Sermon from May 6, 2001
The meaning of the miracles of Jesus continues to tantalize me. The miracles astound us and make us wish we could see them every day of our lives. But if we saw a miracle everyday, what meaning would we give to the miracle? We might interpret it economically: miracles lower the cost of health care. We might interpret it socially: why do so many miracles happen in that part of town and so few happen on my street? We could interpret it politically: how should we regulate this power? We don't want it to fall into the hands of the Chinese.  We could take it for granted: Oh, yes, now that you mention it, old Mr. Fagan down the street did get cured of lymphoma yesterday. What do miracles mean? What do the miracles of Jesus mean? What do they point to beyond themselves? That states the crucial issue.

The Gospel of Mark itself reports Jesus' miracles in a way that tantalizes readers with their meaning. For example, if you remember chapters one and two, Mark reported a miracle in nearly every episode. They were as plentiful as raindrops throughout the first eight chapters. In the last eight chapters Mark reports exactly two miracles of healing that Jesus did, one in chapter nine, one in chapter ten, and none thereafter. Why so few? Why didn't Mark spread them out more evenly throughout the book? Can we discern the meaning Mark put on the miracles of Jesus?

Today, I want to talk about one of Mark's guiding principles in reporting Jesus' miracles. Let me state the principle and then talk about it in more detail. The guiding principle seems to be as follows: Jesus' miracles always offer powerful material evidence of spiritual realities, always in relation to Jesus, occasionally in relation to His disciples.

First, in relation to Jesus the healing of the paralytic in Mark 2:1-12 gives evidence of what Mark (and Jesus) meant by a miracle. He forgave the paralytic His sins, and when the authorities challenged that, Jesus made this pivotal statement. "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins ..." He said to the paralytic, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home," (Mark 2:9), and the paralytic was healed. Jesus meant for His power to heal to give material evidence of His authority to forgive sins. So, we can say that Mark used Jesus' miracles to illustrate Jesus' authority in some way, and Jesus seems to have understood them that way too.

Second, Mark also used some of Jesus' miracles to interpret the spiritual condition of Jesus' disciples. For example, when Jesus healed the deaf-mute in chapter seven and the blind man in chapter eight, those miracles served as illustrations in the flesh of the miracles needed in the human spirit in order for Jesus' disciples (then and now) to grasp the true meaning of what was going on in the words and deeds of Jesus. This use of miracles is less frequent than the first, but beginning in chapter seven, it is the most frequent use. In fact, the miracle in chapter nine and the miracle at the end of chapter ten both call attention to the spiritual condition of Jesus' disciples. We begin today in Mark 9:14-29.

Verses 14-15 present us with a familiar scene: crowds, crowds and more crowds. When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. Jesus, understandably, wondered what the argument was about. Verse 16: "What are you arguing with them about?" he asked. His answer came from an unexpected quarter.

Verses 17-18 say, A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not." Jesus' answer in verse 19 strikes the keynote of this story.

"O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." Jesus included His unsuccessful disciples in this statement of unbelief, and that leads to an important observation. Verse 28 makes me think they were surprised by their failure to drive out the demon. They asked Jesus, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" That does not sound like people who lacked confidence. They had expected to be successful. They had cast out demons before; they would cast this one out. But they hadn't. They couldn't.

In verse 19 Jesus said it was because of their unbelief. In verse 29 He expressed it this way: He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer." But Jesus had long ago given them authority to cast out demons. We saw that as early as Mark 3 and saw it in action in Mark six. But they could not do it here in chapter nine. Do you think they got cocky? Do you think they presumed on their past success? I think so.

Jesus was saying in effect, "The kingdom of God does not make its impact in this world because of your can-do attitude. It works on a different principle. It works by faith, by trust, and prayer is a great expression of your trust. Jesus seemed wearied by their inability to grasp that principle. "How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?" I wonder if He is wearied by our inability to grasp that principle?

We are a congregation of Type A personalities. We are marked by a can-do attitude toward life. It is hard to be told: that doesn't make it happen in th Kingdom of God; faith makes it happen, trusting God makes it happen. This principle of trusting God goes down deeply in the experience of Israel and the Church. Listen to the following ways in which God's people have expressed this principle.

"Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the LORD (Zech. 4:6). This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me," (Jer. 9: 23:24). No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength .... But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is his unfailing love, to deliver them from death," (Psa. 34:16-19).

God does not despise power, might and wisdom, riches, strength and armies. They are His gifts to the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve, and we are to receive them and to use them well. But in every case the message comes through loud and clear: none of these gifts, even taken to an irresistible degree of power, can deliver humanity from the destabilizing power of sin that constantly threatens human life. Such deliverance comes only from God.

So we have to look at the power, might and wisdom, the riches, strength, and armies that feed our can-do attitudes and confess their impotence to do the one thing humanity most needs doing. And then with humility and from the deepest places of our most secret heart we confess, salvation comes from the LORD (Jonah 2:9).

