Mountain of Glory and Valley of Need (Part Two)

Part 2: The Valley of Need

Text: Mark 9:14-29

The famous Italian artist Raphael (1483–1520) painted predominantly religious scenes. His final work on Christ’s transfiguration dramatically captures the connection between the mountain of God and a valley of great need. The top portion of this masterpiece depicts Christ in His radiance conversing with Elijah and Moses. In the lower section of the painting, the nine disciples that did not accompany Jesus are in animated dialog with the religious leaders of the day. And central to the scene is the desperate father and his demon-possessed son. What Raphael painted with his brush, I hope to put into print.

A. The challenge of three great needs

1.    A desperate parent. A father came searching for Jesus, but instead found nine disciples in the valley. Their inability to help led to his desperation and to heavy disputing with the teachers of the Law. As Jesus and the three arrive from the mountaintop, they find a parent in pain. (Helpful insights can be found in John White’s book Parents in Pain.)

2.    A demon-possessed child. Mark describes the effect of possession by an evil spirit with heart-wrenching language:

• He’s mute (9:17). The text records that he has a “mute spirit.” The Greek word is elalos, meaning speechless. He is unable to communicate with his father his feelings of terror or when he senses a “spell” is coming on.
• He foams at the mouth. The word is aphrizo, to froth. This is something often experienced by those having a seizure, but here it is the result of the evil spirit.
• He gnashes his teeth (v.18). The word is trizo, meaning to grind.
• He’s rigid when attacked.
• Most heartbreaking of all is the danger involved. From childhood, the spirit “has thrown him both into the fire and into the water” (v.22). This adds to the stress of the caregiver and requires attention 24/7.

3.    Defeated disciples. Before the watching crowd, Jesus’ followers were impotent to help deliver the boy from satanic control. It was embarrassing, because for the eight previous chapters they could deliver! Sometimes in our ministry an anxious parent will come with a story of a child seemingly under the control of Satan and looking for help. When nothing changes, we know the feeling of these disciples.

B. The joy of three great answers

1.    For the father: “Bring him to Me” (Mark 9:19). The father is depending on the mercy of Jesus, whose compassion fed 5,000 hungry people and led to the cleansing of lepers. He’s hoping that Jesus will exercise it again. He implores, “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us” (v.22). Jesus turns that request right around and promises, “All things are possible to him who believes” (v.23). I love the honesty of this dad, “Lord, I believe; help me with my unbelief!” What a great answer!

2.    For the son—deliverance (Mark 9:25-27). He now has freedom to play with other children, and freedom from cruel remarks from his peers when he went into one of his “spells.” He is a picture of young people in bondage today. Jesus can set them free from control by drugs or alcohol or pornography.

3.    For the disciples—teaching  (Mark 9:29). There is a practical lesson here in the way Jesus handled His “staff.” Away from the crowd that had humiliated them with their taunting remarks, Jesus answered the question that was uppermost on their minds: Why did they fail? The answer: “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

Conclusion: In Jim Cymbala’s book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, he describes the struggle he and his wife, Carol, had with their daughter Chrissy, who was hanging out with the wrong crowd. After lengthy discussions about her lifestyle, she ran away. The Cymbalas carried on in their leadership of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, but always with a heavy heart. Then, in one of their Tuesday evening prayer meetings, with 1,000 people in attendance, a note came to Pastor Jim. It simply said, “I think we should pray for Chrissy.” A thousand people went on their knees. Three days later, Chrissy returned home. Her first words were words of repentance. And she shared that the very night fervent prayer was made, she had a vision from God that brought her to her senses. Like the prodigal, she turned her heart toward home. To celebrate the “homecoming,” Carol wrote the song “He’s Been Faithful to Me.” The words describe their journey with God through this stressful time:

In my loneliness and fear, through every pain every tear
There’s a God who’s been faithful to me
When my strength was all gone, when my heart had no song
Still my God has been faithful to me

Every word He promised is true
What I thought was impossible
I’ve seen my God do
He’s been faithful to me