Lessons Learned in the Fires of Failure
Mark 9:14-29
Main Idea: We will fail, but God uses these failures to deepen our dependence on Him, our faith in Christ, and our discipline in prayer.
I. We Never Advance Beyond Our Need for Jesus (9:14-19).
A. We need Christ when criticized by our detractors (9:14-16).
B. We need Christ when confronted with the demonic (9:17-18).
C. We need Christ when corrected in our defeats (9:19).
II. We Never Advance Beyond Our Need for Faith (9:19-27).
A. The key is direction (9:19-22).
B. The key is dependency (9:23-27).
III. We Never Advance Beyond Our Need for Prayer (9:28-29).
A. Failure should lead us to ask questions of ourselves (9:28).
B. Failure should drive us to God in humility (9:29).
Failure is never fun and defeat is seldom something we take delight in. It can be painful, embarrassing, and humiliating. And our response can be life changing, altering our destiny. Failure can make us bitter, or it may make us better. We can take it as instructive and corrective and learn from it. Failure may show us, “Obviously I need to work harder if I want to succeed” or “As I move ahead I need help. I can’t do this by myself.”
It is this last lesson the disciples need to learn and so many of us need to learn as well. But there is another truth we must hold on to as well: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13). I can do nothing that really matters without Him, but this drives me continually to Him for help. I need to let my weakness drive me to His strength. I need to let my impotence drive me to His omnipotence. I need to let my limitations drive me to His unlimited resources. I need to let my humility drive me to His sufficiency.
There is an old hymn by William C. Poole titled “Just When I Need Him Most.” The fourth stanza says, “Just when I need Him, He is my all. Answering when upon Him I call; Tenderly watching lest I should fall” (William C. Poole, 1907). The disciples have a ways to go before they learn this lesson. A father with a suffering son, on the other hand, is about to plumb the depths of this marvelous truth.
We Never Advance Beyond Our Need for Jesus
Mountaintop experiences are wonderful, and we need them from time to time for spiritual nourishment and the recharging of our spiritual batteries. However, God never intended for us to stay there. He wants us “down here” preaching the gospel to and ministering among the hurting and suffering. He wants us living with and serving real people devastated by the ravages of the fall and of sin. As His agents of redemptive love, we go in His name and with the promise of His presence. To forget this is to open ourselves up to all sorts of difficulty, challenges, and even failure, as nine of His disciples discovered with pain and humiliation.
We Need Christ When Criticized by Our Detractors (Mark 9:14-16)
Peter wanted to stay on the mountaintop (9:5), but Jesus was headed to Jerusalem and the cross (cf. 8:31-32). He leads them down the mountain (9:9) to rejoin the other disciples and to minister to the hurting on the way to Jerusalem and His passion (9:30). As soon as He descends, Jesus finds the disciples surrounded by a great crowd, arguing with the scribes. Further, there is a demon-possessed child whom they were unable to help (v. 18).
No doubt the scribes were mocking the disciples over their failure to heal the boy. Probably they used the lack of success as an opportunity to question Jesus’ authority. After all, “the messenger of a man is as the man himself” (Lane, Mark, 331). Thus their failure reflected badly not only on them but also on Jesus!
We never sin in a vacuum. We hurt ourselves, we hurt those we love, we hurt the gospel, and we hurt the reputation of Christ! When this happens, we do not need to look to ourselves but to Christ! Criticized by our detractors for our failures, we must point them to Christ, the One who does not fail—ever! We should encourage them to follow the example of the crowd in verse 15. They saw Him, they were amazed at Him, and they ran to Him.
Our detractors may accurately point out our flaws and failures. Such, however, will never be found in Jesus. Oh how we need Him when enemies are nipping at our heels, ready to devour us if they can!
We Need Christ When Confronted with the Demonic (Mark 9:17-18)
We are more fully informed concerning the cause of this dispute. Someone from the crowd yelled out the answer to Jesus’ inquiry (v. 16), but it wasn’t just anyone. It was the father of a demon-possessed boy. He called Jesus “Teacher” and informed Him that his son had a spirit that made him mute. It caused violent seizures, and he had been like this since childhood. It regularly tried to destroy him. Thus, he came to Jesus’ disciples, but he was greatly disappointed, for “they couldn’t” help.
Many lessons are here. (1) We see that demons are real beings, not simply mythological creatures. Jesus clearly believes in the demonic. (2) Demons desire to inflict pain and death. (3) Demons are capable of inflicting physical suffering. This boy had symptoms resembling epilepsy (Matt 17:15). (4) In our own strength we are helpless against the supernatural powers of the demonic. (5) Spiritual victories in the past (cf. Mark 6:7-13) are no guarantee we will be victorious today, especially when we operate with faith in ourselves rather than in Christ. (6) When all human efforts have been exhausted, we can turn to Jesus. Counter to our sinfulness and weakness, He is where we should turn from the start.
We Need Christ When Corrected in Our Defeats (Mark 9:19)
Correction is seldom pleasant. Hard words may cut, but they also cure. Jesus is tough and direct in His rebuke of the disciples. First, He calls them a “faithless generation.” I believe this epithet is directed toward the disciples. This word “generation” is normally used of Israel as an unbelieving nation and, in particular, its leaders (8:12,38). Second, by means of parallel rhetorical questions, He expressed His exasperation and weariness: “How long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you?” I appreciate the convicting words of William Lane: “The rhetorical questions . . . express the loneliness and the anguish of the one authentic believer in a world which expresses only unbelief” (Mark, 332). Sinclair Ferguson adds, “Mark vividly captures the pressures and frustrations of Christ’s life in these verses. On the mountaintop he had been faced with the spiritual short-sightedness of his disciples. Here in the valley he was confronted by [their] unbelief” (Mark, 143).