That fundamental confession, that fundamental decision of the heart was precisely what Jesus did not find in the nine, confident, can-do disciples, who suddenly found themselves impotent to help the suffering child. What does God, before whom all hearts are open, all desires known, find, when He walks among us in this congregation? If He were to find the same unbelief and tell us that our can-do attitude toward life doesn't make it happen in the Kingdom of God, that faith makes it happen, trusting God makes it happen, then more than anythign else it would violate our sense of freedom.

The secular doctrine of freedom teaches us that our money, smarts and looks make us self-sufficient, independent people who can make good things happen for ourselves and for other people. It is stinging, then, to be told how charming and effective it all is, but it does not and cannot do for humanity what humanity most needs. It is easy to feel unappreciated and pick up and go somewhere else where your efforts are seen to be the valuable thing they are.

When we think this way, the question that comes rushing back into the discussion asks of us what Jesus asked of His first disciples long ago: "Who do you say I am?" "Who do you take me for?" Do we really only want Jesus Christ to put a stamp of approval on our status quo? In light of His crucifixion do we really think He appeared on the world scene just to certify the status quo? If we are going to sustain a long-term, trusting relationship with Him, we have to consider more carefully what He brings to the relationship. All of which prepares us for the punch line of this episode.

Jesus has asked for the demon-possessed boy to be brought to Him. Verses 20-22 tell what happened. So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"

"From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

Jesus' response to the boy's father takes us more deeply into the nature of the faith that makes things happen in the Kingdom of God. Verse 23: "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." It is important to say first what this does not mean. It does not mean that believing guarantees that you will get whatever we want.

I don't know that many people actually believe that. But it is much easier to have long and fruitless discussions on why God didn't give me what I asked for. That is simply the modern doctrine of freedom behind a different mask saying, "Since I am free to have what I want in order do to what I want, I can't see why God doesn't cooperate." Isn't much of our praying a kind of wish list for God? There is nothing wrong with that, but if we are not careful, it comes to express a profound selfishness that has little or nothing to do with the faith that Jesus had in mind. That faith means something better and deeper.

When Jesus says, "Everything is possible for him who believes," He means that the person who believes truly opens himself up to God's possibilities in this situation, whatever they might be. That is dramatically different from expecting to get what I want. It trusts God's power and His wisdom. It says, "I believe He can intervene in terrible human circumstances, and I will wait to see how He does it." He might even make use of our power, might, and wisdom, our riches, strength and armies; or He might not.

But we do not presume. We trust, and it is right here that prayer comes in. Prayer is the human act in which we humble ourselves before God's power and wisdom and ask Him to act in our present circumstances, when He is pleased to do so and as He is pleased to do so. The heart of all such prayer says, "Show yourself, O Lord, in these circumstances." This kind of faith, say all the great Christian men and women of faith, is what makes things happen in the kingdom of God.

It is appropriate now to allow the nameless father of the boy to utter his immortal wisdom. Verse 24 says, Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" He speaks for all of us, and the cry of his broken heart is full of humility, integrity and faith.

Two Sunday nights ago, ten teenage boys of the Kijabe Boys Choir from Kenya sang the praises of God in this sanctuary. In the course of the evening, Andy Hudson, Bethel Baptist's youth pastor, who founded the choir, said to us, "These young men and their families do not have much, but they are richer than we are." I became irritated and defensive when he said that. I thought about it again the next day and came to a different conclusion.

If those boys have the kind of faith that Jesus was looking for in His disciples, and I do not, then they are richer than I am, no matter what my material advantages. Unbelief has entered my life, and it is appropriate for me for me to call out to God with the boy's father, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

The miracle that verses 25-27 report dramatizes for us the truth that the kind of faith Jesus had in mind is what makes things happen in the kingdom of God. When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

I said at the beginning of this sermon that this miracles calls attention to the spiritual condition of Jesus' disciples. Obviously, it calls attention to the lack of faith behind their presumption of spiritual authority to drive out demons. It goes deeper than that and calls attention to a more fundamental lack of faith, viz., Peter's rebuke of Jesus, when Jesus foretold His coming death. Jesus said to him, "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men," (Mark 8:33). In other words Peter (and the others) did not have faith. They were not open to God's possibilities. It was appropriate for them to call out to God with the boy's father, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" The rest of Mark tells the story of how God answered that prayer for the disciples. It will be most instructive for us.

How do things stand with BVBC in this matter of faith? This is a congregation of faith. Does unbelief of the kind we have talked about today find a home in our life together? Have we, like the disciples, gotten cocky? Do we presume on our past succeess? We are marked by a can-do attitude toward life. It is terribly easy to go one step further and conclude: so many good things are happening in this church at present, it must be the result of our diligence and cleverness. It would be hard, then, to be told: that doesn't make it happen in the Kingdom of God; faith makes it happen, trusting God makes it happen.

If we are to do God's work God's way here, we must ask the Spirit to guard our hearts against such unbelief. If we are to challenge secular, democratic culture with a different vision of what it means to be free, we must ask the Spirit to guard our hearts against such unbelief and the false doctrine of freedom that lies beneath it. If we are to embody a vibrant moral culture in our life together that might speak to the nation's conscience, we must ask the Spirit to guard our hearts against such unbelief. If we are to be a "city set on a hill," we must ask the Spirit to guard our hearts against such unbelief.