By now, Jesus has crossed the point of no return. He is on the way to the cross. And that means that He won’t be with us, physically present anymore. And, more importantly, He is about to fulfill His mission… which means ours is about to start. The time is now. He is starting to “pass the baton”… to all of us.

Mark 9:14-16 And when he came to the disciples he saw a great crowd around them, and scribes disputing against them. And immediately all the crowd seeing him were amazed, and running to [him], saluted him. And he asked them, What do ye question with them about?

So, while Jesus and Peter, James, and John were up on the mountain, the rest of the disciples had been down below waiting for them. Something has happened, and the Scribes take it as an opportunity to dispute against them. But what about?

Last time it was about them eating corn without washing their hands. And we thought Jesus had shut them up for good that time.

What is it now?

What did the disciples do wrong now?

Mark 9:17-18 And one out of the crowd answered him, Teacher, I brought to thee my son, who has a dumb spirit; and wheresoever it seizes him it tears him, and he foams and gnashes his teeth, and he is withering away. And I spoke to thy disciples, that they might cast him out, and they could not.

Let’s pause here.

What did the disciples do wrong now, that the Scribes felt they had a “leg to stand on” to dispute against them? The answer: They were not able to cast out a demon.

Now, do you think this gives the Scribes a reason to argue with them? Why? The disciples certainly didn’t cause the demon to possess that child. So, what’s “their beef”? Are they complaining that the disciples tried to do it the wrong way?

Well, if that is true, then why don’t those Scribes show them how it is done?

Ahhh… Do you think, maybe, they can’t do it either? Then why come harangue us. At least we tried!

I digressed on that because this is still the way of the world today. The world will see servants of Christ trying to do the right thing: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, speak out against injustice… and there will be no words of appreciation, no accolades… But as soon as some of those Christians fail, make mistakes, or a few of them abuse their positions, then the world starts calling them all out loudly and deriding them all. Nothing has changed.

At this point, Jesus takes over the conversation, and as he is wont to do, He turns their accusation on its head:

Mark 9:19 But he answering them says, O unbelieving generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him to me.

Here the Scribes were berating the disciples in front of the crowd, and Jesus turns to that same crowd and tells them: “You faithless people! How long do I have to be among you for you to get it?” You see, Jesus is telling the crowd, “This is your problem.”

It is our problem… from now on.

Mark 9:20-22 And they brought him to him. And seeing him the spirit immediately tore him; and falling upon the earth he rolled foaming. And he asked his father, How long a time is it that it has been like this with him? And he said, From childhood; and often it has cast him both into fire and into waters that it might destroy him: but if thou couldst [do] anything, be moved with pity on us, and help us.

The father is desperate. But it is getting worse, for Jesus is forcing him to admit that this has been happening for a long time and he never did anything about it. And that makes him wonder – would make me wonder – “Could I have done something?” Was he truly powerless to help his own son all those years?  But what about God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Certainly, He could not be powerless. And aren’t I one of His people? Didn’t He promise to take care of us?

Can you feel the guilt, the doubt, the recrimination?

That man, who came there expressly looking for Jesus, who obviously came because he had heard about Jesus, that He could cast out demons with just a word, that He was a Healer that never ever turned anyone away… he came to Him, and then. standing before Him. all the request he can muster is wrapped in hesitation… “If you could do anything, please have pity on us?”

It is almost like he is preparing for the disappointment… not daring to fully hope because every time he has hoped before, it has been to no avail.

Have you ever been there?

I have.

Sometimes this world breaks us.

What do we do when not even hope is left?

Mark 9:23 And Jesus said to him, The ‘if thou couldst’ is [if thou couldst] believe: all things are possible to him that believes.

“If I could?” Jesus says. “That is not what this is all about. It is about you: If you could!”

And you can imagine the father’s eyes opening wide in panic and guilt, saying, “Me? Me? I, I can’t save him! I don’t have the power.”

And then Jesus says: “Let me finish: If you could… believe.”

And now a different look comes into my eyes.  Because I know I don’t have the power… but He is telling me I don’t need the power. All I need to do is believe. That, I can do; can’t I?

Mark 9:24 And immediately the father of the young child crying out said [with tears], I believe, help mine unbelief.

What do we do when not even hope is left?

Cling to Faith.

For Faith is the underlying reality of our every hope, the evidence of the things accomplished (by God) that we have not yet seen.

Mark 9:25-27 But Jesus, seeing that [the] crowd was running up together, rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, *I* command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And having cried out and torn [him] much, he came out; and he became as if dead, so that the most said, He is dead. But Jesus, having taken hold of him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose.

Faith triumphs and Hope lives again.

Were the disciples short on faith?

Mark 9:28-29 And when he was entered into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Wherefore could not *we* cast him out? And he said to them, This kind can go out by nothing but by prayer and fasting.

Notice that Jesus did not tell them “Ye of little faith.” And He has never been shy about that. So, lack of Faith on their part was not the problem.

So, what happened?