Whenever the disciples are separated from Jesus, they get in trouble and experience a crisis. What a valuable lesson: we never advance beyond our need for Jesus!
We Never Advance Beyond Our Need for Faith
The author of Hebrews tells us, “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him” (11:6). But how much belief—how much faith—do we need? A lot? Must it be perfect? No. Faith the size of a tiny little mustard seed will do just fine (Matt 17:20). The key is not the depth of our faith but the direction of our faith. What is important is not the potency of our faith but the Person our faith is in. A little faith in a great Savior gets amazing results!
The Key Is Direction (Mark 9:19-22)
The time for messing around is at an end. The demon certainly understands this because as soon as he saw Jesus, he “convulsed the boy.”
This torture has gone on since childhood and has occasionally been nearly fatal. Out of sheer desperation the father now turns to the only possible source of hope and help: Jesus. He begs, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
Though the man’s faith is weak and small, he is at least looking in the right direction and asking the right Person for help. Unlike the leper in Mark 1:40-45, the father raised not a “would” question but a “could” question. The leper knew Jesus could help, but would He? The father believed Jesus would help, but could He? Well, he is about to find out!
The Key Is Dependency (Mark 9:23-27)
Jesus responds in surprise. If He can?! “Everything is possible to the one who believes.” Divine ability is not the problem; human unbelief is. There is a reliable bridge between human weakness on the one hand and divine sufficiency and power on the other. It is called faith, trust, and dependency. Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!” This is what Jesus is calling this father to do. It is what He calls us to do. Taste! See! Take refuge!
The father responds, “I do believe! Help my unbelief.” You have got to love his honesty and humility. He was effectively saying, “I know my faith is weak, partial, incomplete. Still, I trust You, Jesus, and only You. If You don’t deliver my son, then he will not be delivered. Help me in spite of me!”
The crowd begins to build due to all the commotion. Seeing this, Jesus banishes the vile demon and places a “No Trespassing” sign over the child’s soul. The demon has no choice except to obey, but as he leaves, he convulsed the boy again—“terribly” this time. The boy collapsed like a corpse, and most thought he had died.
However, Jesus took him by the hand. Literally the text reads, “Jesus raised him, and he was resurrected.” Jesus here provides insight into the meaning of His own death and resurrection. Satanic powers bring death, but divine power brings resurrection life. This is what dependent faith can see!
We Never Advance Beyond Our Need for Prayer
The disciples might have learned a lot by contrasting the transfiguration with this healing.
|
Transfiguration |
Healing of the Boy |
|
On the mountaintop |
In the valley |
|
The kingdom of God on display |
The kingdom of Satan on display |
|
A Son is radiantly glorified |
A son is terribly demonized |
|
A Father is honored in His Son |
A father is horrified by his son |
|
The disciples are confused and lack understanding |
The disciples are defeated and lack power |
|
A lesson about the future |
A lesson about faith |
|
A display of divine power |
A directive for human prayer |
What went wrong for the disciples? Why didn’t their attempt at “binding the strong man” (3:27) work?
Failure Should Lead Us to Ask Questions of Ourselves (Mark 9:28)
Introspection is a healthy spiritual discipline when it causes us to examine our weaknesses and confront our limitations. Presumptuous self-sufficiency may be viewed as a great strength by the world, but it is deadly to our spiritual lives.
The disciples failed big time. It was public, brought ridicule, cast doubt on their Master and mission, and filled them with self-doubt. So when Jesus initiated reflection and debriefing, they asked, “Why couldn’t we drive the demon out?” Their question betrays a sense of confidence in their own strengths and abilities. It suggests a spirit of pride rooted in past accomplishments (6:7-13) that they believed should have been sufficient for this encounter. They are saying, “We did it before and we will do it again. But it didn’t work this time. Why?” Failure leads them to question themselves. This is a good thing.
Failure Should Drive Us to God in Humility (Mark 9:29)
Jesus responds with a powerful spiritual insight: “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.” The phrase “this kind” refers to casting out demons and all other spiritual conflicts of this nature. He is not saying some demon exorcisms require prayer but others do not. He is saying that whenever we take to the spiritual battlefield, if we go in our own strength, pride, and self-sufficiency, we have lost the battle before it begins. Faith bridges the gap between divine omnipotence and human weakness, and that faith is experienced and exercised through prayer. Could this be why prayer is one of the most difficult of the spiritual disciplines? Could this be why we don’t see greater things in missions, our churches, and our personal lives? Is this why Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing”?
The power of prayer is obviously not going to be experienced if we don’t pray. Tim Keller observes that the prayer of the father is characterized by honesty, helplessness, hopefulness, specificity, and passion (“Mark,” 112). These character traits of believing prayer can be summed up in one word: humility. It all depends on Jesus. If He acts, I’m delivered; if He doesn’t, I am lost. Faith expressed in prayer says, “I would not have it any other way.”
Conclusion
Lessons learned in the fires of failure may hurt us, but they can hurt us in a good way if they drive us to Jesus, increase our faith, and humble us in prayer. Today we do not have Jesus with us in the flesh, but through the gift of prayer, He is only a word, a thought, away. Remember what Jesus said to Thomas: “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed” (John 20:29). We believe, Lord. Help us in our unbelief. Give us the shield of faith with which we will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Eph 6:16).
Reflect and Discuss