Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Mark 9:22

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 22. If THOU canst DO any thing — I have already tried thy disciples, and find they can do nothing in this case; but if thou hast any power, in mercy use it in our behalf.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

76. Healing of an uncontrollable boy (Matthew 17:14-21; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-43)

While the faith of the three apostles on the mountain was being strengthened, the faith of the other nine on the plain below was failing. They were unable to cure a boy who suffered from sudden fits that made him uncontrollable (Mark 9:14-18). After the heavenly experiences on the mountain, Jesus felt the frustration of work in a world that was full of human failure (Mark 9:19). Nevertheless, he did not despise the uncertain faith that the boy’s father expressed, and he quickly healed the boy (Mark 9:20-27).

The reason for the disciples’ failure was their lack of faith. What they needed was not a large amount of faith but the right kind of faith. They needed a faith that relied completely upon the unlimited capacity of the all-powerful God and that expressed itself through sincere prayer (Matthew 17:20-21; Mark 9:28-29).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

And oft-times it hath cast him both into the fire and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.

If thou canst do anything … By such a remark, the father of the afflicted boy would have made the burden of responsibility for his son's healing to rest upon the Lord; but he was not correct in such an insinuation, as Jesus' following words quickly showed. There are many in all generations who would like to shift the burden of all betterment to some other than themselves, but they too are wrong. A great deal of the improvement of the human condition is inherently incumbent upon the needy themselves, who under every circumstance of whatever extremity must first do everything possible to alleviate their own affliction, that being the basic and invariable precondition to any effective help from without. Here, the thing required of the father was faith in the Lord.

Have compassion on us, and help us … The use of possessive pronouns here is very poignant and touching and shows that the whole family of the unfortunate lad had identified themselves with the afflicted and considered his distress as also their own. This is an expressive picture of all members of a family suffering with one of its members.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

See this passage explained in the notes at Matthew 17:14-21.

Mark 9:14

Questioning with them - Debating with the disciples, and attempting to confound them. This he saw as he came down from the mount. In his absence they had taken occasion to attempt to perplex and confound his followers.

Mark 9:15

Were greatly amazed - Were astonished and surprised at his sudden appearance among them.

Saluted him - Received him with the customary marks of affection and respect. It is probable that this was not by any “formal” manner of salutation, but by the “rush” of the multitude, and by hailing him as the Messiah.

Mark 9:16

What question ye? - What is the subject of your inquiry or debate with the disciples?

Mark 9:17

A dumb spirit - A spirit which deprived his son of the power of speaking.

Mark 9:18

And wheresoever - In whatever place - at home or abroad, alone or in public.

He teareth him - He rends, distracts, or throws him into convulsions.

He foameth - At the mouth, like a mad animal. Among us these would all be considered as marks of violent derangement or madness.

And pineth away - Becomes thin, haggard, and emaciated. This was the effect of the violence of his struggles, and perhaps of the want of food.

Mark 9:22

If thou canst do any thing - I have brought him to the disciples, and they could not help him. If thou canst do anything, have compassion.

Mark 9:23

If thou canst believe - This was an answer to the request, and there was a reference in the answer to the “doubt” in the man’s mind about the power of Jesus. “I” can help him. If thou” canst believe,” it shall be done. Jesus here demanded “faith” or confidence in his power of healing. His design here is to show the man that the difficulty in the case was not in the want of “power” on his part, but in the want of “faith” in the man; in other words, to rebuke him for having “doubted” at all whether he “could” heal him. So he demands faith of every sinner that comes to him, and none that come without “confidence” in him can obtain the blessing.

All things are possible to him that believeth - All things can be effected or accomplished - to wit, by God - in favor of him that believes, and if thou canst believe, this will be done. God will do nothing in our favor without faith. It is right that we should have confidence in him; and if we “have” confidence, it is easy for him to help us, and he willingly does it. In our weakness, then, we should go to God our Saviour; and though we have no strength, yet “he” can aid us, and he will make all things easy for us.

Mark 9:24

Said with tears - The man felt the implied rebuke in the Saviour’s language; and feeling grieved that he should be thought to be destitute of faith, and feeling deeply for the welfare of his afflicted son, he wept. Nothing can be more touching or natural than this. An anxious father, distressed at the condition of his son, having applied to the disciples in vain, now coming to the Saviour; and not having full confidence that he had the proper qualification to be aided, he wept. Any man would have wept in his condition, nor would the Saviour turn the weeping suppliant away.

I believe - I have faith. I do put confidence in thee, though I know that my faith is not as strong as it should be.

Lord - This word here signifies merely “master,” or “sir,” as it does often in the New Testament. We have no evidence that he had any knowledge of the divine nature of the Saviour, and he applied the word, probably, as he would have done to any other teacher or worker of miracles.

Help thou mine unbelief - Supply thou the defects of my faith. Give me strength and grace to put “entire” confidence in thee. Everyone who comes to the Saviour for help has need of offering this prayer. In our unbelief and our doubts we need his aid, nor shall we ever put sufficient reliance on him without his gracious help.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

22.If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. We see how little honor he renders to Christ; for, supposing him to be some prophet, whose power was limited, he approaches to him with hesitation. On the other hand, the first foundation of faith is, to embrace the boundless power of God; and the first step to prayer is, to raise it above all opposition by the firm belief that our prayers are not in vain. As this man did not suppose Christ to be at all different from other men, his false opinion is corrected; for our faith must be so formed as to be capable and prepared for receiving the desired favor. In his reply Christ does not administer a direct reproof, but indirectly reminding the man of what he had said amiss, points out to him his fault, and informs him how a remedy may be obtained.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 9

And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power ( Mark 9:1 ).

Now what did He mean by that? Because those disciples have all died, and we have not yet seen the kingdom of God come with power. Was Jesus mistaken? Well, first of all, no. Jesus was not mistaken. If my interpretation of a scripture would make it appear that Jesus was mistaken, then my interpretation is wrong. If my interpretation of what Jesus said would make what Jesus said ridiculous or foolish, my interpretation is wrong. And many times people misinterpret the words of Jesus.

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller [launderer] on earth can white them. And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus ( Mark 9:2-4 ).

Now, Peter, James and John were taken up into this high mountain, Mount Hermon, which is just there at Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi is just right at the base. So Jesus, six days later, took them on up into this mountain, and there He was transfigured before them. His raiment did shine. And while He was there in this transfigured state, Moses and Elijah appeared, and they were talking with Him. Jesus said, "There are some standing here that are not going to die until they see the kingdom with power." And there, God took them, I believe, into a time chamber. And they saw Christ in the glory that He will have and the power when He comes again to the earth, talking with Moses and Elijah. So they were taken out of this time zone, into the eternal, and they actually saw the kingdom of God coming with power and glory. Or they saw the kingdom of God coming with power, as He declares.

And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah ( Mark 9:5 ).

And there was the beginning of the desire to create shrines in the Holy Land to commemorate the sites where the exciting things happened. Poor Peter. If he only knew the mess that he made of the Holy Land. And why did he say this?

For he wist not [didn't know] what to say ( Mark 9:6 );

Now, if you don't know what to say, it's probably better to say nothing. There's some people that say, "Well, you know, you better say something." And so, what you say is foolish because you just don't know what to say. It's really better to keep your mouth shut. Better keep your mouth shut and let people think you're a fool, than open it and dispel all their doubts. They were afraid, he didn't know what to say, so he makes this stupid suggestion.

And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him ( Mark 9:7 ).

We read in Hebrews chapter one, "God, who in different times of history and in different ways spoke to our fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His own dear Son." Now, here was Moses. What does Moses represent? God speaking to man through the law. Here was Elijah. What does Elijah represent? God speaking to man through the prophets. How is the Old Testament usually divided? The law and the prophets. You remember, so often Jesus would say, "In this is all the law and the prophets." That's how the Old Testament was divided. God, in various times and in various ways, spoke to the fathers through the law and through the prophets. But in these last days, He's spoken unto us by His own dear Son. So, here Moses who stands for the law, Elijah who stands for the prophets, are there talking with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and God says, "This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him, hear ye Him." For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. "Hear ye Him." There are still some who would like to go back under the law instead of living in that grace and truth through Jesus Christ, but God is saying, "Look, this is My beloved Son. Hear ye Him."

Now, He did not say anything contrary to the law and the prophets. "I did not come," He said, "to destroy, but to fulfill." And He fulfilled the law and the prophets. His life was a fulfillment. But in the fulfilling of the law and the prophets, He brought to us this glorious grace of God whereby we have our relationship with God today, our standing before God through grace.

And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save [except] Jesus only with themselves. [Moses and Elijah disappeared.] And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things that they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean ( Mark 9:8-10 ).

They just could not understand this.

And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elijah must first come? ( Mark 9:11 )

Now, you see they've recognized that, "You're the Messiah." "But the scribes say that Elijah has got to come before the Messiah."

And he answered and told them, Elijah verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how is it written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things ( Mark 9:12 ),

"Now, you're saying, 'How is it that the scriptures say that Elijah has to first come?' But how is it that the scriptures say that the Son of Man, the Messiah, is going to have to suffer many things?" He's pointing out another aspect. Yes, the scriptures do say that Elijah will first come, but it also says that the Son of Man, or the Messiah, is going to suffer many things. Therefore, there are the two aspects of the coming of the Messiah: He will be coming in power and glory, and prior to that, Elijah will come and restore all things. But Elijah has come, for John the Baptist actually fulfilled that ministry of Elijah as the forerunner. And so, He said,

But I say unto you, That Elijah is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed [desired], as it was written of him ( Mark 9:13 ).

So, even the word was fulfilled concerning John the Baptist.

And when he came to his disciples [back down from the hill now], he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes [were] questioning with them. And straightway [immediately] all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him [and greeted him]. And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them? ( Mark 9:14-16 )

Oh, here now is the shepherd, and He sees His sheep in trouble. These scribes are there talking with them, and He's going to go right to their defense. "What were you talking to them about?" A true heart of the shepherd to protect His sheep from the wolves.

