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. " Mark9:28-29
The back-story to this discussion is that Jesus had come down from the Transfiguration to find his disciples trying (unsuccessfully) to cast an evil spirit from a boy whose father in desperation cried out "Lord I believe, help my unbelief."
Jesus makes short work of the evil spirit but He is unusually angry at the unbelief that has been exhibited in the situation.
I've always wondered about this. The father is humble enough to admit his mixture of belief and doubt and Jesus does not seem to be irritated with him.
It's in the conversation afterwards that we get an inkling of the real issue...
Mark tells us that the disciples were asking what was wrong with their exorcism technique. Did they need more anointing oil? Did they need to shout louder? Did they need to find out the evil spirit's name?
Jesus answers enigmatically:
"This kind only comes out with prayer."*
The problem was that the disciples had turned the exorcism into a ritual - a recipe - a routine. Jesus' answer reveals the simple truth: - They had not prayed. They were doing this by themselves, they weren't trusting God, they were the healers instead of asking God to be the healer. It was their faith and trust that was lacking.
Interestingly enough, in Matthew's Gospel, the reason given for their failure is unbelief and is followed by the promise that faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains. Jesus is implying that they didn't even have the faith of a mustard seed.
When we put these two thoughts together, it becomes clear. Faith is about reaching out to God and trusting Him. The disciples thought they could do it by themselves. Their faith was in their rituals, they had, quite simply, forgotten to pray.
Let's be brave enough to admit that sometimes we go through the motions - our lips say prayers, but our hearts aren't in it. We say the right things, but we're not reaching out to God and asking for His help. Let's ask ourselves: "Did you REALLY pray?"
Maybe we need to learn to pray like the dad did...
-----------------------
* Most Bibles have a footnote indicating that some Greek manuscripts have "prayer _and_ fasting" but I think this simply indicates that the scribes were making the same mistake as the disciples were: this is not about technique but about the fact that the disciples simply had not prayed.
---
--------------------------
Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
