"Caught Between Belief
and Unbelief" based on Mark 9:14-29
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost -
Pastor Troy Slater
- Our
Some of you might have caught wind of this either from
the internet or television. But there is
a secular society in
Now I mention this case because it is such a plain and
powerful example of unbelief - something that is sadly becoming more and more
fashionable - at least in a fallen world's eyes. I mention it because it is one end of the
spectrum.
Of course opposite of this blatant and persistent
unbelief - someone on the opposite end of the spectrum - might be someone of
great faith, maybe like a Job. You
remember Job. He was a very rich man -
had great amounts of land and livestock; had seven sons and three
daughters. Scripture says he was "the greatest man among all the people
of the East" and it said that he was a man "who feared God and who shunned evil." But the devil challenged God to remove His
blessings from Job. He claimed that Job
loved God's gifts, not God Himself. And
so God allowed Job's wealth, his health, even every one of his ten children to
be taken away. But yet after loosing all
of his great wealth, his health, his children, Job uttered those great words of
faith: "Naked I came from my
mother's womb, and naked I will depart.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the
Lord." An
unwavering faith in the God of all grace and mercy.
And so we
have belief verses unbelief; faith versus doubt; absolute devotion to God versus
absolute rejection of the one true God. Two polar opposites.
And so I ask you today: "Where are you at?" … "Where are you at?" … Hopefully
beings you are here today, beings you have been baptized into Christ, hopefully
because you have tasted and seen that the Lord is true and good, hopefully
there aren't any of us ready to be on the side of the atheists and order a
"certificate of debaptism".
But you know,
if you are anything like me, there are probably a lot of times when you have a
hard time speaking as Job spoke - times when your faith wavers. I mean, I imagine that for most of us, most
of the time, we're some were in between - hopefully a little more on the side
of belief than on the side of unbelief.
But there is always room for more belief, isn't there? For we know that "God is love" but
yet so often there seems to be just too much hate and suffering in the world
for that to be true. We know that Jesus
says He is "the resurrection and the
life" but that just seems so hard to believe when we're standing
beside the grave of a loved one, for death seems so final. We know that Jesus has promised to
"never leave us nor forsake us" but yet that just doesn't seem to be
the case when we're fighting loneliness and despair. Caught between faith and
doubt, belief and unbelief. Yes,
I imagine we've all spent a lot of time somewhere there in between. …
And in fact that appears to be where the father is at
whom we hear about in our Gospel reading for this morning. He had heard of this Jesus of Nazareth and
His claims to come from the God of heaven.
And so he had brought his son who was possessed by an evil spirit to
Jesus. But apparently Jesus was absent
having gone up the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James and John. Jesus' other nine disciples claimed though to
be able to help and so the father had let them try in Jesus' name to drive out
this evil spirit. But they failed. Jesus' disciples - acting in Jesus' name - appeared
to be no match for this evil spirit who had possessed his son since
childhood. And so frustrated and
disappointed, the father was losing hope in Jesus - he was losing his
faith. Maybe Jesus wasn't who he had
hoped Jesus was. And apparently more
were having similar doubts about who Jesus was as an argument began to erupt.
And so it was
that into this scene came Jesus. Mark writes, "When they" - "they" being Jesus, Peter, James
and John - "when they came to the
other disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with
them. And immediately all
the crowd, when they saw Jesus, were greatly amazed and ran up to Him
and greeted Him."
Jesus asked
what's going on and that's when the father spoke up. "Teacher, I brought my son to you,
for he has a spirit that makes him mute.
And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds
his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked
your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able."
"Bring him to me," Jesus
says.