Here at Calvary Chapel one evening when we were in the other chapel, and we were conducting at that time the Monday night studies, many had come forward to receive Christ. And I was back in the back room ministering to them, and when I came out from the back room, having ministered to those who had come to receive Christ, I saw these guys in suits, and that's the first thing that made me suspicious. Because in those days, nobody wore suits, especially on Monday night. And they had little groups of kids around them and they were talking a mile a minute. And I said, "Romaine, get 'em!" And Romaine and I went out and we began to tap these guys and say, "Come over here, we want to talk to you." And so, we gathered these guys in suits together. I said, "Okay, who are you guys?" I mean, I saw them and I saw them talking to these kids. You know, many of the kids were just a week or two weeks or a month old in Jesus, and when these guys were all there and talking so fast, you just knew that they were trying to lay some weird trip on them. And I mean, I was ready to make a whip and drive these guys out of the temple, and I was really hot. I said, "What were you talking to them about? Who are you guys? Where did you come from?" "Oh, brother, bless God, praise God, hallelujah, oh, brother, bless God, oh, brother, brother, brother..." I said, "Wait a minute! Don't 'brother' me! Who are you? Where did you come from? What are you doing here?" "Oh, bless God, brother, hallelujah..." I said, "You're not answering my question." And by their very actions, I had natural discernment, not spiritual. I wasn't in the Spirit at the moment. I said, "Are you guys from the Witness Lee group?" "Oh, bless God, brother, praise the Lord, brother, hallelujah, oh, bless God, brother.....yeah!" And Romaine says, "Out!" "Oh, but brother, bless God, we're brothers man. Why don't you become the local church of Santa Ana? You can be the local church here." And I said, "You've got to be kidding! For me to say that we are the only true church in Santa Ana, the only true representation of Jesus Christ and the unity of the body of Christ in Santa Ana, is ridiculous. There are many excellent churches in Santa Ana and we are not the only true church. And we could never take that type of a position or title for ourselves." Romaine says, "Out!" And they went out doing the whole "oh, brother, brother, hallelujah" bit as Romaine was getting them to their cars. And he followed them all the way to the car, and said, "I'm going to stand here, and I want to see you out of that driveway and never come back here again."

I understand how Jesus felt when He saw the scribes having cornered His little sheep down here who were not yet that far along in their understanding. And He moves right in and says, "Alright! What were you questioning them about?"

And one of the multitude [one of the men in the crowd] answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him; and he foameth [at the mouth], [he] gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway [immediately] the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he [Jesus] asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child [Oh, when he was 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. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway [immediately] the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief ( Mark 9:17-24 ).

A picture that just moves with paithos??. You can imagine the feeling of this father to see his son in this condition, unable to speak. But worse than that, going into these fits where his body is writhing, where he begins to foam at the mouth and gnash his teeth, where oftentimes he would be jumping in the fire and going through the fits or jumping into the water and going through the fits. And how it must have just really ripped on the heart of this father. And in desperation, he's brought him to Jesus. And Satan is taking his last fling. Even while he's coming to Christ, the spirit takes hold of him, begins to tear him; he falls on the ground and he's wallowing there and foaming at the mouth. And the father in desperation says, "Oh, Lord, if you can do anything, please, please help us. Have compassion." And Jesus said, "If you believe, all things are possible to him that believes." Oh, what a glorious promise. All things are possible to him who believes.

"And immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'Oh, Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!...God, help that area of my life where there's still unbelief.'

When Jesus saw that the people came running together ( Mark 9:25 ),

And of course, for something like this, the crowd would come running out of curiosity.

he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him ( Mark 9:25 ).

Now, interesting that Jesus would make that second command, "enter him no more." Jesus said, "When an evil spirit goes forth out of a man, he goes through the wilderness areas looking for a house to inhabit, and if he finds none, he'll come back to the house from whence he was driven. And if he finds it all swept and clean and garnished, he'll go out and get seven other spirits that they might come and abide in that house. And the last estate of that man is worse than his first." That's why Jesus said, "Don't enter him again."

One night I'm going to talk about demonology. I don't want to get into that tonight. It's a subject I really don't like to talk about, but we probably should know about it. Fortunately, here in the United States, there is not really much true demon possession; there is a lot of imagined demon possession, but not much true demon possession. All kinds of demon oppression. I mean, as a child of God you're wrestling against these principalities and powers. We are in a spiritual warfare. But because of the strong Christian influence, we do not see much actual demon possession here. Not nearly as much as you see when you go into some of the pagan foreign countries where the light of the gospel does not shine bright; there you see actual cases of demon possession, many of them. We are seeing more here. As the occult and the eastern mystic religions are developing and growing in the United States, we are beginning to see more demon possession. And as a result of that, I will be talking about it some night. But I really don't want to get into it tonight.

So the spirit cried, and rent [tore] him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead [lying there like he was dead]; insomuch that many [of the people around] said, He is dead [Oh, he died]. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? ( Mark 9:26-28 )

Good question. They were powerless in this case.

And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting ( Mark 9:29 ).

Now, it would appear that there are rankings of demon spirits. And the Bible does definitely speak of the rankings, principalities, powers, which are all rankings; and there are some that are more powerful than others and are more resistant to exorcism than are others. And this was one of those more powerful demons; the disciples at this point weren't able to handle it. Jesus did. And His answer to them is that this kind can only come out by fasting and prayer. We'll be talking about the various kinds of evil spirits when we do talk about that.

And they departed from thence, and passed through Galilee; [and he tried to do it secretly] and he would not that any man should know it. For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is [to be] delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day ( Mark 9:30-31 ).

Notice He's emphasizing this; He's trying to prepare them now. They know now He's the Messiah, but He's trying to prepare them for a different Messiah than what the people were actually looking for.

But they understood not that saying, and [they] were afraid to ask him ( Mark 9:32 ).

They did not understand how He was talking about His death and resurrection. And they were just afraid to question Him about it.

And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? [What were you fellows arguing about back there on the path?] But they held their peace [they were ashamed to tell him: they were silent], for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest ( Mark 9:33-34 ).

And they were embarrassed to say, "Well, we were, you know...Peter said he's going to be the greatest, and I know I am. And we were arguing about that." They were embarrassed to confess to the Lord the petty argument that they were in about who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. Saying things, that when Jesus said, "What were you saying?" they were ashamed to tell Him; they were embarrassed to tell Him.

We have all been in that position. We've said things that we would be embarrassed to tell Jesus what we said. He should say, "Well, what did you say?" "Well, nothing Lord." We've all done things that we would be embarrassed for Jesus to know that we did them, as if He didn't. That's what we need to know; Jesus knows everything we say; He knows everything we do. The Bible says, "Everything is naked and open before Him with whom we have to do." You don't hide anything from Him. We need to be more aware of that. We need to be conscious of the presence of Jesus at all times, so that we know that we're not hiding anything from Him. And because He knew what they were arguing about, He said, "Come fellows, I want to talk to you." "And He sat down," which is the position that the Rabbi took whenever He was going to teach important lessons. And instead of rebuking them for arguing about who was going to be the greatest, instead of condemning them for this, He told them how they could be the greatest.

You know, Jesus so often has a different attitude towards me than what I anticipate. I've messed up, I've failed. I think, "Oh, man, He's going to wail on me now." Because the Lord says, "Come here, Chuck. I want to talk to you." "Uuuhh." You're expecting Him to really lay it on you, and instead, He's so compassionate. He said, "Now look, this is the way you can be successful. Now you failed that time because..." And instead of condemning me for my failure, He only sits down and points out how I can avoid that failure the next time, how I can be successful the next time. I love the Lord because He has never condemned me. He's always so compassionate; He's always so helpful. Jesus said, "I didn't come to condemn the world, but that the world through me might be saved. And he who believes is not condemned." I believe in Jesus. Because I believe in Jesus, I'm not perfect. I do stumble, I do fall, but I'm not condemned. When I stumble and fall, He doesn't come and condemn me, He only shows me how to walk. So, they're arguing a petty argument over who's going to be the greatest; He doesn't condemn them for that and say, "What a stupid thing to be arguing about!" He says, "Look, you want to be the greatest? This is how: if any man wants to be first, let him be last, and let him become the servant." He said on another occasion, "If you want to be great in God's kingdom, then learn to be the servant of all." He had said before, "If you seek to save your life, you're going to lose it. But if you'll lose your life for My sake, then you'll find it; you'll save it." So, you want to be great? Here's the path to greatness. Not as you think. It's not through ambition and drive and pushing yourself ahead of the others and pulling others down that you might ascend above them; but the path of greatness is by taking the place of a servant and beginning to serve one another. Jesus said, "Whosoever would be the chief among you, let him be the servant of all."

Now, the real position of the pastor of the church is that of the servant to the church, the servant of all. I oftentimes tell the people back in the prayer room who come to accept Jesus Christ, "What are the fringe benefits now of your becoming a child of God is, you just picked up a bunch of servants." For we who are on the staff here at Calvary, the word minister actually means servant. And we are here to serve your needs, and we're available to serve you. That's what it's all about. And Jesus is saying, "Look, if you want to be great, then be a servant."

And he took a child, and set him [the child] in the midst of them: and when he had taken him [the child] in his arms ( Mark 9:36 ),

I love this picture of Jesus. He's takes a little child, and He holds the child. He's sitting there, and probably sets him on his lap and holding him there in his arms.

he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, [actually] receiveth me; and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me ( Mark 9:36-37 ).

Now, Jesus is saying actually, "What you do for a child is being done for me." Now, in that culture the children were considered almost non-persons until they came of age. No one would take time for a child. They were just allowed to grow up until they became of age, and then they lay on them the responsibilities of adulthood. But Jesus is saying, "Take time for the children. Whatever you're doing for a child, you're actually doing for me. If you receive a child in My name, you're receiving Me; and if you receive Me, you're receiving the Father, the One that sent Me."

Now, the disciples are always throwing in things that don't really relate to the situation that He's talking about, because they didn't always understand what He was talking about.

And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one [who was] casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and [so] we forbade him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly [actually] speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward ( Mark 9:38-41 ).

Now, John has interjected this sectarianism, "Lord, he was casting out devils, but he didn't call himself a Baptist, so we told him to stop it." He said, "Hey, learn that you're working together. If he's doing it in My name, he can't be speaking evil of Me. Let him alone." God help the church that someday we might wise up to the fact that we're all serving the same Lord. May God help us to identify the enemy. It's not the church down the street. We should be working with them for the cause of Jesus Christ. But the church is so busy competing and fighting with each other, that we're really not doing much to damage the enemy's territory. God help us. May the church of Jesus Christ really get together and learn to love one another, and learn to get along with one another.

