And when they came to the crowd, a man came to him, falling on his knees before him, and saying,
Jesus came down from the mountain of glory straight into a crowd, a desperate father, and disciples who had just failed. This verse turns on that descent, and on the one man who dropped to his knees in front of Him.
The movement here is downward. One writer reads it as the pattern of how Christ still deals with His people.
If the Lord takes us up into the glory, He also comes down into this world. Even now, in Spirit and in sympathy, He meets the crowd and Satan's power that we have to deal with.
Two powers were on show at that mountain at the same time.
But at the foot of that same mountain where the Lord displayed the glory of the kingdom, Satan also displayed his power. It was not broken yet. The kingdom was only a matter of testimony. The disciples failed to draw on the resources of Christ to put down the power of the enemy.
The word for what the father did turns up elsewhere in the Gospels. Comparing those places shows that the posture on its own proves nothing.
Mark uses the same Greek word of the young ruler who knelt to Jesus. The father of the demon-possessed boy knelt in the same way (Matt. 17:14). These men were sincere. The governor's soldiers were not: they knelt before Him in mockery.
The father is not at the start of his search. He has already tried the men who should have been able to help.
Hope from the power of the disciples had failed him. He turns now, in his agony, to the Lord as his last resource.
The Lord had given the disciples power over demons. So one writer says their failure went deeper than weakness.
Their failure proved two things: they lacked faith, and they were perverse. That means they used wrongly what He had entrusted to them. They did not simply neglect the power He gave them to cast out demons; they must have misused it, just as we too may misuse abilities given us.
Notice what makes Christ leave. It is not the evil in front of Him.
Notice here that evil in the world does not put an end to a particular act of God. On the contrary, it is what calls out that act of grace. Christ came because Satan held men under his rule. He leaves because those who received Him cannot use the power He brought with Him.
The rebuke and the invitation come in the same breath.
Still, notice this important and touching truth. As long as God keeps dealing with people in this way, Jesus never fails to meet one person's faith with blessing. He does so even when His disciples cannot glorify Him by their faith. The same words that judge the unbelief of the disciples call the distressed father to enjoy the blessing.
Writers read the descent from the mountain as a preview of Christ's return in glory. The tormented boy shows what He will find.
In the morning the transfigured Lord comes down from the mountain. This is a clear picture of His coming again in glory. And what does He find when He comes? He finds Satan using his power to destroy soul and body. ... We must, however, be careful to apply this in the right way. It would be wrong to make these disciples the church. As we have seen before, they represent the Jewish remnant — a group of Jewish believers.
Commentators differ on who the failing disciples stand for. Others apply the scene straight to Christians now:
When Jesus came down from the mountain, He cast this demon out of the child. That certainly foreshadows what will happen when the Lord returns to set up His kingdom. Yet it also holds special instruction for the saints of this present time, who remain on earth to represent Christ while He is away.
- He comes down. Glory does not keep Christ on the mountain. He comes down into the crowd, the misery and Satan's power that His people face.
- Kneeling is not enough. One word covers both the sincere father and the soldiers who mocked Him. The heart behind the knee decides which it is.
- The helpers failed first. The father came to Jesus only after the disciples failed him. Failure in the servants sends need to the Master.
- Unbelief, not evil, drives Christ away. Evil brought Him into the world. What sends Him away is His own people's failure to use the power He gave.
- Grace still lands on one man. The same words that judged the disciples' unbelief invited the kneeling father into blessing.
Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic, and suffers sorely; for often he falls into the fire and often into the water.
A father kneels in front of Jesus and describes his son in the plainest words he has. The boy falls into fire and into water. Older translations call him a "lunatic" where the ESV says "he has seizures," and the writers quoted below use that older wording. Two questions follow: what held this child, and why could the disciples do nothing?
This appeal comes right after the Lord came down from the mountain where His glory was displayed. At the foot of that mountain, the scene was very different.
At the foot of that same mountain where the Lord displayed the glory of the kingdom, Satan also displayed his power. It was not broken yet. The kingdom was only a matter of testimony. The disciples failed to draw on the resources of Christ to put down the power of the enemy… This child is a lunatic and suffering terribly, but unbelief cannot use the power of God, which should have been at the disciples' command.
The word the father uses is built on the word for the moon, and it covered more than one condition.
The word is selēniazomenoi, which, like the word lunatic, comes from the word for 'the moon.' It is thought to cover epilepsy as well as an unsound mind. Matthew 17:15 calls the boy a lunatic, but he also had a demon in him: Mark 9:25 calls it a 'mute and deaf spirit.'
Some argue that these people were only mentally ill, and that Jesus went along with their mistaken idea. The Gospel accounts answer that.
But this is just an attempt to deny the power of Satan and his agents over man, and also God's power in the miracles… It is true that in Matthew 17:14-16 the father of a boy who had a demon called him a lunatic, and said the disciples could not cure him. But in Mark 9:17 he said his son had a mute spirit, and in Luke 9:39 'a spirit takes him.' This was plainly a case of possession: the Lord rebuked the demon, and it came out of him.
How a spirit acts on a body is hard to pin down:
It is hard to define how our own spirit relates to the body. It must be even harder with demon power. But that power seems to work through the mind. You can see this in the boy with a demon (Matt. 17:15), who was a "lunatic and suffering terribly" under a demon.
Fire and water are opposite dangers, and the boy fell into both.
When the Lord asked, He learned that the boy had suffered like this since childhood. That is an all too accurate picture of our race, which fell into Satan's hands at the very start… The suffering child was in constant danger of his life. His father said of the unclean spirit inside him: "Often it has cast him into the fire, and into the waters to destroy him." In the same way every sinner who has not been delivered is in danger, not just of disaster in this life, but of eternal destruction.
The man had already brought his son to the disciples, and they could not help. Their failure does not shut him out.
Christ came because of Satan's rule over men. He leaves, because those who had received Him cannot use the power He brought with Him, or the power He gives for their deliverance… Still, notice this important and moving truth. As long as such a dealing from God continues, Jesus always meets individual faith with blessing. He does so even when His disciples cannot glorify Him by acting in faith. The same sentence that judges the unbelief of the disciples calls the troubled father into the blessing.
Several writers read the descent from the mountain as more than a change of location. Commentators differ on how far to press the picture, but the shape of it is agreed.
In the morning the Lord, whose glory had just been displayed on the mountain, comes down from it. This is a clear picture of His coming again in glory. And what does He find when He comes? He finds Satan using his power to destroy soul and body. The boy with a demon, suffering terribly, pictures Satan's rule when the Son of Man comes again. Crowds wait for His return, and when He comes He finds misery, suffering and unbelief.
- Word. "Lunatic" comes from the word for moon. It covered epilepsy and an unsound mind alike. The other Gospels show this boy also had a demon.
- Power. The affliction worked through the mind, and Jesus rebuked a spirit — not a mistaken idea in the boy's head.
- Purpose. Fire and water were not accidents; the aim was destruction, from childhood on.
- Place. The glory on the mountain had not yet broken the enemy's grip below. The disciples failed to draw on the power Christ had given them.
- Person. The same words that exposed unbelief called this father forward. One person's faith still finds blessing when everyone around it fails.
And I brought him to thy disciples, and they were not able to heal him.
The father's words report a failure: he brought his son to the disciples, and nothing happened. Two hard questions follow — why did men Jesus had sent out with authority achieve nothing, and what did that say about Him?
The failure happened at the foot of a mountain. Minutes earlier the disciples had been at the top of it with Jesus.
On the top of the high mountain the disciples had been in a place of heavenly peace and fellowship with God. They went down with Jesus to the foot, where all was distress and failure. There was distress for the suffering boy and his father, and failure on the part of the disciples to meet the situation. The coming of Jesus changed everything in a moment. His coming in glory is near, and it will fully retrieve the situation that will exist then. It will meet not only the power of the devil in the world but also all the failures of His saints.
The ESV says the boy has seizures; older translations call him a lunatic. The other Gospel accounts name the cause, and the Lord's own action settles it.
It is true that the father of a boy who had a demon called him a lunatic, and said the disciples could not cure him, in Matthew 17:14-16. But in Mark 9:17 he said his son had a spirit that made him mute, and in Luke 9:39 that "a spirit seizes him." It was clearly a case of possession: the Lord rebuked the demon, and it left him.
Nothing was lacking on Christ's side. The problem lay with the men He had sent.
The disciples should have used this power. They ought to have known how to make use, by faith, of what Jesus had shown on earth. But they were not able to do it. What use was it to bring this power down here, if the disciples had no faith to use it? The power was there. Man might have profited by it for complete deliverance from all the oppression of the enemy, but he had no faith... There was more faith in the man who brought his child than in them, for his sense of need brought him to the remedy.
after_note: none
The failure did not stay private. A crowd and the scribes, the teachers of the law, saw it happen.
How humbling when believers dishonour their Lord like this! "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?" This was the overwhelming fact. It was bad enough that the crowd and the scribes had no faith, after such full witness of the gracious power of God in His Son... Did He not give the twelve disciples, and more than the twelve, authority over the unclean spirits? How was it, then, that these men put shame on His name by failing to draw on Him?
The Lord's answer in the next verse does more than rebuke one moment. It shows why His stay among them was ending.
The unbelief even of His disciples hindered an effective testimony to His power, and it led to His going away. He Himself remained the same, and so did His grace. But the faithlessness of His own people held back His work... So we learn what closes a period of the Lord's dealings in goodness. It is not the power of evil that brought Him here. It is the powerlessness of those who follow Him to make good the testimony He has given of His power and goodness.
The father's appeal was not wasted, even though the disciples had let him down.
Notice also this important and touching truth. As long as such a dealing from God continues, Jesus still meets individual faith with blessing. He does this even when His disciples cannot glorify Him by the exercise of faith. The same sentence that judges the unbelief of the disciples calls the distressed father to enjoy the blessing.
Afterwards the disciples asked the Lord why they had failed. His answer went deeper than one missing thing.
As is so often the case with our failures, the reason was not simple but compound. Three things went wrong. First, absence of faith — little or no confidence in God. Second, absence of prayer — dependence on God. Third, absence of fasting — being set apart for God, even from things that are quite right in themselves in ordinary circumstances. In these words we believe the Lord exposed the roots of all our failures in seeking to serve Him.
- Contrast — Peace on the mountain top, distress and defeat at its foot. The coming of Jesus changed the lower scene in a moment.
- Diagnosis — The disciples had all the authority they needed. What they lacked was faith to draw on the power already there.
- Cost — Their helplessness put shame on the Lord's name, in front of a watching crowd.
- Consequence — The Lord's answer marks the close of His stay. Evil's strength did not stop the testimony; His own people's powerlessness did.
- Remedy — Faith, prayer and fasting are the cure. And meanwhile Jesus still blesses one person's faith, as He blessed this father's.