WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday March 6, 2016
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POWERFUL FAITH
(JESUS can help us overcome our unbelief)
(Mark 9:14-29)
It was A. Victor Murry who wrote, “It doesn’t matter how high a
man’s profession may be, it is by his actions that people judge him, and in
judging him, they also judge his mentor”. In Mark chapter 9, verses 14-18, John
Mark gives us an account of an argument involving the Scribes and some of
JESUS’ disciples, as the Scribes take advantage of the disciple’s inability to
cast out a Demon from a little boy. The Scribes, no doubt, were seeking to use
this incident to try and deflect the ineptitude of JESUS’ Disciples, onto JESUS
HIMSELF, as their leader.
Here we see that, no sooner than JESUS,
Peter, James, and John had come down from Mt. Hermon following JESUS’, now
famous, Transfiguration, that they encounter this embarrassing controversy
brewing between the Disciples and the Scribes. Here we get an opportunity to
see how JESUS is not only ready to face HIS OWN impending death on the cross,
but HE also shows us how HE remained ready to tackle the everyday problems of
the World, that lay all along HIS journey, before, HE even got to the cross. We
see here also, that, JESUS possessed a characteristic that allowed HIM to be
able to give 100% of HIMSELF to each individual that HE happened to come in
contact with.
In this passage of the book of Mark (Vs.
19-29), we see just how JESUS chose to handle this heated debate. First, HE
tells them in verse 19 to “Bring the boy unto me”. Then, JESUS states to the
boy’s father, the condition, upon which all miracles must hinge. HE tells him in
verse 23 that, “To him that believes, all things, are possible”.
In the Greek, the word used for faith is
“pistis”, and it means to “rely upon with an “inward certainty”, and to
“assent” to evidence of authority”. We see here that these people, including
the Disciples, had not yet began to rely upon JESUS, with an inward certainty,
and had not yet assented to all the evidence they had seen of JESUS’ authority
from Heaven.
Nevertheless, they brought the boy to
JESUS, and when the evil spirit saw HIM, it threw the boy into a violent
convulsion and made him fall to the ground writhing and foaming at the mouth. When
JESUS asked the boy’s father how long this had been happening, the father said
that it had been going on since he was a very small child. The demon often made
the boy fall into water and fire, trying to kill him.
We see throughout New Testament Scripture
that JESUS never healed or removed demons from anyone who didn’t show that wanted
to be made whole, through their faith. And in the case of children who had not
yet reached an “age of accountability”, their parents always provided the “saving
faith” that was needed to cure them. In verse the father provided the small measure
of faith in JESUS that was needed to cure his son, when he told JESUS, “I do
believe, but help me not to doubt”.
And so we see that,
based on that small measure of faith that was exhibited by the father, JESUS chose
to go ahead and deal with the situation of healing the child right away, and
thereby, HE removed all doubt that the boy’s father may have had about HIM, probably
because of the ineptitude of HIS disciples, who had failed him earlier. JESUS
then commanded the “spirit of deafness and muteness” to come out of the child
and never return, and the evil spirit obeyed, even though he left the lad
kicking and screaming.
The boy lay
motionless for a moment and even appeared to be dead, and many in the crowd
even expressed as much openly. But JESUS took the boy by the hand and helped
him to his feet, and he then stood under his own power. Afterwards when JESUS
was alone with HIS disciples they asked HIM why couldn’t they cast out the
demon that possessed the boy most of his young life. JESUS replied, this kind
of exorcism can only be accomplished through prayer.
Sometimes, as in
the case of the boy’s father, we tend to get less than we expect from professed
Christians in the Church, or from pastors and other leaders in the Church. However,
when we call on CHRIST JESUS, WHO is the MASTER of the True Church, HE will
never disappoint us, and will always upgrade our position and condition under
GOD.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official
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