We were down in Mexicali this week visiting with the fellowship that is there in Mexicali. God is blessing the fellowship there in a tremendous way. Over 900 people were out at the banquet where I spoke on Friday night. We loaned the people down there several thousand dollars to buy a building that they might worship there. Because their fellowship was growing so rapidly, they had to have a place to meet. And so, there was this place for sale that was an ideal location for them. So, we...Calvary Chapel, that's you...we loaned them the money so they could purchase this church. Well, they made arrangements to pay off the loan and the people had pledged the money over a period of time to pay off the loan to us. But in the meantime, this peso devaluation thing has hit. And when we made the arrangements, there were twenty-five pesos to a dollar. Now there are seventy pesos to the dollar; and though they've paid us back $150,000, they owe us now more in pesos than what they owed when they began. And it's a very sad thing for the church. And also the government has put a freeze, and you can't get dollars down there and all. And so, they were all worried because they didn't know how they were going to make their payments to us. And so they had a meeting and I was sitting with them in the meeting, and they said, "Now, we don't know; what can we do to make the payments?" And we said, "Forget it. We're all one body. We're not worried about the payments. We're all one body in Jesus. And so, as long as this situation exists and there's a problem, just forget it. We're not concerned; we're not worried. Because you're doing the work of the Lord here, and we're all one body in Jesus." We loaned the U.S. World Mission Center in Pasadena $300,000 to buy their facility up there. And that was supposed to have been paid off two years ago in October, and they were unable to pay it off. And so, they sent their committee down here to tell how sorry they were and what they were going to try to do and all. And I said, "Hey, we're all one body. It's the Lord money. You're doing the Lord's work. Don't worry about it. Forget it. We're not worried about it. It's God's money." We're all one body; we're all the church. God help us that we can see that truth; that we are all serving the same Lord, one body in Christ.

Now, Jesus has this little child in His arms, and He's talking about receiving a child and ministering to a child, "and you're ministering to Me," and John throws in this sectarian bit and Jesus throws it back out. But then He comes back to the child and He said,

And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones [these little children, whoever would offend one of these little ones] that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea ( Mark 9:42 ).

I love the spunk of Jesus. "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child..." And He's saying, "Take a millstone, tie it around his neck and toss him out into the sea." Hey, that millstone...you ought to see the millstone there in Capernaum. It's about as big as this pulpit, with a round hole in the middle. And it is a round stone, sort of a lava stone. I mean, if that thing were hung around your neck and you're tossed into the Sea of Galilee, you're going to go down fast. How evil it is to plant doubt in the heart of a child. How evil it is to destroy the faith, that beautiful faith that children have. You know, whenever I'm sick, who do I call to pray for me? Children. I love the children to pray for me. I don't want any doubts. Call my grandkids, "Pray for Grandpa." The beauty of that faith, the simplicity of that faith that they have in God. What kind of a twisted mind would try to destroy the beautiful faith of a child? Whatever type of twisted mind it is, Jesus said, "It would be better for that person to take a millstone and hang it on his neck and toss him on into the sea, than to destroy the faith of one of these little children who trust in Me."

If thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched ( Mark 9:43-44 ).

Now, this is Jesus talking, friend. There are a lot of modernists today who say, "Well, hell isn't hell. There is no hell."

There were a modernist minister and a Unitarian minister and a Christian Science practitioner going down the road together. They ran into a concrete abutment and all three of them immediately were in eternity. The modern minister says, "I can't be here; this place doesn't exist." The Unitarian said, "It's only a state of mind." And the Christian Science said, "I'm not here and it's not hot."

But this is Jesus talking, and I am afraid to add to or to take away from His words. I think He knows more about it than does Herbert W. Armstrong, or the Jehovah Witnesses. And rather than listening to what they may say, it is better to just listen to what Jesus says. According to Him, it is a real place. A place to be avoided at all costs. "Better to live a life in a maimed condition than to go into hell whole, where the fire will never be quenched, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched."

And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life [into life lame], than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched ( Mark 9:45 ):

The word translated hell here is not the usual Greek word translated hell. The usual Greek word is hades, which does speak of a temporary abode for the unrighteous dead in the heart of the earth. But this particular Greek word is gehenna. This is not a temporary abode; this is the place of the final consignment to Satan and his angels. And it was prepared for Satan and his angels. And those who choose to cast their lot with Satan and his angels, God will grant them that choice. And this is where they are consigned for eternity.

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell [gehenna's] fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire, [or the salt was used as a purifying instrument, so purified by fire,] and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another ( Mark 9:47-50 ).

Heavy words Jesus said them. I dare not tamper with them. I will not tamper with them. I will not try to modify them. I refuse to tamper with them. It is better to believe and find yourself wrong, than not to believe and find yourself wrong. Shall we pray?

Father, we thank You for the opportunity of studying Your Word. And now may Thy Spirit hide it in our hearts that we might not sin against You, Lord. May Thy word be strength to us. May we feed upon it, and may we thus grow strong. In Jesus' name. Amen. "

Contending for the Faith

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.

And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: The love and concern the father has for the son is revealed in the fact he not only answers Jesus’ question but offers further details that have not already been made known. It is also significant that it is not the falling into the fire or water that is stressed, but "the being thrown into these potential killers, with the sinister purpose on the part of the evil spirit, to destroy him" (Hendriksen 348).

but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us: When he leaves home, the father has faith that Jesus can heal His son; but the disciples’ failure has weakened his trust in Jesus’ power. The request is touching. By using the word "us," the father identifies himself with the misery of the son.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

5. The exorcism of an epileptic boy 9:14-29 (cf. Matthew 17:14-20; Luke 9:37-43a)

This is the last exorcism that Mark recorded. His narration of this story includes more detail than either Matthew or Luke’s. The disciples’ lack of glory in this story contrasts with Jesus’ glory in the Transfiguration.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Mark’s unique record of Jesus’ question shows His compassion. Demons had afflicted the boy for several years. Evidently the failure of the nine disciples weakened the father’s confidence in Jesus to help his son.

Barclay's Daily Study Bible

Chapter 9

WHEN THE KING COMES INTO HIS OWN ( Mark 8:38 ; Mark 9:1 )

9:1 "Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." And he used to say to them, "This is the truth I tell you--there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste of death until they shall see the Kingdom of God coming with power."

One thing leaps out from this passage--the confidence of Jesus. He has just been speaking of his death; he has no doubt that the Cross stands ahead of him; but nonetheless he is absolutely sure that in the end there will be triumph.

The first part of the passage states a simple truth. When the King comes into his Kingdom he will be loyal to those who have been loyal to him. No man can expect to dodge all the trouble of some great undertaking and then reap all the benefit of it. No man can expect to refuse service in some campaign and then share in the decorations when it is brought to a successful conclusion. Jesus is saying, "In a difficult and hostile world Christianity is up against it these days. If a man is ashamed under such conditions to show that he is a Christian, if he is afraid to show what side he is on, he cannot expect to gain a place of honour when the Kingdom comes."

The last part of this passage has caused much serious thought. Jesus says that many who are standing there will not die until they see the Kingdom coming with power. What worries some people is that they take this as a reference to the Second Coming; but if it is, Jesus was mistaken, because he did not return in power and glory in the lifetime of those who were there.

But this is not a reference to the Second Coming at all. Consider the situation. At the moment Jesus had only once been outside Palestine, and on that occasion he was just over the border in Tyre and Sidon. Only a very few men in a very small country had ever heard of him. Palestine was only about 120 miles from north to south and about 40 miles from east to west; her total population was 4,000,000 or thereby. To speak in terms of world conquest when he had scarcely ever been outside such a small country was strange. To make matters worse, even in that small country, he had so provoked the enmity of the orthodox leaders and of those in whose hands lay power, that it was quite certain that he could hope for nothing other than death as a heretic and an outlaw. In face of a situation like that there must have been many who felt despairingly that Christianity had no possible future, that in a short time it would be wiped out completely and eliminated from the world. Humanly speaking, these pessimists were right.

Now consider what did happen. Scarcely more than thirty years later, Christianity had swept through Asia Minor; Antioch had become a great Christian church. It had penetrated to Egypt; the Christians were strong in Alexandria. It had crossed the sea and come to Rome and swept through Greece. Christianity had spread like an unstoppable tide throughout the world. It was astonishingly true that in the lifetime of many there, against all expectations, Christianity had come with power. So far from being mistaken, Jesus was absolutely right.

The amazing thing is that Jesus never knew despair. In face of the dullness of the minds of men, in face of the opposition, in face of crucifixion and of death, he never doubted his final triumph--because he never doubted God. He was always certain that what is impossible with man is completely possible with him.

THE GLORY OF THE MOUNTAIN TOP ( Mark 9:2-8 )

9:2-8 Six days after, Jesus took Peter and James and John along with him and brought them up into a high mountain, all by themselves, alone. And he was transfigured in their presence. His clothes became radiant, exceedingly white, such that no fuller on earth could have made them so white. And Elijah and Moses appeared to them, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus. "Teacher, it is good for us to be here. So let us make three booths, one for you, and one for Moses and one for Elijah." He said this because he did not know what he was saying, for they were awe-struck. And there came a cloud overshadowing them. And there came a voice from the cloud, "This is my beloved Son. Hear Him!" And immediately, when they had looked round, they saw no one any more except Jesus alone with them.

We are face to face with an incident in the life of Jesus that is cloaked in mystery. We can only try to understand. Mark says that this happened six days after the incidents near Caesarea Philippi. Luke says that it happened eight days afterwards. There is no discrepancy here. They both mean what we might express by saying, "About a week afterwards." Both the Eastern and the Western Churches hold their remembrance of the transfiguration on 6th August. It does not matter whether or not that is the actual date, but it is a time we do well to remember.

