Mark 9:16-18

Passage

Jesus asks the people why they are arguing with His disciples.  A man in the crowd answers Jesus and informs Him that he had brought his son to Jesus’ disciples.  The son has an evil spirit that causes the boy to be mute.  The spirit also seizes him and causes him to convulse and throws him to the ground.  The boy foams and the mouth and grinds his teeth.  The man also tells Jesus that he asked the disciples to cast out the demon and they could not.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

The man had brought his boy to the disciples.  I’m willing to bet that he was looking for Jesus.  But he found Jesus’ disciples instead.  But here’s the cool thing.  The man was willing to find the power of God through the disciples.  The man made the assumption that Jesus’ disciples could bring the power of God into his life and the life of the son.  The assumption may not have turned out quite the way the man planned, but the end result is the same.  Because the man came to Jesus’ disciples, he does meet with Jesus.

Have you ever thought that people may expect to meet Jesus through you?  How do you respond to that thought?

Second Thought:

Here is a child who is caught up with some sort of evil spirit.  In cases like this, I always wonder why it is that things like this happen.  What could a little boy have possibly done to deserve to be inflicted with such a condition?  The answer in these kinds of circumstances usually doesn’t lie in consequences.  Yes, sometimes we do get the consequences of our actions.  Some people are oppressed by evil because they invite it into their life.  However, other things are simply opportunities for us to recognize God.  Here’s a really deep reality.  Because of this boy’s being possessed by an evil spirit, the whole crowd – including the boy and his father – will get an encounter with Jesus and see firsthand the saving power of God!  Having an evil spirit is bad, certainly.  But is anything so bad that having a life-changing encounter with Jesus on account of it is not worth the cost?

Why do we tend to see things like this through a negative lens?  Why do we have a difficult time seeing silver linings and opportunities to meet God even in bad circumstances?

Third Thought:

The disciples could not cast out the demon.  We don’t know why, exactly, but tomorrow we’ll get a clue.  For today, let’s focus on the fact that they couldn’t.  Here they are – disciples of Jesus!  They are the hand-picked disciples of the Son of God.  Yet, they weren’t supermen.  They couldn’t do it.  It wasn’t in the cards for them to do it on their own.  We may be disciples of Jesus, but we need to learn our limitations.  Better yet, we need to learn to rely more upon Him and less upon ourselves.

Why do you think the disciples couldn’t cast out the evil spirit?  What does it mean that even though we are servants of the Most High we can’t do everything?

Passage for Tomorrow: Mark 9:19-20