And then, after
this evil spirit causes the boy to convulse violently and to foam at the mouth,
the father pleads, "if you can do
anything, have compassion on us and help us." … "If you can do anything"? … caught between belief
and unbelief, faith and doubt the father says to the Lord of the universe - the
one who set the stars in their place, who orders the seas to stay within their
boundaries, "IF YOU
can do anything." … Ridiculous statement to be sure, but we've been
there, haven't we? We've been there as
we believe, but yet there are doubts as we struggle to live by faith and not by
sight. We trust, but yet there are
uncertainties as life can leave us wondering what may happen next. Caught between belief and unbelief, "If
you can do anything, O Lord, have compassion, help us," we plead. …
Of course Jesus,
as He does, he encourages the faltering faith of the man, He encourages belief
in Him. "All things are possible for the one who believes." And I suppose we should make one quick point
here and caution against the popular thinking today that just some general type
of "faith" is what helps us get through tough times. Today we are encouraged to have faith in
whatever suits us. Faith is what is
important, it doesn't really matter what it is in. "Just have faith," we are told. … Well,
faith is actually quite worthless unless that faith is in something worthy. Faith is only as valuable as the object of
that faith. As an illustration, this
past Friday we of course marked the 8th anniversary of the attacks on our
nation by a group of Muslim extremists.
Those men who carried out those attacks were very faithful men. They had a very strong faith - very sincere
faith in Allah. But that faith was of
course misplaced as Allah is a product of man's imagination and those men are
now suffering in the torments of outer darkness awaiting the day of
Judgment. You see, only faith in Jesus
saves. Only faith in Jesus is of any
lasting value. And so here Jesus isn't
merely encouraging a faith in whatever suits you, rather here Jesus is encouraging
and commending a faith that is in Him and in Him alone who is the way, the
truth and the life. And so "all things are possible for the one
who believes … in Jesus."
Now I suppose
we've got to be careful here for many will use this verse to try to tell us as
Christians that if we only believe enough, God will cure our illness, He'll
repair the relationship, He'll grant us whatever material possessions we
desire. You've just got to believe
enough. But truth is, we live in a
sinful fallen world with our sinful, fallen bodies and as a result there will
be suffering, there will be need. Of
course the Lord uses that suffering and need to teach us to rely more and more
on Him but He never promises to take it away - at least not in this life. That's why we live by faith and not by
sight. That's why we so easily struggle
with doubt and worry and unbelief.
That's why the father of the boy exlaims to the Lord, "Lord I believe, help my
unbelief." "I'm got there
in the middle." … And again, we've all been there, haven't we? Caught between belief and unbelief, we've all
been there. …
Although
fortunately, fortunately for us, fortunately for the boy, for the father, the
Lord God looks on us with compassion and mercy despite our doubts and worries
and unbelief. With the father and the boy
Jesus says, "You mute and deaf
spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." And the spirit left. And the boy was given life, free of the
devil's grip. Jesus didn't chastise the
wavering faith of the father, instead he acted - He rescued the one caught
between belief and unbelief. He acted
with compassion and grace, He acted with mercy and with pity.
True with the
father, true with you. True with you and
with me. For though we may wonder where
God is, He continues to come to us and offer Himself to us as He says, "take eat, this is my body given for
you. Drink, this is my blood of the covenant shed for the forgiveness of all
your sins."
Though we may
doubt, the Lord Jesus is right now preparing a room in heaven for you and He's
promised to come back to take you to where there is no more suffering, no more
tears, no more death.
Though we may
wonder where the God of love is, He has stretched Himself out upon Calvary's
cross and said, "This is love: that I have laid down my life for you, that
heaven may be yours."
Even when we may
fail to respond as Job, even when we may be filled with doubts and worries, He
forgives and He restores and He strengthens.
Caught between
belief and unbelief, between faith and doubt, Jesus rescues us. He rescues us as our Savior and - as Job once
said - He rescues us as our Redeemer. …
And so let us indeed
look to Him. Let us indeed look to our
Lord Jesus who has defeated the devil, who has opened death's doorway. Let us look to Jesus who beyond all doubt has
secured heaven for us by His cross and resurrection. Yes caught between belief and unbelief, let
us look to Jesus, the object of the only saving faith. Amen.