Tradition says that the transfiguration took place on the top of Mount Tabor. The Eastern Church actually calls the Festival of the Transfiguration the Taborion. It may be that the choice is based on the mention of Mount Tabor in Psalms 89:12, but it is unfortunate. Tabor is in the south of Galilee and Caesarea Philippi is away to the north. Tabor is no more than 1,000 feet high, and, in the time of Jesus, there was a fortress on the top. It is much more likely that this event took place amidst the eternal snows of Mount Hermon which is 9,200 feet high and much nearer Caesarea Philippi and where the solitude would be much more complete.

What happened we cannot tell. We can only bow in reverence as we try to understand. Mark tells us that the garments of Jesus became radiant. The word he uses (stilbein, G4744) is the word used for the glistening gleam of burnished brass or gold or of polished steel or of the golden glare of the sunlight. When the incident came to an end a cloud overshadowed them.

In Jewish thought the presence of God is regularly connected with the cloud. It was in the cloud that Moses met God. It was in the cloud that God came to the Tabernacle. It was the cloud which rifled the Temple when it was dedicated after Solomon had built it. And it was the dream of the Jews that when the Messiah came the cloud of God's presence would return to the Temple. ( Exodus 16:10, Exodus 19:9, Exodus 33:9, 1 Kings 8:10, 2Ma_2:8 .) The descent of the cloud is a way of saying that the Messiah had come, and any Jew would understand it like that.

The transfiguration has a double significance.

(i) It did something very precious for Jesus. Jesus had to take his own decisions. He had taken the decision to go to Jerusalem and that was the decision to face and accept the Cross. Obviously he had to be absolutely sure that was right before he could go on. On the mountain top he received a double approval of his decision.

(a) Moses and Elijah met with him. Now Moses was the supreme law-giver of Israel. To him the nation owed the laws of God. Elijah was the first and the greatest of the prophets. Always men looked back to him as the prophet who brought to men the very voice of God. When these two great figures met with Jesus it meant that the greatest of the law-givers and the greatest of the prophets said to him, "Go on!" It meant that they saw in Jesus the consummation of all that they had dreamed of in the past. It meant that they saw in him all that history had longed for and hoped for and looked forward to. It is as if at that moment Jesus was assured that he was on the right way because all history had been leading up to the Cross.

(b) God spoke with Jesus. As always, Jesus did not consult his own wishes. He went to God and said, "What wilt thou have me to do?" He put all his plans and intentions before God. And God said to him, "You are acting as my own beloved Son should act and must act. Go on!" On the mountain of the transfiguration Jesus was assured that he had not chosen the wrong way. He saw, not only the inevitability, but the essential rightness of the Cross.

(ii) It did something very precious for the disciples.

(a) They had been shattered by Jesus' statement that he was going to Jerusalem to die. That seemed to them the complete negation of all that they understood of the Messiah. They were still bewildered and uncomprehending. Things were happening which not only baffled their minds but were also breaking their hearts. What they saw on the mountain of the transfiguration would give them something to hold on to, even when they could not understand. Cross or no Cross, they had heard God's voice acknowledge Jesus as his Son.

(b) It made them in a special sense witnesses of the glory of Christ. A witness has been defined as a man who first sees and then shows. This time on the mountain had shown them the glory of Christ, and now they had the story of this glory to hide in their hearts and to tell to men, not at the moment, but when the time came.

THE FATE OF THE FORERUNNER ( Mark 9:9-13 )

9:9-13 As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus enjoined them that they must not relate to anyone what they had seen, except when the Son of Man should have risen from the dead. They clung to this word, asking among themselves, what this phrase about rising from the dead could mean. They asked Jesus, "Do the experts in the Law not say that Elijah must come first?" "It is true," he said to them, "Elijah comes first and sets all things in order. And yet how does it stand written about the Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But, I say to you, Elijah, too, has come, and they treated him as they wished, even as it stands written about him."

Naturally the three disciples were thinking hard as they came down the mountain-side.

First, Jesus began with an injunction. They must tell no one of what they had seen. Jesus knew quite well that their minds were still haunted by the conception of a Messiah of might and power. If they were to tell of what had happened on the mountain top, of how the glory of God had appeared, of how Moses and Elijah had appeared, how that could be made to chime in with popular expectations! How it could be made to seem a prelude to the burst of God's avenging power on the nations of the world! The disciples still had to learn what Messiahship meant. There was only one thing that could teach them that--the Cross and the Resurrection to follow. When the Cross had taught them what Messiahship meant and when the Resurrection had convinced them that Jesus was the Messiah, then, and then only, they might tell of the glory of the mountain top for then, and then only, would they see it as it ought to be seen--as the prelude, not to the unleashing of God's force, but to the crucifying of God's love.

Still their minds worked on. They could not understand what Jesus' words about resurrection meant. Their whole attitude shows that in fact they never understood them. Their whole outlook when the Cross came was that of men to whom the end had come. We must not blame the disciples. It was simply that they had been so schooled in a completely different idea of Messiahship that they could not take in what Jesus had said.

Then they asked something that was puzzling them. The Jew believed that before the Messiah came Elijah would come to be his herald and forerunner. ( Malachi 4:5-6.) They had a rabbinic tradition that Elijah would come three days before the Messiah. On the first day he would stand on the mountains of Israel, lamenting the desolation of the land. And then in a voice that would be heard from one end of the world to the other, he would cry, "Peace cometh to the world. Peace cometh to the world." On the second day he would cry, "Good cometh to the world. Good cometh to the world." And on the third day he would cry "Jeshuah (see Yeshuw'ah - H3444) (salvation) cometh to the world. Jeshuah cometh to the world." He would restore all things. He would mend the family breaches of the grim last days. He would settle all doubtful points of ritual and ceremonial. He would cleanse the nation by bringing back those wrongfully excluded and driving out those wrongfully included. Elijah had an amazing place in the thought of Israel. He was conceived of as being continuously active in heaven and on earth in their interest, and being the herald of the final consummation.

Inevitably the disciples were wondering "If Jesus is the Messiah what has happened to Elijah?" Jesus' answer was in terms that any Jew would understand. "Elijah," he said, "has come and men treated him as they willed. They took him and they arbitrarily applied their will to him and forgot God's will." He was referring to the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist at the hands of Herod. Then, by implication, he drove them back to that thought they would not face and that he was determined they must face. By implication he demanded, "If they have done that to the forerunner, what will they do to the Messiah?"

Jesus was overturning all the preconceived notions and ideas of his disciples. They looked for the emergence of Elijah, the coming of the Messiah, the irruption of God into time and the shattering victory of heaven, which they identified with the triumph of Israel. He was trying to compel them to see that in fact the herald had been cruelly killed and the Messiah must end on a Cross. They still did not understand, and their failure to understand was due to the cause which always makes men fail to understand--they clung to their way and refused to see God's way. They wished things as they desired them and not as God had ordered them. the error of their thoughts had blinded them to the revelation of God's truth.

COMING DOWN FROM THE MOUNT ( Mark 9:14-18 )

9:14-18 When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd gathered around them, and the experts in the law engaged in discussion with them. And as soon as they saw him the whole crowd were amazed and ran to him and greeted him. He asked them, "What are you discussing among yourselves?" And one of the crowd answered him, "Teacher, I brought my son to you because he has a spirit which makes him dumb. And whenever the spirit seizes him, it convulses him, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth, and he is wasting away. And I asked your disciples to cast it out and they could not."

This is the kind of thing that Peter had wanted to avoid. On the mountain top, in the presence of the glory, Peter had said, "This is a good place for us to be." Then he had wanted to build three booths for Jesus and Moses and Elijah, and to stay there. Life was so much better, so much nearer God, there on the mountain top. Why ever come down again? But it is of the very essence of life that we must come down from the mountain top. It has been said that in religion there must be solitude, but not solitariness. The solitude is necessary, for a man must keep his contact with God; but if a man, in his search for the essential solitude, shuts himself off from his fellow-men, shuts his ears to their appeal for help, shuts his heart to the cry of their tears, that is not religion. The solitude is not meant to make us solitary. It is meant to make us better able to meet and cope with the demands of everyday life.

Jesus came down to a delicate situation. A father had brought his boy to the disciples, and the boy was an epileptic. All the symptoms were there. The disciples had been quite unable to deal with his case, and that had given the scribes their chance. The helplessness of the disciples was a first-rate opportunity to belittle not only them but their Master. That is what made the situation so delicate, and that is what makes every human situation so delicate for the Christian. His conduct, his words, his ability or inability to cope with the demands of life, are used as a yard-stick, not only to judge him, but to judge Jesus Christ.

A. Victor Murray, in his book on Christian Education, writes, "There are those into whose eyes comes a far-away look when they talk about the church. It is a supernatural society, the body of Christ, his spotless bride, the custodian of the oracles of God, the blessed company of the redeemed, and a few more romantic titles, none of which seem to tally with what the outsider can see for himself in 'St. Agatha's Parish Church,' or 'High Street Methodists.'" It does not matter how high-sounding a man's professions may be, it is by his actions that people judge him, and, in judging him, judge his Master. That was the situation here.

Then Jesus arrived. When the people saw him, they were astonished. We are not for one moment to think that the radiance of the transfiguration still lingered on him. That would have been to undo his own instructions that it be kept as yet a secret. The crowd had thought him away up in the lonely slopes of Hermon. They had been so engrossed in their argument that they had not seen him come, and now, just when the moment was right, here he was in the midst of them. It was at his sudden, unexpected but opportune arrival, that they were surprised.

Here we learn two things about Jesus.

(i) He was ready to face the Cross and he was ready to face the common problem just as either came. It is characteristic of human nature that we can face the great crisis-moments of life with honour and dignity, but allow the routine demands of everyday to irritate and annoy us. We can face the shattering blows of life with a certain heroism, but allow the petty pinpricks to upset us. Many a man can face a great disaster or a great loss with calm serenity and yet loses his temper if a meal is badly cooked or a train late. The amazing thing about Jesus was that he could serenely face the Cross, and just as calmly deal with the day-to-day emergencies of life. The reason was that he did not keep God only for the crisis as so many of us do. He walked the daily paths of life with him.

(ii) He had come into the world to save the world, and yet he could give himself in his entirety to the helping of one single person. It is much easier to preach the gospel of love for mankind than it is to love individual not-very-lovable sinners. It is easy to be filled with a sentimental affection for the human race, and just as easy to find it too much bother to go out of our way to help an individual member of it. Jesus had the gift, which is the gift of a regal nature, of giving himself entirely to every person with whom he happened to be.

