Which Side Are You On? (Mark 9:38-41)

In 1973 a movie came out called “The Exorcist.” The definition of exorcism is, “the expulsion or attempted expulsion of an evil spirit from a person or place.” I never watched the movie because it was more about the evil spirit than it was about the expulsion. Paul teaches in Romans that we are to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. Paul goes on say that “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).

The problem I’ve observed with the subject of exorcism is that there seems to be two groups of people. One group becomes obsessed with the power of Satan, and their minds become focused on evil spirits. The other group refuses to accept that there is such a thing as being possessed by an evil spirit. However, if you read the Gospels you clearly see the spiritual contest between Jesus and evil spirits that have inhabited people. In each case the emphasis is on Jesus’ authority in the spiritual realm.

In Mark 9 the disciples had been arguing about which of them was the greatest, and Jesus had ended that argument by telling them that the greatest among them would need to be a servant of all. Their jealousy then turned to someone they had seen casting out demons in Jesus’ name. Because this man hadn’t been following them, they tried to make him stop. Jesus told them not to stop him, because no one could do a mighty work in Jesus’ name and then speak evil of Him. This reminds me of an attempted exorcism that took place after the resurrection.

In the book of Acts there is the story of seven sons of a high priest named Sceva who were itinerant exorcists. After they had seen the miraculous way God was using Paul, they decided to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. “The evil spirits answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?’ The man who was possessed with the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded” (Acts 19:15,16).

Whether we acknowledge it or not, there is a spiritual battle going on. The question is, which side of the battle are you on? Jesus said, “For the one who is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:40). However, it is clear from the story in Acts that to be for Christ involves more than just being aware of the battle with evil. So again I ask the question, which side are you on?

The Suffering Messiah (Mark 9:30-37)

They had been chosen to be His disciples. They were His friends. At last, what they all believed had been proclaimed by Peter in response to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” They believed that the Spirit of the Lord God was on Him. They believed that the Lord had anointed Him, and they had listened as Jesus brought good news to the poor. They had watched and experienced themselves Jesus’ ability to heal the brokenhearted. They had stood in wonder as He proclaimed freedom for the captives and gave sight to the blind. Surely Jesus was the Messiah, who had come to to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor! At last! At last! They were ready to be part of that day when God would take vengeance on His enemies and set up His kingdom!

But, once Peter had finally put into words what they all believed, something changed. Instead of making plans for setting up the kingdom, Jesus had begun to tell them that the Son of Man was going to be rejected and killed. They could not comprehend that He was going to be crushed  for their sins, that the suffering He chose to endure would result in their peace. He knew, however, that they would be healed by His wounds. Because they were His friends, He tried to prepare them. He also told them that He would rise from the dead in three days, but they didn’t understand, and they were afraid to ask Him what He meant.

This time when they had passed through Galilee Jesus avoided the crowds. He was now focused on preparing His disciples for what they would encounter in Jerusalem. When they came into the house in Capernaum, He asked what they had been arguing about along the way. There was silence. While Jesus had been telling them about the rejection and suffering that was awaiting Him, they had been arguing about who would be the greatest in the coming kingdom. These were the men He had chosen, and He knew and understood them. Instead of rebuking them, Jesus sat down and told them that if anyone wanted to be first he had to be last and a servant of all. The one who was speaking to them was the Righteous Servant who would justify many.

The disciples were seeking status now that they had identified themselves as those who were chosen by the Messiah. Jesus took a child and put him in their midst. He then wrapped the child in His arms and said to His disciples, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me” (Mark 9:37). The disciples had anticipated a Messiah who would tear the heavens open and come down. Someone who would make His name known to His enemies so that all the nations would tremble at His presence. They looked with wonder and confusion as He sat embracing a child and telling them about the suffering and rejection that awaited Him in Jerusalem. They had recognized Jesus as the Messiah, but had not understood that He, as the Messiah, was also the suffering servant spoken of in Isaiah 53.

In their presence was the Messiah. They had seen His compassion. And now, as He began explaining the way of the Kingdom, perhaps the words of Isaiah 55:8,9 came to their minds, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.” He taught them that to be great in the Kingdom was to be a servant; that to receive a child in His name was to receive Him. Many years later Peter would reflect on the suffering of the Messiah and say, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed ” (1 Peter 2:24).

The Healing of Unbelief (Mark 9:14-29)

Nothing exposes unbelief like watching someone you love suffering and knowing you can’t take away their pain. Unbelief is laid bare when faced with the truth that you can’t save this precious person that you would gladly die for. And so it was for the father at the foot of the mountain of transfiguration.

From childhood the boy had often been seized by a spirit, thrown down to the ground where he would foam at the mouth, grind his teeth, and become rigid. And all his father could do was to watch and grieve. Then the father heard that there was a Healer in the land. He gathered up all the courage and faith that he could muster and took his silent broken child in search of hope. He found the Healer’s disciples, but their faith was weak and they had been unable to heal his child.

