14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes arguing with them.
Following the Transfiguration, Peter, James, John and Jesus come down from the mountain to the other disciples and their is a large crowd gathered. This crowd are followers of Jesus and they are arguing with the Scribes. The Scribes were hired consultants of the Law, they are not a separate sect but Mosaic Lawyers, different groups had their own Scribes and some Scribes were independent.
15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and ran up to him and greeted him.
16 And he asked them, “What are you discussing with them?”
Upon Jesus’ arrival the crowds are amazed that he is here. It is important to not forget that Jesus’ fame at this time was at its height during his earthly ministry. We know from previous passages that the crowds were so large that they filled the Synagogues of the towns Jesus went to and they also filled up the areas around the Synagogues at the same time. Whenever we see this phrasing we should be envisioning multiple hundreds of people.
Jesus is more interested in what they were arguing about with the Scribes so he asks them the question “What are you discussing with them?” The response given in the following verses will illuminate what they were arguing about.
17 And one of the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit;
18 and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”
A man in the crowds says that he has brought his son to Jesus because he has a “dumb spirit”. This implies that the demon possessing the child itself is mute, not the child which is curious since most demons are rather vocal, especially in the presence of Jesus. The idea of a mute spirit is odd, even in the supernatural realm of things and the demon later on does make a noise so it is hard to truly understand what Mark is trying to articulate for us.
The man then lists the rest of the symptoms, the spirit “seizes him” meaning takes control of his body, it throws him to the ground, foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. A lot of sceptical scholars perceive this to not be a supernatural occurrence at all but a natural one and claim that the child has epilepsy but Jesus later “rebukes the spirit” so we should take the Bible at its word, this is a demon that is causing these symptoms. It isn’t to say that all epilepsy is demonic, but in this case the inspired Word says it is.
Previous to this Jesus has granted the authority to cast out demons to his apostles and they have successfully gone out on mission and done this. They didn’t have any problems then but they are having problems now. We should understand that the miracles done by Jesus are dependant on faith, even though Jesus has granted his apostles the faculty we should be able to infer that if for some reason they became big headed about this new founded power, it would likely fail as it would if the recipients of an exorcism lacked the openness to faith.
19 And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”
Jesus correctly diagnosing the problem, his apostles and/or the man requesting the healing lack faith. He uses the same language used to describe the rebellious generation in the Wilderness years of the Old Covenant people “faithless generation”. Jesus then appears to be somewhat impatient about his time with them, rhetorically asking “how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?”. Jesus knows that his earthly ministry is temporary and is supposed to be the training ground for his apostles to become him essentially and go out eventually to all nations but here they are, struggling on home turf even while he is present.
He cuts to the quick and requests that the boy be brought straight to him.
20 And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
Upon entering Jesus vicinity the boy immediately reacts, or at least the evil spirit possessing him does. Throwing him to the ground and causing him to foam at the mouth, the same symptoms that the father had listed before. Although the demon hasn’t spoken like previous possessions, it is reacting somewhat similarly, being near Jesus is enough to make it scared.
21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has he had this?” And he said, “From childhood.
22 And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.”
23 And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Jesus turns to the father asking how long the boy has suffered, he responds informing him that it has happened since childhood. This perhaps gives us a better understanding of the age, he is likely a fully grown adult instead of being a child. He explains that it causes his son to do dangerous things to himself, trying to drown him, burn him to “destroy him”. The father is beseeching Jesus on behalf of his son, similar to the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter. This might seem like an unimportant detail but Jesus explains that all things are possible to him who believes. The exorcisms, as well as healings, are not dependant it seems on the person needing it themselves necessarily but on the person who intercedes for them. This speaks to the power of intercession for friends and loved ones who might be atheists.
The father cries out “I believe, help my unbelief”. He is struggling with a supernatural worldview and is basically saying “I believe as much as I can” but is essentially clueless to the miraculous mysteries going on here. He intellectually knows that Jesus can do this, that is why he sought him, but his heart is struggling.
25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again.”
26 And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, “He is dead.”
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
Jesus sees that the crowd are about to swarm them, so he seeks to save the mans son beforehand. Jesus rebukes the spirit and calls it “dumb and deaf”, Jesus as usual as a little more insight that the people who only see with their eyes. He acknowledges the muteness but also, through his divine knowledge, knows that it is deaf as well. This is a very peculiar demonic spirit. As he usually does, he commands the spirit by word to leave the young man and to never enter him again. Now the demon makes a loud cry or perhaps, the young man himself is making the noise in the painful extraction of the demon. The demon leaves and the boys body is so still that people think he is dead, as Mark records for us, some even say so out loud but Jesus takes him by the hand and lifts him up and the boy rises and he is fine.
28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”
29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.”
Mark takes no wasted space in his parchment, they are suddenly back at “the house” this informs us that they are in Capernaum, Jesus home base of ministry at the house of Simon Peter. Now they have some privacy they ask Jesus why they could not cast the demon out. Now the peculiarity of this demon gets weirder. Jesus says, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting”. I am about to go out on a little bit of a limb here but I think this lets us know something about this particular entity especially based on its other traits, muteness and deafness. Jesus can cure the boy but the apostles can’t, the only cure without Jesus personally getting involved is disconnecting from the material world, prayer and fasting.
The Greek word used by Mark here for “kind” is genos. That typically means race or stock. We think of demons as one thing, fallen angels but when we look through ancient eyes we see a bigger picture. Typical demonic possession is somewhat personal, demons hate us cuz they aint us so they cause us harm in a personal fashion and can communicate.
In Second Temple and Qumranic thought, many illnesses were attributed to spirits or forces acting under divine or rebellious authority. The Book of Jubilees (10:1-14) describes how demons, led by Mastema (a Satan-like figure), afflicted humans. Interestingly, God permits some of these spirits to remain active, though controlled.
The ancient worldview of angelic beings, all natural forces like fire, wind, water and any material force you could think of, were actually kept in place by spiritual beings in the lowest level of heaven. We perceive physics as a set of rules and the ancients believed that too but acknowledged the philosophical dilemma here, who is keeping the rules? God can do everything but he passes this on to others to minister to, that is just how God works. Sickness was perceived as a force too, God did not intend for sickness to come into the world but he allows it… so someone/something, at least in the ancient world view, has that job. So what if the spirit causing this isn’t some personal soldier of Satan but a similar, non-social yet still rebellious material-law enforcing spirit? It would explain the muteness and deafness, on top of that, Jesus says the only cure is prayer and fasting, disconnection from reliance on the material world and its many angelic ministers (good or bad). He can cure it because he’s God but the authority he gave to the Apostles was to fight the demonic soldiers of the devil, not rebellious elemental spirits.
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