THE CRY OF FAITH ( Mark 9:19-24 )

9:19-24 "O faithless generation!" Jesus answered. "How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear you? Bring him to me!" They brought him to Jesus. When he saw Jesus, the spirit immediately sent the boy into a convulsion, and he fell upon the ground, and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked his father, "How long is it since this happened to him?" He said, "He has been like this since he was a child. Often it throws him into the fire and into waters for it is out to destroy him. But, if you can, let your heart be moved with pity, and help us." Jesus said to him, "You say, 'If you can.' All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the boy cried out, "I do believe. Help my unbelief."

This passage begins with a cry wrung from the heart of Jesus. He had been on the mountain top and had faced the tremendous task that lay ahead of him. He had decided to stake his life on the redemption of the world. And now he had come back down to find his nearest followers, his own chosen men, beaten and baffled and helpless and ineffective. The thing, for the moment, must have daunted even Jesus. He must have had a sudden realization of what anyone else would have called the hopelessness of his task. He must at that moment have almost despaired of the attempt to change human nature and to make men of the world into men of God.

How did he meet the moment of despair? "Bring the boy to me," he said. When we cannot deal with the ultimate situation, the thing to do is to deal with the situation which at the moment confronts us. It was as if Jesus said, "I do not know how I am ever to change these disciples of mine, but I can at this moment help this boy. Let me get on with the present task, and not despair of the future."

Again and again that is the way to avoid despair. If we sit and think about the state of the world, we may well become very depressed; then let us get to action in our small corner of the world. We may sometimes despair of the church; then let us get to action in our own small part of the church. Jesus did not sit appalled and paralysed at the slowness of men's minds; he dealt with the immediate situation. As Kingsley had it,

"Do the work that's nearest,

Though it's dull at whiles,

Helping when we meet them

Lame dogs over stiles."

The surest way to avoid pessimism and despair is to take what immediate action we can--and there is always something to be done.

To the father of the boy Jesus stated the conditions of a miracle. "To him who believes," said Jesus, "all things are possible." It was as if Jesus said, "The cure of your boy depends, not on me, but on you." This is not a specially theological truth; it is universal. To approach anything in the spirit of hopelessness is to make it hopeless; to approach anything in the spirit of faith is to make it a possibility. Cavour once said that what a statesman needed above all was "a sense of the possible." Most of us are cursed with a sense of the impossible, and that is precisely why miracles do not happen.

The whole attitude of the father of the boy is most illuminating. Originally he had come seeking for Jesus himself. Since Jesus was on the mountain top he had had to deal with the disciples and his experience of them was discouraging. His faith was badly shaken, so badly shaken that when he came to Jesus all he could say at first was, "Help me, if you can." then, face to face with Jesus, suddenly his faith blazed up again. "I believe," he cried. "If there is still some discouragement in me, still some doubts, take them away and fill me with an unquestioning faith."

It sometimes happens that people get less than they hoped for from some church or from some servant of the church. When that happens they ought to press beyond the church to the Master of the church, beyond the servant of Christ to Christ himself. The church may at times disappoint us, and God's servants on earth may disappoint us. But when we battle our way face to face with Jesus Christ, he never disappoints us.

THE CAUSE OF FAILURE ( Mark 9:25-29 )

9:25-29 When Jesus saw that the crowd was running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit. "Spirit of dumbness and deafness," he said, "I order you, come out of him, and don't go into him again." When it had cried and violently convulsed him it came out, and he became like a dead man, so that many said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up, and he stood up. When he had gone into the house, and when they were by themselves, his disciples asked him, "Why were we not able to cast it out?" "This kind," he said to them, "cannot come out except by prayer."

Jesus must have taken father and son aside. But the crowd, hearing their cries, came running up, and Jesus acted. There was one last struggle, a struggle to complete exhaustion, and the boy was cured.

When they were by themselves the disciples asked the cause of their failure. They were no doubt remembering that Jesus had sent them out to preach and heal and cast out devils ( Mark 3:14-15). Why, then, had they this time so signally failed? Jesus answered quite simply that this kind of cure demanded prayer.

In effect he said to them, "You don't live close enough to God." They had been equipped with power, but it needed prayer to maintain it.

There is a deep lesson here. God may have given us a gift, but unless we maintain close contact with him it may wither and die. That is true of any gift. God may give a man great natural gifts as a preacher, but unless he maintains contact with God, he may in the end become only a man of words and not a man of power. God may give a man a gift of music or of song, but unless he maintains contact with God, he may become a mere professional, who uses the gift only for gain, which is a dreary thing. That is not to say a man should not use a gift for gain. He has a right to capitalize any talent. But it does mean that, even when he is so using it, he should be finding joy in it because he is also using it for God. It is told of Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish soprano, that before every performance she would stand alone in her dressing-room and pray, "God, help me to sing true to-night."

Unless we maintain this contact with God we lose two things however great our gift may be.

(i) We lose vitality. We lose that living power, that something plus which makes for greatness. The thing becomes a performance instead of an offering to God. What should be a vital, living body becomes a beautiful corpse.

(ii) We lose humility. What should be used for God's glory we begin to use for our own, and the virtue goes out of it. What should have been used to set God before men is used to set ourselves before them, and the breath of loveliness is gone.

Here is a warning thought. The disciples had been equipped with power direct from Jesus, but they had not nurtured power with prayer, and power had vanished. Whatever gifts God has given us, we lose them when we use them for ourselves. We keep them when we enrich them by continual contact with the God who gave them.

FACING THE END ( Mark 9:30-31 )

9:30-31 When they left there, they made their way through Galilee, and Jesus did not wish anyone to know where he was, for he kept teaching the disciples and saying to them, "The Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and, when he has been killed, after three days he will rise again." But they did not understand what he said, and they were afraid to ask him what it meant.

This passage marks a mile-stone. Jesus had now left the north country where he was safe and was taking the first step towards Jerusalem and to the Cross which awaited him there. For once he did not watt the crowds around him. He knew quite clearly that unless he could write his message on the hearts of his chosen men, he had failed. Any teacher can leave behind him a series of propositions, but Jesus knew that that was not enough. He had to leave behind him a band of persons on whom these propositions were written. He had to make sure, before he left this world in the body, that there were some who understood, however dimly, what he had come to say.

This time the tragedy of his warning is even more poignant. If we compare it with the previous passage in which he foretold his death ( Mark 8:31), we see that one phrase is added, "The Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of men." There was a traitor in the little band, and Jesus knew it. He could see the way in which the mind of Judas was working. Maybe he could see it better than Judas could himself. And when he said, "The Son of Man is being delivered into the hands of men." he was not only announcing a fact and giving a warning, he was also making a last appeal to the man in whose heart was forming the purpose of betrayal.

Even yet the disciples did not understand. The thing they did not understand was the bit about rising again. By this time they were aware of the atmosphere of tragedy, but to the end of the day they never grasped the certainty of the Resurrection. That was a wonder that was too great for them, a wonder that they grasped only when it became an accomplished fact.

When they did not understand, they were afraid to ask any further questions. They were like men who knew so much that they were afraid to know more. A man might receive a verdict from his doctor. He might think the general purport of the verdict bad, but not understand all the details, and he might be afraid to ask questions, for the simple reason that he is afraid to know any more. The disciples were like that.

Sometimes we are amazed that they did not grasp what was so plainly spoken. The human mind has an amazing faculty for rejecting what it does not wish to see. Are we so very different? Over and over again we have heard the Christian message. We know the glory of accepting it and the tragedy of rejecting it, but many of us are just as far off as ever we were from giving it our full allegiance and moulding our lives to fit it. Men still accept the parts of the Christian message which they like and which suit them, and refuse to understand the rest.

THE TRUE AMBITION ( Mark 9:32-35 )

9:32-35 So they came to Capernaum. When Jesus was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" They remained silent. for on the road they had been arguing with each other who was to be greatest. So Jesus sat down, and called the Twelve, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to be first, he must be the last of all, and the servant of all."

Nothing so well shows how far the disciples were from realizing the real meaning of Jesus' Messiahship as this does. Repeatedly he had told them what awaited him in Jerusalem, and yet they were still thinking of his Kingdom in earthly terms and of themselves as his chief ministers of state. There is something heart-breaking in the thought of Jesus going towards a Cross and his disciples arguing about who would be greatest.

Yet in their heart of hearts they knew they were wrong. When he asked them what they had been arguing about they had nothing to say. It was the silence of shame. They had no defence. It is strange how a thing takes its proper place and acquires its true character when it is set in the eyes of Jesus. So long as they thought that Jesus was not listening and that Jesus had not seen, the argument about who should be greatest seemed fair enough, but when that argument had to be stated in the presence of Jesus it was seen in all its unworthiness.

If we took everything and set it in the sight of Jesus it would make all the difference in the world. If of everything we did, we asked, "Could I go on doing this if Jesus was watching me?"; if of everything we said, we asked, "Could I go on talking like this if Jesus was listening to me?" there would be many things which we would be saved from doing and saying. And the fact of Christian belief is that there is no "if" about it. All deeds are done, all words are spoken in his presence. God keep us from the words and deeds which we would be ashamed that he should hear and see.

Jesus dealt with this very seriously. It says that he sat down and called the Twelve to him. When a Rabbi was teaching as a Rabbi, as a master teaches his scholars and disciples, when he was really making a pronouncement, he sat to teach. Jesus deliberately took up the position of a Rabbi teaching his pupils before he spoke. And then he told them that if they sought for greatness in his Kingdom they must find it, not by being first but by being last, not by being masters but by being servants of all. It was not that Jesus abolished ambition. Rather he recreated and sublimated ambition. For the ambition to rule he substituted the ambition to serve. For the ambition to have things done for us he substituted the ambition to do things for others.

So far from being an impossibly idealistic view, this is a view of the soundest common-sense. The really great men, the men who are remembered as having made a real contribution to life, are the men who said to themselves, not, "How can I use the state and society to further my own prestige and my own personal ambitions?" but, "How can I use my personal gifts and talents to serve the state?"

