. But, we see in the Gospel lesson today that Jesus doesn’t linger in the glory of the transfiguration, but descends to a world of despair and doubt so that He may deliver us.  Today we ask Jesus to give us faith to overcome our doubts, and help us believe that all things are possible with Him.  The message is entitled, “Jesus:  I Believe, Help My Unbelief.”  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.                              Mark 9:14–29 says,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.”
3.                              The most important thing in the entire world is to learn to say, “I believe.”  Without faith in the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent, there’s no salvation.  By the grace of God, a child can say it.  By the grace of God, given through Holy Baptism my daughter Eleanor has saving faith.  Without the Holy Spirit, the wisest man on earth doesn’t even know what it means to believe.  The disciples had made a fine confession of their faith earlier in Mark’s Gospel.  Now we see that their faith fails them in a crucial moment.  What could we expect from this troubled father in our text?  May the Lord teach us all to believe, to help us in the midst of our unbelief!
4.                              Here in Mark 9 Jesus, with Peter, James, and John, had been on the Mount of Transfiguration.  This amazing experience had lifted the disciples far above the distasteful things of this world.  They had a foretaste of heaven.  To a lesser degree, we too have moments when we feel the nearness of God, when in God’s Word and Sacraments Jesus reveals to us His love.  But, the return to the realities of life in this world are unavoidable.
5.                              As the little group came down from the mountain, they saw that the other disciples were in the midst of an agitated crowd.  In the front were the scribes, who were questioning the disciples and taking advantage of their inability to heal a demon possessed boy.  In the absence of Jesus, the disciples had tried to drive out the demon that was harassing the child.  Before the scribes could answer Jesus about why they were arguing with the disciples, the father of the boy poured out his story.  His son had from early childhood been troubled by a demon who would cast him to the ground, trying to destroy him by throwing him into fire and water.  The father hoped Jesus would do what the disciples couldn’t.  Heal this child.
6.                              Faith that takes God at His Word and lays hold of His almighty power can never fail.  It can truly move mountains.  Deeply moved the father cries out, “I believe; help my unbelief!”  This man detests the weakness of his faith, but he goes straight the Jesus, the only One who can make up for his lack of faith.  When we go to Jesus where He promises to be found in His Word and Sacraments, we find that our own weak faith is strengthened in our hour of need.  Here in Mark 9 we see how soon the time of need and sorrow was over for the troubled soul of that father!  Before the crowd could grow larger, Jesus rebuked the demon, commanding it to leave the child forever.  As always, the voice of Jesus, the Son of God, demands obedience.  Although the demon cried out in anger and gave the boy a blow so vicious that he appeared to be dead, Jesus took him by the hand and restored him to life and health.      
7.                              In this passage from Mark 9 we learn of what to do with our doubt, despair, and unbelief.  We take them to our Lord Jesus who alone can give us saving faith to believe in Him, which He’s done through the hearing of His Holy Word and the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.  There was a pastor who once encountered a young man who was a devout Christian, but he suffered from cerebral palsy.  He told the pastor that some of his friends had come to him and said, “We’re going to heal you of your cerebral palsy.”  So, they had laid hands on him and pronounced him whole, but Harvey still had cerebral palsy.  Then they told him, “The problem is that you don’t have enough faith, and if you don’t have enough faith, you will never be healed.  If you really want to be healed, you have to claim your healing in Jesus’ name.  You have to believe that you are healed before you can be healed.”  When he remained unhealed, they eventually had concluded that he must be guilty of a heinous sin that was blocking the healing.  Finally, they had declared he must be under demonic possession, so they had planned an exorcism and tried to drive the demon out of him, but still he wasn’t healed.  Finally he came to the pastor in tears and said, “Pastor do you think that I’m possessed by a demon?”  The pastor told him that he didn’t think so, then he prayed that Harvey would have peace and that he would trust the Lord with His body and his life, because sometimes God says “no” even to the most passionate prayers.
8.                              This kind of thing goes on ever day in America and around the world.  Blind people are told to believe they can see and they try their best to do so, but they open their eyes and can’t see a thing.  The lame are told to believe they can walk, but they can’t get out of their wheelchairs and walk.  So, some people say the problem is with them, they have a poor faith.  But, no one asks the obvious question, “If faith is all that is needed, why doesn’t he healer himself have enough faith to cause the healing to take place?” 
9.                              We can’t make a decision to believe something that we don’t actually believe.  We can repent of our sins by the power of the Holy Spirit.  We can learn about Jesus and study His Holy Word.  We can make decisions to do all kinds of things that will affect our future behavior, but what we can’t do is create saving faith in Jesus as our Savior by our own willpower.  This is what’s wrong with modern evangelism techniques that suggest that all a person has to do is make a decision and faith will well up in his soul.  It doesn’t work like that.  Paul tells us in Romans that faith comes by hearing, it comes by the Word of God that points us to Jesus as our Savior from sin, death and the power of the devil.  It’s the Holy Spirit who creates saving faith, as we recognize today with the baptism of my daughter Eleanor.  Mark 16:16 says, 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
10.              The father of this young boy who was demon possessed was in the presence of Jesus, the Author of Faith.  Hebrews 12:2 says, 2[look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  Jesus called him to trust Him.  He had every reason to believe that Jesus had the power to do something for his son, but he wasn’t completely sure that he believed enough.  So, he cried out in tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).  Every Christian has some level of saving faith in their heart.  But, the intensity of that faith isn’t constant.  It increases and diminishes.  No matter how strong your faith is, there are moments in this life when it’s assaulted by the devil.  Sometimes it can seem as if your faith is barely hanging on, and you make a prayer much like this man made to Jesus, “I believe, but my belief isn’t perfect, it isn’t strong.  I need help.  Help me with my unbelief.”  When you’re assaulted with doubts and your faith is weak, go to the source of faith, the Word of God that points you to Jesus as your Savior.  Trust in your baptism, that you were washed and cleansed of all of your sin and made a child of God through water and the Word.  Trust in His body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins in the Lord’s Supper.  There’s no time in your life when your faith is stronger than when you are immersed in God’s Word and His Sacraments.  Staying close to God’s Word, listening to the promises of our Lord Jesus are the things that kill unbelief and build a powerful faith that doesn’t let you down in the midst of doubt, despair, and unbelief.  Amen.
11.              Please pray with me:  Dear Jesus, we pray that You have patience with us.  Help us not to wait until the trouble that surrounds us is so great that we can hardly see Your presence for our tears.  May we rather come and learn of Your grace and power to help and to save, so that when Satan assails us and our loved ones, we may not doubt but believe, so that the mountains of difficulties and the depth of despair may not rob us of the certainty that You are mightier than Satan and sorrow.  We, too, pray, “I believe; help my unbelief!”  Amen.

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