I mean… Remember when He sent them out two by two? They cast out demons with no problem. Is Jesus teaching them here that a different technique for exorcism is required for especially stubborn demons; a technique He never taught them before? (Then what would have happened if they had run into one of these during their two-by-two mission?)

Is Jesus saying that when we are getting ready to cast a demon out, we need to first set time aside for prayer and fasting? How long? For how many days? How many meals?

Imagine you being one of the disciples, intimately acquainted with Jesus. Is that what you would think He meant? I hope that they all stopped for a moment, looked at each other, and then they all realized what He was saying… Prayer and Fasting… that is precisely what Jesus has been doing all His life.

If we miss this, we haven’t been paying attention to the Gospel. Prayer and fasting is par for the course for Jesus. It wasn’t anything extraordinary. Time and time again we see Him go away by Himself to pray. And if we pay attention to his “teaching and healing” marathons we are going to realize that many times He had no time for a break, no time for eating. I mean, this is one of the reasons His family, His mother and brothers, came to find Him and take Him away in chapter 3:

Mark 3:20-21 And again a crowd comes together, so that they cannot even eat bread. And his relatives having heard [of it] went out to lay hold on him, for they said, He is out of his mind.

Jesus lived wholly dedicated to the Lord… which is one of the reasons the prophet said that the zeal for God’s House consumed Him. To Him, the Mission was the ALL. He lived zealously for God. In John’s gospel He says so to His disciples: (John 4:34) Jesus says to them, My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work.

Does that kind of dedication make sense to the world?

We saw His mother and brothers couldn’t understand it: “He is crazy”. Well, right after that verse in Mark 3 we see the opinion the Scribes and Pharisees had of that kind of zeal: (Mark 3:22) And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, He has Beelzebub, and, By the prince of the demons he casts out demons.

But that is the way Jesus lived: consumed by the zeal of the Lord. Nothing mattered more than God’s will, God’s plan… His assigned Mission.

If that is so, if that is the way He walked on this Earth, what did He mean when He told all of us to follow Him?

Mark 8:34 And having called the crowd with his disciples, he said to them, Whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.

There is only one way to follow this Messiah: Walk in His footsteps.

I believe that when Jesus said, “This kind can go out by nothing but by prayer and fasting”, He was essentially telling them, telling us: It is your turn now… your turn to live for the Mission, like I have. That’s what it will take to carry it out. It cannot be carried out half-hearted. It cannot be carried out distracted. Not if we are truly committed to follow Him.

I think the disciples understood. Because they had indeed cast demons out when they went out two by two, and they did not report that any demon resisted them when they came back. Why? Because Jesus gave them instruction for that journey that put them in a position where their lives were fully dependent on the Mission. They took no money, no extra supplies, no defense… They fully depended on God during that time. And it paid off.

Fully depending on God takes only one thing: Fully trusting Him

And that trust is put to the test when His Plan doesn’t look anything at all like what we were hoping for…

Mark 9:30-32 And going forth from thence they went through Galilee; and he would not that any one knew it; for he taught his disciples and said to them, The Son of man is delivered into men’s hands, and they shall kill him; and having been killed, after three days he shall rise again. But they understood not the saying, and feared to ask him.

From this point on, Jesus will keep reminding them of this, that this is how His story ends. He is being as clear as He can be. But the concept of the suffering Messiah is so contrary to our human definition of victory that they really can’t understand it.

Mark 9:33-34 And he came to Capernaum, and being in the house, he asked them, Of what were ye reasoning by the way? And they remained silent, for by the way they had been reasoning with one another who [was] greatest.

From the other gospels we understand what this is all about. In their concept of what is going to happen, Jesus is going to be made King, and they are now vying for the place of most importance in His court. (And we shouldn’t be quick to scoff at them for this… After all, haven’t they been faithful? Haven’t they stayed with Him through everything that has happened to this point? Shouldn’t that count for something?)

Mark 9:35-37 And sitting down he called the twelve; and he says to them, If any one would be first, he shall be last of all, and minister of all. And taking a little child he set it in their midst, and having taken it in his arms he said to them, Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receives me; and whosoever shall receive me, does not receive me, but him who sent me.

The Kingdom of God is not about conquest and power; therefore it is not about our position in a hierarchy or about us having authority. (Those are things the world prizes). No, the Kingdom of God is about serving, about us being humble, unassuming, open, kind people that can lead others to Jesus. The kind of people that can receive anyone in His Name.

And that kind of openness to everybody, that lack of exclusivity, is just as confusing to the disciples as the idea of a suffering Messiah. Why? Because all of us want to think of ourselves as “special”. We like to think that, somehow, we have earned “our place.” But that is not the way it works in the Kingdom of God.

Mark 9:38 And John answered him saying, Teacher, we saw some one casting out demons in thy name, who does not follow us, and we forbad him, because he does not follow us.