Stanley Baldwin paid a noble tribute to Lord Curzon when he died. In it he said, "I want, before I sit down, to say one or two things that no one but I can say. A Prime Minister sees human nature bared to the bone, and it was my chance to see him twice when he suffered great disappointment--the time when I was preferred to him as Prime Minister, and the time when I had to tell him that he could render greater service to the country as chairman of the Committee of Imperial Defence than in the Foreign Office. Each of these occasions was a profound and bitter disappointment to him, but never for one moment did he show by word, look, or innuendo, or by any reference to the subject afterwards, that he was dissatisfied. He bore no grudge, and he pursued no other course than the one I expected of him, of doing his duty where it was decided he could best render service." Here was a man whose greatness lay not in the fact that he reached the highest offices of state, but in the fact that he was ready to serve his country anywhere.

True selflessness is rare, and when it is found it is remembered. The Greeks had a story of a Spartan called Paedaretos. Three hundred men were to be chosen to govern Sparta and Paedaretos was a candidate. When the list of the successful was announced his name was not on it. "I am sorry," said one of his friends, "that you were not elected. The people ought to have known what a wise officer of state you would have made." "I am glad," said Paedaretos, "that in Sparta there are three hundred men better than I am." Here was a man who became a legend because he was prepared to give to others the first place and to bear no ill will.

Every economic problem would be solved if men lived for what they could do for others and not for what they could get for themselves. Every political problem would be solved if the ambition of men was only to serve the state and not to enhance their own prestige. The divisions and disputes which tear the church asunder would for the most part never occur if the only desire of its office-bearers and its members was to serve it without caring what position they occupied. When Jesus spoke of the supreme greatness and value of the man whose ambition was to be a servant, he laid down one of the greatest practical truths in the world.

HELPING THE HELPLESS IS HELPING CHRIST ( Mark 9:36-37 )

9:36-37 Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And he took him up in the crook of his arm and said to them, "Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me, but him who sent me."

Jesus is here still dealing with the worthy and the unworthy ambition.

He took a child and set him in the midst. Now a child has no influence at all; a child cannot advance a man's career nor enhance his prestige; a child cannot give us things. It is the other way round. A child needs things; a child must have things done for him. So Jesus says, "If a man welcomes the poor, ordinary people, the people who have no influence and no wealth and no power, the people who need things done for them, he is welcoming me. More than that, he is welcoming God." The child is typical of the person who needs things, and it is the society of the person who needs things that we must seek.

There is a warning here. It is easy to cultivate the friendship of the person who can do things for us, and whose influence can be useful to us. And it is equally easy to avoid the society of the person who inconveniently needs our help. It is easy to curry favour with the influential and the great, and to neglect the simple, humble, ordinary folk. It is easy at some function to seek the society and the notice of some distinguished person, and to avoid the poor relation. In effect Jesus here says that we ought to seek out not those who can do things for us, but those for whom we can do things, for in this way we are seeking the society of himself. This is another way of saying, "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" ( Matthew 25:40).

A LESSON IN TOLERANCE ( Mark 9:38-40 )

9:38-40 John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out demons by the use of your name, and we tried to stop him because he is not one of our company." "Don't stop him," said Jesus. "There is no one who can do a work of power in the strength of my name and lightly speak evil of me. He who is not against us is for us."

As we have seen over and over again, in the time of Jesus everyone believed in demons. Everyone believed that both mental and physical illness was caused by the malign influence of these evil spirits. Now there was one very common way to exorcise them. If one could get to know the name of a still more powerful spirit and command the evil demon in that name to come out of a person, the demon was supposed to be powerless to resist. It could not stand against the might of the more powerful name. This is the kind of picture we have here. John had seen a man using the all-powerful name of Jesus to defeat the demons and he had tried to stop him, because he was not one of the intimate band of the disciples. But Jesus declared that no man could do a mighty work in his name and be altogether his enemy. Then Jesus laid down the great principle that "he who is not against us is for us."

Here is a lesson in tolerance, and it is a lesson that nearly everyone needs to learn.

(i) Every man has a right to his own thoughts. Every man has a right to think things out and to think them through until he comes to his own conclusions and his own beliefs. And that is a right we should respect. We are often too apt to condemn what we do not understand. William Penn once said, "Neither despise nor oppose what thou dost not understand." Kingsley Williams in The New Testament in Plain English, translates a phrase in Jd 10 like this--"Those who speak abusively of everything they do not understand."

There are two things we must remember.

(a) There is far more than one way to God. "God," as Tennyson has it, "fulfils himself in many ways." Cervantes once said, "Many are the roads by which God carries his own to heaven." The world is round, and two people can get to precisely the same destination by starting out in precisely opposite directions. All roads, if we pursue them long enough and far enough, lead to God. It is a fearful thing for any man or any church to think that he or it has a monopoly of salvation.

(b) It is necessary to remember that truth is always bigger than any man's grasp of it. No man can possibly grasp all truth. The basis of tolerance is not a lazy acceptance of anything. It is not the feeling that there cannot be assurance anywhere. The basis of tolerance is simply the realization of the magnitude of the orb of truth. John Morley wrote, "Toleration means reverence for all the possibilities of truth, it means acknowledgment that she dwells in divers mansions, and wears vesture of many colours, and speaks in strange tongues. It means frank respect for freedom of indwelling conscience against mechanical forms, official conventions, social force. It means the charity that is greater than faith or hope." Intolerance is a sign both of arrogance and ignorance, for it is a sign that a man believes that there is no truth beyond the truth he sees.

(ii) Not only must we concede to every man the right to do his own thinking, we must also concede the right to a man to do his own speaking. Of all democratic rights the dearest is that of liberty of speech. There are, of course, limits. If a man is inculcating doctrines calculated to destroy morality and to remove the foundations from all civilized and Christian society, he must be combatted. But the way to combat him is certainly not to eliminate him by force but to prove him wrong. Once Voltaire laid down the conception of freedom of speech in a vivid sentence. "I hate what you say," he said, "but I would die for your right to say it."

(iii) We must remember that any doctrine or belief must finally be judged by the kind of people it produces. Dr. Chalmers once put the matter in a nutshell. "Who cares," he demanded, "about any Church but as an instrument of Christian good?" The question must always ultimately be, not, "How is a Church governed?" but, "What kind of people does a Church produce?"

There is an old eastern fable. A man possessed a ring set with a wonderful opal. Whoever wore the ring became so sweet and true in character that all men loved him. The ring was a charm. Always it was passed down from father to son, and always it did its work. As time went on, it came to a father who had three sons whom he loved with an equal love. What was he to do when the time came to pass on the ring? The father got other two rings made precisely the same so that none could tell the difference. On his death-bed he called each of his sons in, spoke some words of love and to each, without telling the others, gave a ring. When the three sons discovered that each had a ring, a great dispute arose as to which was the true ring that could do so much for its owner. The case was taken to a wise judge. He examined the rings and then he spoke. "I cannot tell which is the magic ring," he said, "but you yourselves can prove it." "We?" asked the sons in astonishment. "Yes," said the judge, "for if the true ring gives sweetness to the character of the man who wears it, then I and all the other people in the city will know the man who possesses the true ring by the goodness of his life. So, go your ways, and be kind, be truthful, be brave, be just in your dealings, and he who does these things will be the owner of the true ring."

The matter was to be proved by life. No man can entirely condemn beliefs which make a man good. If we remember that, we may be less intolerant.

(iv) We may hate a man's beliefs, but we must never hate the man. We may wish to eliminate what he teaches, but we must never wish to eliminate him.

"He drew a circle that shut me out--

Rebel, heretic, thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win--

We drew a circle that took him in."

REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS ( Mark 9:41-42 )

9:41-42 Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink on the ground that you belong to Christ, I tell you truly he will not lose his reward. And whoever puts a stumbling-block in the path of one of these little ones who believe in me, it is better for him that a great millstone hang about his neck and he be cast into the sea.

The teaching of this passage is simple, unmistakable and salutary.

(i) It declares that any kindness shown, any help given, to the people of Christ will not lose its reward. The reason for helping is that the person in need belongs to Jesus. Every man in need has a claim upon us because he is dear to Christ. Had Jesus still been here in the flesh he would have helped that man in the most practical way and the duty of help has devolved on us. It is to be noted how simple the help is. The gift is a cup of cold water. We are not asked to do great things for others, things beyond our power. We are asked to give the simple things that any man can give.

A missionary tells a lovely story. She had been telling a class of African primary children about giving a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus. She was sitting on the veranda of her house. Into the village square came a company of native bearers. They had heavy packs. They were tired and thirsty, and they sat down to rest. Now they were men of another tribe, and had they asked the ordinary non-Christian native for water they would have been told to go and find it for themselves, because of the barrier between the tribes. But as the men sat wearily there, and as the missionary watched, from the school emerged a little line of tiny African girls. On their heads they had pitchers of water. Shyly and fearfully they approached the tired bearers, knelt and offered their pitchers of water. In surprise the bearers took them and drank and handed them back, and the girls took to their heels and ran to the missionary. "We have given a thirsty man a drink," they said, "in the name of Jesus." The little children took the story and the duty literally.

Would that more would do so! It is the simple kindnesses that are needed. As Mahomet said long ago, "Putting a lost man on the right road, giving a thirsty man a drink of water, smiling in your brother's face--that, too, is charity."

(ii) But the converse is also true. To help is to win the eternal reward. To cause a weaker brother to stumble is to win the eternal punishment. The passage is deliberately stern. The mill-stone that is mentioned is a great millstone. There were two kinds of mills in Palestine. There was the hand-mill that the women used in the house. And there was the mill whose stone was so great that it took an ass to turn it.

The mill-stone here is literally an ass' mill-stone. To be cast into the sea with that attached was certainly to have no hope of return. This was in fact a punishment and a means of execution both in Rome and in Palestine. Josephus tells us that when certain Galilaeans had made a successful revolt "they took those of Herod's party and drowned them in the lake." Suetonius, the Roman historian, tells us of Augustus that, "Because the tutor and attendants of his son Gaius took advantage of their master's illness to commit acts of arrogance and greed to his province, he had them thrown into a river with heavy weights about their necks."