Many times he had watched helplessly as his son had been thrown into the fire or water by this spirit in an attempt to destroy his child. When he saw Jesus he ran to Him with this request, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us” (Mark 9:22). The request for compassion and help wasn’t simply for his son. The grieving father was asking for compassion and help for himself as well. Watching helplessly as his son was being destroyed had broken him.

This drama of an earthly father who could not save his beloved son was taking place in the shadow of the mountain where the glory of the Heavenly Father had overshadowed Peter, James, and John. The disciples had heard the Heavenly Father’s voice coming from the cloud saying, “This is My beloved Son; listen to Him!” (Mark 9:7). So, what did Jesus say in response to the father’s uncertainty about His ability to heal his son? Listen carefully to the words of Jesus, “Everything is possible for the one who believes.” Jesus then not only delivered the child from the evil spirit, but He also delivered the man from his unbelief.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). What a marvel, what a mystery, that the Heavenly Father would give His own son as a ransom for this grieving father’s son! How was this accomplished? It happened when the Heavenly Father watched as His Son suffered and died in our place. The Heavenly Father told us to listen to His son. Can you hear what Jesus said? “Everything is possible for the one who believes.” Do you believe? Have the sorrows of this live caused your faith to grow weak? There is healing available for you. Obey the Heavenly Father and listen to His son, you can pray and ask Jesus to heal your unbelief.

Spiritual Eyes, Spiritual Ears (Mark 9:1-11)

The prophet Isaiah had been overwhelmed when he saw the glory of God and heard the angels calling to one one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). The sound of their voices had caused the doorposts and the thresholds of the temple to shake and be filled with smoke. Isaiah responded by saying, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5). Having experienced the holiness of God, he searched carefully and tried to understand what the Spirit of Christ had revealed to him concerning the messianic sufferings. It was Isaiah who had prophesied that the messiah would be “despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem” (Isaiah 53:3).

The angels had been present when the Christ created all things that are in heaven, and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they were thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. They knew that all things had been created by Him and for Him. They knew what it was to worship Him! These same angels passionately desired to stoop down and gaze at their Lord who had come to earth to give sinful mankind the right to become the children of God. They desired to look down at the One they adored giving Himself as a ransom for mankind, so that He could rescue them from the dominion of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of light.

Jesus had assured His disciples that some of them would not taste death until they saw the kingdom of God come in power. Jesus led Peter, James and John up on a high mountain by themselves to be alone. It was on this mountain that Jesus was transformed in front of them. Their eyes were dazzled by the brilliance of His appearance, and their minds were dazed by the presence of Moses and Elijah. Had the kingdom come at last? Peter, as always, was ready to do his part by setting up three tabernacles. With his physical eyes he had seen Jesus transfigured before him, but his spiritual eyes were still blinded. “A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: This is my beloved Son; listen to Him!” (Mark 9:7). Now they had not only seen Jesus transformed, but had also heard the voice of God! But could they understand what was said?

As they made their way back down the mountain, still awestruck by what they had seen and heard, Jesus said something that brought even more confusion to their baffled minds. He told them that they were to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They seized upon this statement and kept discussing what rising from the dead meant. Isaiah had searched intently and with the greatest care to understand about the sufferings of the Messiah, but unlike Isaiah, the disciples were going to see prophecy fulfilled before their very eyes! But would they be able to understand what they saw and heard?

Throughout Jesus’ ministry He made blind eyes see and deaf ears hear. These miracles brightened the lives of all He touched. But there is a greater miracle than receiving physical sight and physical hearing. It is the miracle of receiving spiritual sight and spiritual hearing. After Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, He sent His Spirit. Here is the gospel into which the prophets searched and the angels longed to gaze: the Lamb of God has come to take away the sins of the world! By His stripes we have been healed! Can you see? Can you hear? If not ask Jesus to give spiritual sight and the ability to hear spiritual truths. He will, He will!

The Rebuke (Mark 8:31-38)

I remember “The Jesus Movement” of the late 1960s and the early 1970s. I was a teenager, and hearing that Jesus loved me and had a wonderful plan for my life filled me with excitement. I held tightly to the promise in Proverbs 3:6 that if I acknowledged God in all my ways that He would direct my path. When I put the promise of a wonderful plan that He would direct me in together with the Psalm 37:4 that said if I delighted in the Lord He would give me my heart’s desires, I felt that I’d found the perfect formula for a happy life. I think my assumptions of what it meant to be a follower  of Jesus lined up with Peter’s. I understand why he rebuked Jesus.

It was a climactic moment when at last what everyone had been thinking was out in the open. Jesus had asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter had said what all the disciples felt, “You are the Messiah!” What was the unspoken expectation? Their understanding of Messiah was someone who would purge Jerusalem from those who trampled her. He would come in might and destroy the godless nations. But instead Jesus began to talk about suffering. Peter’s response was take Jesus aside to rebuke Him.

