May 9, 2025

Belief and Doubt

Mark 9:14-29

This passage takes us from the power of the Transfiguration, to the seeming lack of power of the disciples who had remained down the mountain and been approached by this distraught father.  The events of the story pretty much speak for themselves, but there are at least two things to note which are significant.

The first is the rather famous statement from the father:  “I believe; help my unbelief!” 

There are times when people criticize others by saying that if they only had enough belief and faith then things would happen the way that they hope for.  This sets up guilt for a lot of people.  If a child has cancer, and we pray for that child, and the child then still dies, is it our fault because we didn’t have enough faith?  Sometimes horrible things still happen, despite our fervent and faith-filled prayers.  But in addition, doubt is a part of life, it is part of being human.  To equate doubt somehow with failure is to miss the mark.  Faith and doubt indeed go hand in hand.  We believe, we exhibit faith, with all the power that we can muster, as did the father in the story, and yet, doubt is still around, is still natural, is still a part of who we are.  This father has the courage to acknowledge both his faith and his doubt.  And Jesus doesn’t criticize him for this conflict.  Jesus doesn’t tell him that he is a horrible father.  Jesus heals the boy.  Jesus loves them both, knowing that faith and doubt exist together within us.

The second note is the closing verse, wherein Jesus explains to the disciples why it is that they couldn’t cast out the demon.  “This kind,” he says, “can come out only through prayer.”

Casting out of demons is a strange phenomena to me in the first place, but I think that Jesus’ point is that if the disciples were to do this then it is something that will happen not through their own power, but through their connection with God.  That connection happens through prayer, and that is a gift to us from this passage.

May 3, 2025

Transformation

Mark 9:1-13

The opening verse of this passage has been a point of hope and confusion since Jesus said it.  Some, perhaps many, in the early church took it to mean that Jesus would come again with great power, what is usually referred to as the Second Coming, and that it would take place in that generation while at least some of them were still alive.  If we take it in that literal way, then something is up, for we are still here, and still waiting for Jesus to return.

But, if we stop and notice that Jesus always spoke of the kingdom of God in two ways, as a future presence, but also as something that was either very near to them or present with them, then we can understand this saying more as pointing toward experiences when people would actually grasp the truth and reality of the presence of the kingdom of God in their midst.  In some ways it is a reflection of that perspective of truly opening the eyes and ears, and the mind and spirit, to what was with them, and welcoming it into their lives.  This is of course a message for us as well, and indeed we are invited to have a part in making the presence of the kingdom of God, the living with God, a part of the experience of all those whom we meet.

Then, as if to demonstrate the presence of that power in their midst, we receive the story of the Transfiguration.  It is for me one of the most intense, spirit-filled experiences of Jesus that we are allowed to glimpse.  I can barely imagine what it would have been like for the inner circle of three disciples who were there with Jesus.  Jesus is transfigured, in a way that seems to point toward his later glory in the Resurrection.  It is an “unearthly” experience, as his clothes are brighter than anyone on earth could have made them. 

Then both Elijah and Moses appear to them.  Elijah here represents the prophets, and Moses, who received the tablets on Mount Sinai, represents the law.  Then, when the two of them disappear, the disciples are left with the one who has come to fulfill both the law and the prophets. 

Peter, the lone one of the three disciples to find a voice, as they are all terrified we are told, proposes to build dwelling places for Moses, Elijah and Jesus.  In his uncertainty, he looks at this experience in a human way, rather than grasping the intense movement of God’s spirit in all of this.  God then speaks out of a cloud, in words purposefully reminiscent of the baptism of Jesus, and says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” 

This experience concludes with a discussion as they come down the mountain.  Jesus, in a way that is typical of Mark’s Gospel, tells the disciples to tell no one about what had taken place until after Jesus had risen from the dead.  They ask Jesus about this, as they try to make sense of everything, with the recorded conversation focusing on Elijah, the forerunner of the Messiah, and Jesus tells them that Elijah has come, meaning in the person of John the Baptist.  And that, whether they catch it or not, means that they can recognize the Messiah in their midst, and the fulfillment of the words that we began with in this passage.