To sin is terrible but to teach another to sin is infinitely worse. O. Henry has a story in which he tells of a little girl whose mother was dead. Her father used to come home from work and sit down and take off his jacket and open his paper and light his pipe and put his feet on the mantelpiece. The little girl would come in and ask him to play with her for a little for she was lonely. He told her he was tired, to let him be at peace. He told her to go out to the street and play. She played on the streets. The inevitable happened--she took to the streets. The years passed on and she died. Her soul arrived in heaven. Peter saw her and said to Jesus, "Master, here's a girl who was a bad lot. I suppose we send her straight to hell?" "No," said Jesus gently, "let her in. Let her in." And then his eyes grew stern, "But look for a man who refused to play with his little girl and sent her out to the streets--and send him to hell." God is not hard on the sinner, but he will be stern to the person who makes it easier for another to sin, and whose conduct, either thoughtless or deliberate, puts a stumbling-block in the path of a weaker brother.

THE GOAL WHICH IS WORTH ANY SACRIFICE ( Mark 9:43-48 )

9:43-48 If your hand proves a stumbling-block to you, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than to go away to Gehenna with two hands, to the fire that can never be quenched. And if your foot is a stumbling-block to you, cut it off. For it is better for you to enter life lame than to be cast into Gehenna with two feet. And if your eye proves a stumbling-block to you, cast it away. For it is better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye than to be cast into Gehenna with two eyes, where their worm does not die and the fire is never quenched.

This passage lays down in vivid eastern language the basic truth that there is one goal in life worth any sacrifice. In physical matters it may be that a man may have to part with a limb or with some part of the body to preserve the life of the whole body. The amputation of some limb or the excision of some part of the body by surgical means is sometimes the only way to preserve the life of the whole body. In the spiritual life the same kind of thing can happen.

The Jewish Rabbis had sayings based on the way in which some parts of the body can lend themselves to sin. "The eye and the heart are the two brokers of sin." "The eye and the heart are the two handmaids of sin." "Passions lodge only in him who sees." "Woe to him who goes after his eyes for the eyes are adulterous." There are certain instincts in man, and certain parts of man's physical constitution, which minister to sin. This saying of Jesus is not to be taken literally, but is a vivid eastern way of saying that there is a goal in life worth any sacrifice to attain it.

There are in this passage repeated references to Gehenna. Gehenna is spoken of in the New Testament in Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 10:28; Matthew 18:9; Matthew 23:15; Matthew 23:33; Luke 12:5; James 3:6. The word is regularly translated Hell. It is a word with a history. It is a form of the word Hinnom. The valley of Hinnom was a ravine outside Jerusalem. It had an evil past.

It was the valley in which Ahaz, in the old days, had instituted fire worship and the sacrifice of little children in the fire. "He burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his sons as an offering." ( 2 Chronicles 28:3). That terrible heathen worship was also followed by Manasseh ( 2 Chronicles 33:6). The valley of Hinnom, Gehenna, therefore, was the scene of one of Israel's most terrible lapses into heathen customs. In his reformations Josiah declared it an unclean place. "He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech." ( 2 Kings 23:10).

When the valley had been so declared unclean and had been so desecrated it was set apart as the place where the refuse of Jerusalem was burned. The consequence was that it was a foul, unclean place, where loathsome worms bred on the refuse, and which smoked and smouldered at all times like some vast incinerator. The actual phrase about the worm which does not die, and the fire which is not quenched, comes from a description of the fate of Israel's evil enemies in Isaiah 66:24.

Because of all this Gehenna had become a kind of type or symbol of Hell, the place where the souls of the wicked would be tortured and destroyed. It is so used in the Talmud. "The sinner who desists from the words of the Law will in the end inherit Gehenna." So then Gehenna stands as the place of punishment, and the word roused in the mind of every Israelite the grimmest and most terrible pictures.

But what was the goal for which everything must be sacrificed? It is described in two ways. Twice it is called life, and once it is called the Kingdom of God. How may we define the Kingdom of God? We may take our definition from the Lord's Prayer. In that prayer two petitions are set beside each other. "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." There is no literary device so characteristic of Jewish style as parallelism. In parallelism two phrases are set side by side, the one of which either restates the other, or amplifies, explains and develops it. Any verse of the Psalms will show this device in action. So, then, we may take it that in the Lord's Prayer the one petition is an explanation and amplification of the other. When we set the two together we get the definition that, "The Kingdom of Heaven is a society upon earth in which God's will is as perfectly done in earth as it is in heaven."

We may then go on to say quite simply that perfectly to do God's will is to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. And if we take that and apply it to the passage we are now studying it will mean that it is worth any sacrifice and any discipline and any self-denial to do the will of God and only in doing that will is there real life and ultimate and completely satisfying peace.

Origen takes this symbolically. He says that it may be necessary to excise some heretic or some evil person from the fellowship of the Church in order to keep the body of the Church pure. But this saying is meant to be taken very personally. It means that it may be necessary to excise some habit, to abandon some pleasure, to give up some friendship, to cut out some thing which has become very dear to us, in order to be fully obedient to the will of God. This is not a matter with which anyone can deal for anyone else. It is solely a matter of a man's individual conscience, and it means that, if there is anything in our lives which is coming between us and a perfect obedience to the will of God, however much habit and custom may have made it part of our lives, it must be rooted out. The rooting out may be as painful as a surgical operation, it may seem like cutting out part of our own body, but if we are to know real life, real happiness and real peace it must go. This may sound bleak and stern, but in reality it is only facing the facts of life.

THE SALT OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE ( Mark 9:49-50 )

9:49-50 Everyone must be salted with fire, Salt is good, but, if the salt has become saltless, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and so live at peace with each other.

These three verses are amongst the most difficult in the New Testament. The commentators produce scores of different interpretations. The interpretation will become easier if we remember something we have already had cause to note. Often Jesus dropped pithy sayings which stuck in men's minds because they could not possibly forget them. But often, although men remembered the saying, they did not remember the occasion on which it was said. The result is that we often get a series of quite disconnected sayings of Jesus set together because they stuck in the writer's mind in that order.

Here is an instance of this. We will not make sense of these two verses at all unless we recognize that here we have three quite separate sayings of Jesus which have nothing to do with each other. They came together in the compiler's mind and stuck there together in this order because they all contain the word salt. They are a little collection of sayings of Jesus in which he used salt in various ways as metaphor or illustration. AD this is to say that we must not try to find some remote connection between these sayings. We must take them individually and interpret each as it comes.

(i) Everyone must be salted by fire. According to the Jewish Law every sacrifice must be salted with salt before it was offered to God on the altar ( Leviticus 2:13). That sacrificial salt was called the salt of the covenant ( Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5). It was the addition of that salt which made the sacrifice acceptable to God, and which his covenant law laid down as necessary. This saying of Jesus will then mean, "Before a Christian life becomes acceptable to God it must be treated with fire just as every sacrifice is treated with salt." The fire is the salt which makes the life acceptable to God.

What does that mean? In ordinary New Testament language, fire has two connections.

(a) It is connected with purification. It is the fire which purifies the base metal; the alloy is separated and the metal left pure. Fire then will mean everything which purifies life, the discipline by which a man conquers his sin, the experiences of life which purify and strengthen the sinews of the soul. In that case this will mean, "The life which is acceptable to God is the life which has been cleansed and purified by the discipline of Christian obedience and Christian acceptance of the guiding hand of God."

(b) Fire is connected with destruction. In that case this saying will have to do with persecution. It will mean that the life which has undergone the trials and hardships and perils of persecution is the life which is acceptable to God. The man who has voluntarily faced the danger of the destruction of his goods and the destruction of his own life because of his loyalty to Jesus Christ is the man who is dear to God.

We may take this first saying of Jesus to mean that the life which is purified by discipline and has faced the danger of persecution because of its loyalty is the sacrifice which is precious to God.

(ii) Salt is good, but if the salt has become saltless, with what will you season it? This is an even harder saying to interpret. We would not say that there are no other possible interpretations, but we would suggest that it may be understood on the following lines. Salt has two characteristic virtues. First, it lends flavour to things. An egg without salt is an insipid thing. Anyone knows how unpleasant many a dish is when the salt which should have been included is accidentally omitted in the preparation. Second, salt was the earliest of all preservatives. To keep a thing from going rotten salt was used. The Greeks used to say that salt acted like a soul in a dead body. Dead meat left to itself went bad, but, pickled in salt, it retained its freshness. The salt seemed to put a kind of life into it. Salt defended against corruption.

Now the Christian was sent into a heathen society to do something for it. Heathen society had two characteristics. First, it was bored and world-weary. The very luxuries and excesses of that ancient world were a proof that in its bored weariness it was looking for some thrill in a life from which all thrill had gone. As Matthew Arnold wrote,

"On that hard pagan world, disgust

And secret loathing fell;

Deep weariness and sated lust

Made human life a hell.

In his cool hall, with haggard eyes,

The Roman noble lay;

He drove abroad in furious guise

Along the Appian Way;

He made a feast, drank fierce and fast,

And crowned his hair with flowers--

No easier nor no quicker passed

The impracticable hours."

Into that bored and weary world Christianity came, and it was the task of the Christian to impart to society a new flavour and a new thrill as salt does to the dish with which it is used.

Second, that ancient world was corrupt. No one knew that better than the ancients themselves. Juvenal likened Rome to a filthy sewer. Purity was gone and chastity was unknown. Into that corrupt world Christianity came, and it was the task of the Christian to bring an antiseptic to the poison of life, to bring a cleansing influence into that corruption. Just as salt defeated the corruption which inevitably attacked dead meat, so Christianity was to attack the corruption of the world.

So then in this saying Jesus was challenging the Christian. "The world," he said, "needs the flavour and the purity that only the Christian can bring. And if the Christian himself has lost the thrill and the purity of the Christian life, where will the world ever get these things?" Unless the Christian, in the power of Christ, defeats world-weariness and world corruption, these things must flourish unchecked.

(iii) Have salt in yourselves and live at peace with each other. Here we must take salt in the sense of purity. The ancients declared that there was nothing in the world purer than salt because it came from the two purest things, the sun and the sea. The very glistening whiteness of salt was a picture of purity. So this will mean, "Have within yourselves the purifying influence of the Spirit of Christ. Be purified from selfishness and self-seeking, from bitterness and anger and grudge-bearing. Be cleansed from irritation and moodiness and self-centredness, and then, and then only, you will be able to live in peace with your fellow men." In other words, Jesus is saying that it is only the life that is cleansed of self and filled with Christ which can live in real fellowship with men.