In the Greek the word used for rebuke has a fundamental sense of “warning to prevent something from going wrong.”* Peter had to rebuke Jesus, because the suffering, rejection and death that Jesus was describing did not fit into his understanding of the Messiah. He was desperately trying to redirect what Jesus was saying and to keep Jesus on mission.

Peter had tried to rebuke Jesus in private, but when Jesus rebuked Peter He turned around and looked at His disciples and said, “Get behind Me, Satan, because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but man’s!” (Mark 8:33). They all needed to hear the rebuke and to have their thinking redirected. Jesus then summoned the crowd and explained what it meant to be His follower. “If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

When I was a teenager I was in some ways like Peter and the disciples. I was looking at Jesus as a way to have a happy life. I was thinking in temporal terms and not in eternal terms. We can hear the results of how Jesus redirected Peter’s understanding in the conclusion to his first epistle. “Now the God of all grace,who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little. To Him be the dominion forever” (Mark 8:31-37). By rebuking Peter Jesus redirected his attention from earthly glory to eternal glory. It was such a greater gift than Peter or I could have ever imagined.

*HELPS Word-studies epitimao (“to warn by instructing”) correct (re-direct) “warning to prevent something from going wrong.”

The Magnitude of the Situation (Mark 8:27-33)

My youngest brother was just beginning to get a handle on language so that he could use it to express himself. My older brother taught him the phrase, “You cannot comprehend the magnitude of the situation!” Since my little brother was too young to mentally grasp what the phrase meant, his older siblings had a lot of fun listening to him talk about the magnitude of the situation.

This memory came back to me when I thought of how Jesus asked His followers, “Who do you say I am?” (Mark 8:29) Peter didn’t hesitate, “You are the Messiah!” Others might be confused thinking that Jesus was John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets, but Peter spoke for all the disciples. They had followed Him, they knew that Jesus was the Christ.

This conversation took place on the road as they traveled to Caesarea Philippi. I have a vivid memory of being in this area when I visited Israel. It was beautiful! Caesarea Philippi was the center of the worship for Baal, then the Greek god Pan. Pan is considered to be one of the oldest of the Greek gods. He is associated with nature, wooded areas and pasture lands. The worship of Pan centered on nature. Pan was a mythological creature, a satyr with the legs of a goat and the body of a man. He was a god who claimed to be a man.

Herod the Great was given this beautiful area by Caesar Augustus. Herod then built Caesar three temples. One of these beautiful temples built to Caesar, a man who claimed to be a god, was placed beside Pan’s temple, the god who claimed to be a man. What a setting for Jesus' question, “Who do men say that I am?”

Peter and the disciples knew who He was--or did they? Could they truly understand that Jesus was the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation? Could they begin to comprehend that the one that they had been traveling with was the same one who had created all things in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible? But even if they could begin to comprehend Jesus in this way, it was incomprehensible that the Christ, the Messiah, would suffer at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes. How could it be that the one Israel had waited so long for would be rejected and killed? What did He mean when He said that He would be raised in three days? Peter and the disciples could not understand the magnitude of the situation!

Jesus’ Response to Desperate Prayer (Mark 8:22-26)

“They brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch him” (Mark 8:22). “They brought to Him  a deaf man who also had a speech difficulty, and begged Jesus to lay His hand on him” (Mark 7:32). Have you ever brought someone to Jesus in prayer and begged Him to lay His hand on him, to touch him?

There are those I love who are deaf to spiritual things. There are people who cannot see anything but the temporal reality that they are living in. When I try to share my beliefs with them, I realize that they cannot understand what I am saying, and cannot see what I’m trying to show them. I have finally realized the solution lies not only in what I say to them about God, but instead what I say to God about them. Not casual prayers, but the kind I see represented in the Gospels, passionate prayer pleading with God that He would open both eyes and ears to spiritual truths.

With both the deaf man and the blind man, Jesus led them to a private place. He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. We are called to be faithful in prayer. The definition of faith is to be sure of what you hope for and confident about what you don’t see. But I’ll be honest. I struggle with this. Sometimes I simply become discouraged by what I see, and I stop praying. Both of these miracles were performed in private, not in the presence of those who begged Jesus to touch the ones they loved.

Both of these miracles involved the very DNA of Jesus. In other words, spit. Yes, spit! Today many people are using their own spit to find out genetic information about themselves. There are many businesses that have cropped up to help people interpret the information revealed by their spit. This is something I marvel about, and don’t completely understand that Jesus used His own DNA to give both sight and hearing.

The gift of sight was a process. Again, this causes me to pause, because I realize that I want immediate results. However, this gift of sight came slowly and in stages. I feel a deep conviction concerning the admonition to be faithful in prayer as I read this story. First, I see the urgency of the people who begged Jesus to touch their loved one. Second, I recognize that the miracle was done in private. Third,  it took time.

Jesus, please help me to be faithful in prayer!