After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Prayer is faith turned toward God, faith addressing itself to God; the placing of one’s trust or confidence in God. If we had any doubt that this is what prayer is or that that is what Jesus understood prayer to be, we have only to look at Mark 11:22-24, where the Lord brings faith and prayer together again and considers them in effect the same thing. Prayer is simply faith at work. Faith exercises itself through prayer.
We would all admit that sometimes our prayers are just a religious exercise…Oh we are saying words God-ward, but are we saying those words believing God, evidenced of course by the actions we take after prayer? Could it have been the case that the disciples had come to think that the authority to drive out demons that Jesus had given to them was now their authority and that they could exercise it however and whenever they pleased?
They wouldn’t have denied that He had given it to them, but, after so much success, did they forget and begin to think, this authority and ability was now theirs? After all, we read in the very next section that the disciples are once again arguing about which of them was the greatest…Is it possible they were keeping track in their minds? “Hey Peter, that is 9 demons cast out for me and you only have 7”. “Well, maybe only seven demons cast out, but I have 11 healings, you only have 4!”
Do Christians really behave that way? What do you think? Comparing, judging, trying to get ahead…always having to be the leader never the servant?
Some years ago, I was asked to be the keynote speaker at a youth leadership conference that I had served at for a number of years. I was very excited as I loved this particular conference and I quickly accepted the invitation. A few weeks later I got a call from the director. He said, “This is a little embarrassing but you know Bob, right?” Which I did. Bob, a PCA minister of a large church in the Midwest had been a keynote speaker in the past.
The director continued, “We asked Bob if he would be a morning workshop leader and he said that the only way he would participate is if he got to be the keynote speaker. He feels that ‘workshop leader’ is an insult. So, would you let Bob be the keynote and you do the workshop?” Bob would not speak unless he was the highlighted speaker.
Or how about Christians in the church who have to run all the programs that have visibility but are nowhere to be found in the service of the saints that is unseen? Could it have been the disciple’s failure to remember and to reckon with the fact that the authority was and remained the Lord’s alone? Could it have been that their failure was to appreciate that any power over the demonic realm was Christ’s power alone, and that they stumbled here?
Remember, the disciples were men just like you and me. How easily we are found not looking directly to the Lord; not depending upon his name; not acting specifically, explicitly and self-consciously on Christ’s behalf and for His glory and honor!
And if that was in fact the case for the disciples, then no wonder they found they couldn’t drive the demon out of this boy. Don’t misunderstand, these men were believers, they were genuine followers of Jesus. They had confessed him as the Messiah. They had declared him to be their Lord. But they, like all of us, had to learn that an active, working, dependent faith in Christ is the daily calling of Christ’s followers and of the children of God.
This is what they had to learn and this is what every Christian has to learn, this is what you and I have to learn. Here is a key lesson to which Mark devotes a considerable space, Christians must live by faith and that is not a platitude, that is not a pad answer, it is the heart-beat of what it means to be a Christian.
But what is faith? What does it mean to believe the Lord? Faith and belief are forms of the same word in the New Testament’s Greek, not in English, but they are in Greek. So, what does it mean to believe?
One commentator wrote this: In our culture, on talk radio, in the news and in the politics of our day, we hear a great deal about “people of faith”, “faith-based initiatives” and so on; or, more popularly, we hear people speaking of the importance of having faith, as if faith itself, the act of believing – whatever it is that one believes in or on – is the really important thing. The way faith is used today, simply means optimism. They have faith and it’s good to have faith. Christians have it, Muslims have it, Buddhists have it, and secularists apparently don’t have it.
But brothers and sisters, that is in no way what the Lord or the Bible means by faith. Think of it this way: Most of the Jews of Jesus’ day would certainly not have agreed that they were an unbelieving generation. They would have been insulted for you to say such a thing. They would be vehement that they believed. They had faith. But they did not have faith in Jesus the Messiah!
Prayer: Father, I have complained times without number, against You and against what You have brought into my life. Forgive me for not trusting You, not believing You and not humbling walking with You through the difficulty. My faith at times is so weak! I am ashamed that I would ever have been offended at You when I know all that You have and continue to do, to pour out Your love and mercy on my life. Give me eyes to see and a heart that loves You for all you do for me and for my salvation. Through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee