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Mark 9 – Do We Help People to Have Unbelief?
Do We Help People to Have Unbelief?
When people are looking for Jesus, and come to us:
• Do His people fail them and get in the way?
• Do we show how their “kind” is unwelcomed here?
• Are we concerned “sinners like them” might harm our congregation’s reputation?
• Are we cold toward them because we think they won’t fit it?
Notice this progression in scripture from Mark 9. Never before have I seen it with this meaning and application:
BIBLE: “Someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak….” (CSB Mark 9:17)
ME: Not seeing Jesus personally, what happens next? The father continues looking for a solution in a way that is sensible.
BIBLE: “I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”” (CSB’17 Mark 9:18)
ME: Upon finally seeing Jesus, and I am skipping a few verses, notice the paradoxical response of the father. This is one of my favorite verses because it is so real and relatable:
BIBLE: “Immediately the father of the boy cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”” (CSB’17 Mark 9:24)
Obviously the man believed or else he never would have come to Jesus and then His disciples. Here is what I never considered before as part of the text. What causes his unbelief? While there are other occasions causing the dissonance of belief and unbelief, contextually this passage points to one cause: Could it be Jesus’s disciples?
Consider this sobering thought: When people come to us looking for Jesus, do we increase their belief or shake or even break it? When hurting, empty, needy, distraught, rock-bottom people – the kind society has thrown away – come to find Jesus and meet us – do we help them to believe deeper, or have unbelief?
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