John’s question is an example of this confusion. The hostility of the Scribes and Sadducees and Pharisees has certainly put them on the defensive, driven them to the mentality of us versus them… to the point that they see someone doing good, casting demons out (something the disciples just flubbed a few hours earlier), in the name of Jesus, and somehow think there is something wrong with that.

Note especially how John words his question: The man doing this was not one of us and because he was not one of us we told him to stop.

Us. Did you notice that? Us… as if we were the ones that define this Mission. How can that be? We are just servants! The One who defines the Mission is the Messiah.

Look at how Jesus responds:

Mark 9:39-40 But Jesus said, Forbid him not; for there is no one who shall do a miracle in my name, and be able soon [after] to speak ill of me; for he who is not against us is for us.

That is a crucial lesson. We are servants of this Kingdom. And the reach of the Kingdom is vast. Therefore, it will have servants everywhere, even in the most unlikely places. It is not up to us to pick and choose who can be a servant. That is the King’s prerogative, and He has set one and only one qualification: Do you follow the Messiah? If they do, that is enough. Whether they walk with us or not is immaterial.

Mark 9:41 For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in [my] name, because ye are Christ’s, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

As long as we serve the same Master, that is all that matters.

John missed this because he equated fidelity to Jesus with membership in his group. I am sure you can tell this kind of confusion is still rampant in our world today; christian bad-mouthing christian. (Let’s not even bring up history… because I hope we all agree it was a monstrosity to see wars waged between Christian sects: violent conflicts even lasting into our lifetime: Protestant versus Catholic.)

Yet wasn’t John’s concern well intentioned? I mean, if it is our job to carry out the mission of the Messiah after He is gone, shouldn’t we also be vigilant against people trying to co-opt that mission? What if that guy that was casting out demons in Jesus’ name was also teaching about Jesus on the side? How do we know he was teaching about Jesus correctly? Couldn’t he be misleading people?

What Jesus says next seems to validate that concern.

Mark 9:42-48 And whosoever shall be a snare to one of the little ones who believe [in me], it were better for him if a millstone were hung about his neck, and he cast into the sea.

And if thy hand serve as a snare to thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having thy two hands to go away into hell, into the fire unquenchable; [where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched]. And if thy foot serve as a snare to thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life lame, than having thy two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire unquenchable; [where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched]. And if thine eye serve as a snare to thee, cast it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire, where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched.

This is serious stuff! The punishment for someone leading God’s children astray is frightening. It is eternal.

So, wasn’t John rightly concerned? If the penalty is that severe…

Isn’t it part of our job to “police” the faith?

And the answer is: No.

That is God’s job.

Mark 9:49-50 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.  Salt [is] good, but if the salt is become saltless, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

Anyone that has chosen to follow the Messiah, chosen to deny himself, chosen to pick up his cross and follow Him, has chosen a life of self-sacrifice. And they have gone, as it were, through the fire.

Note how different the effect of this fire is from the one mentioned in verses 43 though 48. There, the unquenchable fire destroys the wicked… body and soul, forever. But here the fire works like salt. The fire’s job is to burn away that which in us would keep us from following God, so that what remains is pure and can endure.

Going again back to Malachi:

Malachi 3:1-4 Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the Angel of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts.

But who shall endure the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ lye. And he shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver; and he will purify the children of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah an oblation in righteousness. Then shall the oblation of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

God is the author of this purifying fire. When we say “Yes” to Him, we submit ourselves willingly to His authority to use that fire on us. And He will do so, as Malachi says, so that we become acceptable sacrifices (Romans 12:1) pleasing to God.

In the Old Testament, in the Temple’s sacrificial system, every sacrifice offered to God was sprinkled with salt. God’s covenant with His people is even referred to as a covenant of salt. This is because salt was the universal food preservative available in those days, to everybody. There were no refrigerators. Under the beating desert sun, meat, indeed almost any food would quickly and eventually spoil. But salt held that putrefaction at bay.

Jesus mixes the metaphors: the fire that burns away the dross in my life becomes my eternal preserver, it is the salt that will allow me to endure. And now, that that salt is in my life, it is what enables me to carry out my mission, to spread the Word of salvation, so that I too become a preservative for my generation: I become the salt of the Earth.

That is what Christians are meant to be. But if we do not carry out that mission, we who are the salt, who is going to do it? If salt loses its saltiness, there is nothing that can restore it.

Therefore, Jesus’ final admonition here, all motivated by John’s question, is: “Be the Salt. That is your job… Help each other, in peace, to do that job, and let God the Father do His.”

A final comment

We should not confuse Jesus’ reply here to John, motivated by John’s emphasis on that “us”, with the similarly sounding response He made against the Pharisees when they claimed that His works were authored by the devil

Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters.

That statement is absolutely true because He is the Messiah. He is the definition of the Mission. Jesus claims, even demands, exclusivity. And He can do that because He is the Son of God. He is the Son of the God who said long ago…

Isaiah 44:6 Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I [am] the first, and I [am] the last, and beside me there is no God.

One God, One Savior = one Hope.