Content
(the disciples’ faith)
Jesus has driven out demons before. In Mark 5, he drove out the “Legion” spirit of a man into the herd of swine. In Mark 3:11, many unclean spirits fell down before Jesus. This time he dealt with a “dumb and deaf spirit” (v25). However, it is somewhat different from the past cases. It is the disciples who attempted to drive out the evil spirit before Jesus intervened. The disciples failed to drive out the spirit, giving the scribes a chance to challenge them. When Jesus came and found the disciples, “he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them.” (v14) When Jesus saw that the disciples were in trouble, he asked the scribes, “ 'What question ye with them?' And one of the multitude answered and said, 'Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him (把他摔倒): and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away (身體枯乾): and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.' ” (v16-18) The disciples have caused trouble before as they plucked the ears of corn on the Sabbath day. (Mark 2:23) In that incident, when the Pharisees complained to Jesus against the disciples, Jesus spoke on their behalf. Later, the scribes complained to Jesus that the disciples took meals without first washing their hands. (Mark 7:5) Jesus defended for the disciples again. But this time, Jesus had a different reaction. He put the blame on his disciples instead of refuting the scribes. After listening to the man about his son’s suffering, Jesus looked pretty upset and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me.” (v19) Why was Jesus so upset with his disciples? Obviously, he was blaming them for their lack of faith again.
The disciples have been with Jesus for quite a while and have watched him perform many miracles. Yet they have not learnt much to have faith in him. In Mark 4, Jesus quieted the storm. In Mark 5, Jesus healed the woman of blood disease and brought Jairus’ daughter to life again. In Mark 6, Jesus fed the 5,000 and walked on the sea. In Mark 7, Jesus healed the daughter of a Gentile woman and a deaf and dumb man. In Mark 8, Jesus fed 4,000 and restored the sight of a blind man. So, miracles are recorded in each chapter from Chapters 4 to 8 and the disciples have seen them all.
Moreover, faith was emphasized after some of the above miracles were performed. After Jesus quieted the sea, he exclaimed before the disciples, “How is it that ye have no faith?” (Mark 4:40) After the woman of blood disease was healed, Jesus said, “Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Mark 5:34) Afterward, Jesus comforted Jairus when he heard the sudden death news of his daughter, “Be not afraid, only believe.” (Mark 5:36)
Did the disciples not have enough power to drive out the evil spirit? Certainly not. In fact, the disciples have been given sufficient authority to drive out demons when Jesus sent them out. When Jesus chose the 12 disciples and sent them out to preach, he gave them “power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils.” (Mark 3:15) Later, as he sent them two by two, he “gave them power over unclean spirits”. (Mark 6:7) Hence, their inability to drive out the dumb and deaf spirit had nothing to do with their power; it was entirely due to their lack of faith. It seems like they still did not quite understand the importance of faith behind all the past miracles or supernatural events. When Jesus warned the disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, they misunderstood Jesus’ words to mean that he warned them of “no bread”. (Mark 8:16) Jesus wondered, “Perceive ye not yet, neither understand?” (Mark 8:17) Then he mentioned again the feeding of 5,000 and 4,000 people and there was still leftover of 12 and 7 baskets of bread respectively. So, why would they think that their Lord was worrying about ‘no bread’? While the disciples were still gathering what Jesus meant, he sighed, “How is it that ye do not understand?” (Mark 8:21) Obviously, they still haven’t learned about faith from those miracles. No matter how many miracles they have seen Jesus perform, they simply did not have enough faith in the power of God.
(the father’s faith)
The demon-possessed man was then brought to Jesus. “And when he saw him (Jesus), straightway the spirit tare him (叫他重重地抽風); and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming (翻來覆去，口中流沫). And he asked his father, ‘How long is it ago since this came unto him?’ And he said, ‘Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.’ ” (v20-22) Jesus again stressed the importance of faith to the father, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” (v23) The father immediately admitted his lack of faith and cried out with tears, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” (v24) Perhaps when the father saw the failure of the disciples to heal his son, he lost all his faith in them. However, he didn’t give up but turned to Jesus for help. He asked Jesus to grant him more faith in the power of God, hoping that Jesus might help solve such disturbing family problem for years out of his mercy. Whenever our faith begins to fade away, the Lord will immediately strengthen our faith again with His comforting words.
