So I will try to share some of it. There is no way I can cover it all or even do it justice.
Desperation is all around Jesus yet he remains calm. Jesus has just gone up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John and talking to Moses and Elijah. Now they come down to the crowds. Normal life. He calls them unbelieving. They are prideful and sinful as well. I can identify. But in the midst of desperation Jesus remains calm. And he holds back the healing until the right moment. He wants this to teach. He wants people, especially the father, to get all he should from this. He waits until the father is desperate, then he heals. "Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief!"
Jesus comes down and asks what is happening. It is not the disciples who respond but the father. The father is in control. With perhaps a little satisfaction he reports that he has asked, requested, this translation says "told" his disciples to cast it out and they could not. Perhaps the dad is feeling a little vindicated. He had never been able to anything to help his boy, now this great healer was stumped too. Or at least his disciples were stumped. The disciples may have held back because they felt confused and like failures.
But Jesus does not blame his disciples. Or perhaps not them solely. He cries, "Oh unbelieving generation!" Couldn't God say that about our generation? Probably all generations. He has the boy brought to him. He does not go to him. When the demon sees Jesus he manifests himself. He is obviously scared now. In other cases Jesus reacts to this behavior by immediately casting it out. But here Jesus remains calm. Almost ignoring the boy he addresses his father. "How long has this been happening to him?" It sounds like a doctor's question. "How long young man, have you been having these symptoms?" The father speaks again, this time a little less confidently. The boy has tried to kill himself many times. But his father has watched him and kept him alive all these years. They have done what they could, all that was humanly possible. They treated the symptoms, you might say, but never got to the root of the problem.
The father concludes, "if you can do anything?" Jesus responds perhaps sternly, "All things are possible for God!" This puts it in a better light. The father understand at least mentally all things are possible for God. Those of who walk with God know this is true in the theoretical. We know this is true. But we have doubt when it comes to specifics that apply directly to us. We know God parted the sea. God saved Jonah from a whale. God made the whole universe. But when it comes to a little healing we doubt.
I think God responds to the desperate. How willing are we to be desperate before God. I know I do not do it often, often enough. Some of Jesus' parables about prayer speak of desperation. The man desperately needs bread so he pounds on his neighbor's door even though it is after midnight. He does not give up until he gets a response. This is a parable about prayer to God. God waits until we express our need. Being desperate is a good thing. It puts our relationship with God in it's proper light.
So the father's cry is a cry of desperation. "Lord I believe! Help me in my unbelief!!" Jesus responds by commanding the demon to leave. To all others around the boy looks dead. But but Jesus reaches over and lifts him to his feet. I imagine his muscles are sore. He is dazed. But the implication is now he is normal. He is healed!
This story concludes with later when the disciples privately ask about it. Jesus answer has confounded people since the beginning. "This cannot come out by anything but prayer." The NASB. Some variations add, "and fasting." Does this addition help or add to the confusion? The disciples were confused about why this demon did not come for them. They had just been sent out and had success with casting out demons then. Why did it not work this time? Was it the lack of faith of the father? When Jesus says "prayer" does he mean pray harder? Didn't the disciples pray? Or did they rely on their own strength somehow forgetting only God can heal. Our faith might move God to act but it is not our faith alone that can heal. Adding the word fasting implies that they did not pray hard enough or long enough. Fasting is an addition step of discipline. But adding the expression "and fasting" changes the meaning and perhaps distorts it from Jesus original intent. I do not know.
"This cannot come out by anything but prayer" leave me feeling helpless. My response would probably be, "I thought I did pray." The answer, "This cannot come out by anything but prayer and fasting." tells me I did not do enough. I did not work hard enough at it. I need to work on my disciplines. I think they are different. What do you think?
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