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire,.... When he has been near it; so that one part or other of his body has been scorched, or burnt, and his life in danger:

and into the waters to destroy him: when he has been near any brook, or river, it has thrown him into it, in order to drown him, as into the fire to burn him. The Ethiopic version before fire and water reads, "into the deep"; meaning either the sea or some deep pit, or off a precipice. All this is said to aggravate the case, and show the miserable condition the child was in, from the frequency of the fits, and the danger he was exposed to:

but if thou canst do any thing. This man's faith was very weak, and perhaps weaker than when he first came from home with his child. He had brought him to the disciples of Christ, and they could not cure him; the evil spirit was as strong, or stronger in him than ever; he now lay in a violent fit, and in a most miserable condition; so that he was almost ready to despair of healing: some small hopes he had that Christ might be able to relieve in this case; but he puts an if upon his power, and earnestly entreats him, if he had any, he would put it forth:

have compassion on us, and help us; his child that lay in such a deplorable condition, rolling on the ground at his feet; and himself, who was greatly afflicted for him: he tries, in very moving language, both the power and pity of Christ; and begs that if he had either, he would exert them on this occasion.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      14 And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them.   15 And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him.   16 And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them?   17 And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;   18 And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.   19 He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.   20 And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.   21 And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.   22 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.   23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.   24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.   25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.   26 And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.   27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.   28 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?   29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

      We have here the story of Christ casting the devil out of a child, somewhat more fully related than it was in Matthew 17:14, c. Observe here,

      I. Christ's return to his disciples, and the perplexity he found them in. He laid aside his robes of glory, and came to look after his family, and to enquire what was become of them. Christ's glory above does not make him forget the concerns of his church below, which he visits in great humility,Mark 9:14; Mark 9:14. And he came very seasonably, when the disciples were embarrassed and run a-ground; the scribes, who were sworn enemies both to him and them, had gained an advantage against them. A child possessed with a devil was brought to them, and they could not cast out the devil, whereupon the scribes insulted over them, and reflected upon their Master, and triumphed as if the day were their own. He found the scribes questioning with them, in the hearing of the multitude, some of whom perhaps began to be shocked by it. Thus Moses, when he came down from the mount, found the camp of Israel in great disorder; so soon were Christ and Moses missed. Christ's return was very welcome, no doubt, to the disciples, and unwelcome to the scribes. But particular notice is taken of its being very surprising to the people, who perhaps were ready to say, As for this Jesus, we wot not what is become of him; but when they beheld him coming to them again, they were greatly amazed (some copies add, kai exephobethesan--and they were afraid); and running to him (some copies for prostrechontes, read proschairontes--congratulating him, or bidding him welcome), they saluted him. It is easy to give a reason why they should be glad to see him; but why where they amazed, greatly amazed, when they beheld him? Probably, there might remain something unusual in his countenance; as Moses's face shone when he came down from the mount, which made the people afraid to come nigh him,Exodus 34:40. So perhaps did Christ's face, in some measure; at least, instead of seeming fatigued, there appeared a wonderful briskness and sprightliness in his looks, which amazed them.

      II. The case which perplexed the disciples, brought before him. He asked the scribes, who, he knew, were always vexatious to his disciples, and teazing them upon every occasion, "What question ye with them? What is the quarrel now?" The scribes made no answer, for they were confounded at his presence; the disciples made none, for they were comforted, and now left all to him. But the father of the child opened the case, Mark 9:17; Mark 9:18. 1. His child is possessed with a dumb spirit; he has the falling-sickness, and in his fits is speechless; his case is very sad, for, wheresoever the fit takes him, the spirit tears him, throws him into such violent convulsions as almost pull him to pieces; and, which is very grievous to himself, and frightful to those about him, he foams at his mouth, and gnashes with his teeth, as one in pain and great misery; and though the fits go off presently, yet they leave him so weak, that he pines away, is worn to a skeleton; his flesh is dried away; so the word signifies, Psalms 102:3-5. This was a constant affliction to a tender father. 2. The disciples cannot give him any relief; "I desired they would cast him out, as they had done many, and they would willingly have done it, but they could not; and therefore thou couldest never have come in better time; Master, I have brought him to thee."

      III. The rebuke he gave to them all (Mark 9:19; Mark 9:19); O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Dr. Hammond understands this as spoken to the disciples, reproving them for not exerting the power he had given them, and because they did not fast and pray, as in some cases he had directed them to do. But Dr. Whitby takes it as a rebuke to the scribes, who gloried in this disappointment that the disciples met with, and hoped to run them down with it. Them he calls a faithless generation, and speaks as one weary of being with them, and of bearing with them. We never heard him complaining, "How long shall I be in this low condition, and suffer that?" But, "How long shall I be among these faithless people, and suffer them?"

      IV. The deplorable condition that the child was actually in, when he was brought to Christ, and the doleful representation which the father made of it. When the child saw Christ, he fell into a fit; The spirit straightway tore him, boiled within him, troubled him (so Dr. Hammond); as if the devil would set Christ at defiance, and hoped to be too hard for him too, and to keep possession in spite of him. The child fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. We may put another construction upon it--that the devil raged, and had so much the greater wrath, because he knew that his time was short,Revelation 7:12. Christ asked, How long since this came to him? And, it seems, the disease was of long standing; it came to him of a child (Mark 9:21; Mark 9:21), which made the case the more sad, and the cure more difficult. We are all by nature children of disobedience, and in such the evil spirit works, and has done so from our childhood; for foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, and nothing but the mighty grace of Christ can cast it out.

      V. The pressing instances which the father of the child makes with Christ for a cure (Mark 9:22; Mark 9:22); Ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him. Note, The devil aims at the ruin of those in whom he rules and works, and seeks whom he may devour. But, if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. The leper was confident of Christ's power, but put an if upon his will (Matthew 8:2); If thou wilt, thou canst. This poor man referred himself to his good-will, but put an if upon his power, because his disciples, who cast out devils in his name, had been non-plussed in this case. Thus Christ suffers in his honour by the difficulties and follies of his disciples.

      VI. The answer Christ gave to his address (Mark 9:23; Mark 9:23); If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Here, 1. He tacitly checks the weakness of his faith. The sufferer put it upon Christ's power, If thou canst do any thing, and reflected on the want of power in the disciples; but Christ turns it upon him, and puts him upon questioning his own faith, and will have him impute the disappointment to the want of that; If thou canst believe. 2. He graciously encourages the strength of his desire; "All things are possible, will appear possible, to him that believes the almighty power of God, to which all things are possible;" or "That shall be done by the grace of God, for them that believe in the promise of God, which seemed utterly impossible." Note, In dealing with Christ, very much is put upon our believing, and very much promised it. Canst thou believe? Darest thou believe? Art thou willing to venture thy all in the hands of Christ? To venture all thy spiritual concerns with him, and all thy temporal concerns for him? Canst thou find in thy heart to do this? If so, it is not impossible but that, though thou has been a great sinner, thou mayest be reconciled; though thou art very mean and unworthy, thou mayest get to heaven. If thou canst believe, it is possible that thy hard heart may be softened, thy spiritual diseases may be cured; and that, weak as thou art, thou mayest be able to hold out to the end.

      VII. The profession of faith which the poor man made hereupon (Mark 9:24; Mark 9:24); He cried out, "Lord, I believe; I am fully persuaded both of thy power and of thy pity; my cure shall not be prevented by the want of faith; Lord, I believe." He adds a prayer for grace to enable him more firmly to rely upon the assurances he had of the ability and willingness of Christ to save; Help thou my unbelief. Note, 1. Even those who through grace can say, Lord, I believe, have reason to complain of their unbelief; that they cannot so readily apply to themselves, and their own case, the word of Christ as they should, no so cheerfully depend upon it. 2. Those that complain of unbelief, must look up to Christ for grace to help them against it, and his grace shall be sufficient for them. "Help mine unbelief, help me to a pardon for it, help me with power against it; help out what is wanting in my faith with thy grace, the strength of which is perfected in our weakness."

      VIII. The cure of the child, and the conquest of this raging devil in the child. Christ saw the people come running together, expecting to see the issue of this trial of skill, and therefore kept them in suspense no longer, but rebuked the foul spirit; the unclean spirit, so it should be rendered, as in other places. Observe, 1. What the charge was which Christ gave to this unclean spirit; "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, that makest the poor child dumb and deaf, but shalt thyself be made to hear thy doom, and not be able to say any thing against it, come out of him immediately, and enter no more into him. Let him not only be brought out of this fit, but let his fits never return." Note, Whom Christ cures, he cures effectually. Satan may go out himself, and yet recover possession; but if Christ cast him out, he will keep him out. 2. How the unclean spirit took it; he grew yet more outrageous, he cried, and rent him sore, gave him such a twitch at parting, that he was as one dead; so loth was he to quit his hold, so exasperated at the superior power of Christ, so malicious to the child, and so desirous was he to kill him. Many said, He is dead. Thus the toss that a soul is in at the breaking of Satan's power in it may perhaps be frightful for the present, but opens the door to lasting comfort. 3. How the child was perfectly restored (Mark 9:27; Mark 9:27); Jesus took him by the hand, kratesas--took fast hold of him, and strongly bore him up, and he arose and recovered, and all was well.

      IX. The reason he gave to the disciples why they could not cast out this devil. They enquired of him privately why they could not, that wherein they were defective might be made up another time, and they might not again be thus publicly shamed; and he told them (Mark 9:29; Mark 9:29), This kind can come forth by nothing but prayer and fasting. Whatever other difference there really might be, none appears between this and other kinds, but that the unclean spirit had had possession of this poor patient from a child, and that strengthened his interest, and confirmed his hold. When vicious habits are rooted by long usage, and begin to plead prescription, like chronical diseases that are hardly cured. Can the Æthiopian change his skin? The disciples must not think to do their work always with a like ease; some services call them to take more than ordinary pains; but Christ can do that with a word's speaking, which they must prevail for the doing of by prayer and fasting.