(Jesus’ faith)
Now Jesus demonstrated what he meant by faith. He rebuked the foul spirit before everyone, “Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore (使孩子大大地抽了一陣風), and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, ‘He is dead.’ But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.” (v25-27)
When everyone saw that the son had no reaction at all, they thought that he was dead! But, as Jesus took him by the hand and lifted up the feeble son, he finally returned to his normal state. In this matter, we saw that the majority of people cast doubt on Jesus’ healing power. They might even complain that he made the matter worse than before—causing the son to die! Nobody could imagine that the case developed dramatically and the son restored his strength suddenly.
After praying and later seeing no progress with our praying matters, we may doubt that our prayer “fails” and think that the Lord has not done anything to demonstrate His power. We may fall into despair. It is at this time that we need to increase our patience to keep watching for the end result to appear with a big surprise!
The disciples wondered why they could not cast out the spirit. “And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, ‘Why could not we cast him out?’ And he said unto them, ‘This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.’ ” (v28-29) Apparently, the disciples had not exercised fasting prayer at all when they tried their best to drive out the spirit. That’s why they failed to do it. But didn’t Jesus complain them of not having enough faith at first? Why did he now add “prayer and fasting” as a necessity of treating “this kind” of evil spirit? How are faith and fasting prayer related to make it a success?
(Two cases of fasting prayer)
Fasting to the Pharisees is an expression of piety (Luke 18:12) but is denounced by Jesus as hypocrisy (Matt 6:16). In the Old Testament, however, fasting is an expression of mourning. In the Book of Esther, after the Persian king had given order to kill all the Jews in the country, “there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.” (Esther 4:3) At the same time, Queen Esther said to Mordecai who sent her into the palace to compete for the seat of royal queen, “ Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16) Fasting to Esther was more than a form of mourning before God like her countrymen did. It was a form of urgent prayer to God for help with the mind of suffering and pure faith, and the kind of prayer was required to be committed and persistent. It was also an expression of deep concern and sincere heart displaying before God. The end purpose was to move God’s heart to intervene and offer a helping hand. In brief, true fasting prayer in Esther’s plight is an expression and exercise of committed faith to touch God’s heart to intervene and to do something special.
Another prominent example of fasting prayer appears in the Gentile city of Nineveh. When the prophet Jonah announced in the city, “ ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.’ So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.” The king of Nineveh further ordered his people to “cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.” The king not only believed in Jonah’s threatening word but also bore the pure faith as such, “Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” (Jonah 3:4-9) To the king and the people of Nineveh, fasting prayer is the exclusive way of escaping the tragedy. To conclude from the above two O.T. cases, fasting plus crying prayer is definitely an expression of sincere heart and deep concern before the merciful God, with the exercise of pure and strong faith in the mercy and power of God.
(Conclusion)
In my opinion, Jesus in his reply to the disciples in verse 29 may imply that the disciples were not committed enough and have expressed no deep concern in the matter of saving the demon-possessed man out of the ordeal. They might have early given up after failing to call the spirit to get out of the man. They might even have called the evil spirit in fear due to the terrible behavior of the man. At least they were not so confident as Jesus did, for he truly rebuked the spirit harshly to come out and not to disturb the man anymore. In Matt 17:20 concerning Jesus’ reply to the disciples, he emphasized their “unbelief” first before speaking of the necessity of using fasting prayer: “Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Therefore, in the course of making fasting prayer, faith still plays an extremely important role. And fasting prayer definitely helps build up our faith in the Lord.
Our prayer alone often times lacks sincerity and deep concern. In a conflicting and complicated society, we often see people hold street protests and demonstrations to express their discontent in certain matters. They aim to draw the attention of the concerned party as well as the sympathy of the public. When the concerned government department or private institute ignores their demand, they may take stronger actions such as fasting for certain days to heighten the seriousness of the problem in order to express their strong dissatisfaction and to draw more attention from the public. Of course, for prayer requests that we offer to God, we are not expressing our dissatisfaction to Him like the street protestors. My point is that as we pray to God for an answer, we can learn to pick up the fervent spirit of the street demonstrators. As for the matters that we really care about seriously, fasting prayer with the mind of suffering should be an effective way to touch God’s heart to respond to our requests.