Section 70

Summary of Events:

• The transfiguration
• The healing of the demonic boy

The boy had a self-destructive epilepsy attributed to demons and had been struggling with it since he was young.  Because of lack of faith, the disciples were unable to heal the boy.

Mat 17:17  And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 

"The disbelief of the people was a constant grief to Jesus, but it must have been especially so in this case, for it fostered and perpetrated this scene of weakness, mean-spiritedness, misery, and suffering which stood out in such sharp contrast with the peace, blessedness, and glory from which he had just come." -Fourfold Gospel

"And when he was come into the house,  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, asked him privately, How is it that we could not we cast it out? And Jesus saith unto them, Because of your little faith " Mark 9:19-20

"The failure of the disciples was not because of any insufficiency of power in Jesus, but was due to their own failure to appropriate that power by faith. The relation of belief and unbelief to miraculous power is fully illustrated in Peter's attempt to walk upon the waters." -FG

"but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.And Jesus said unto him, If thou canst! All things are possible to him that believeth." Mark 9:22-23

"Jesus echoed back the "if thou canst" which the man had uttered. If Jesus marveled at the faith of a Gentile which trusted the fullness of his divine power, he also marveled at the disbelief of this Jew which thus coolly and presumptuously questions the sufficiency of that power." -FG

"In the remainder of his answer Jesus shows that the lack of power is not in him, but in those who would be recipients of the blessings of his power, for those blessings are obtained by faith." -FG

"Straightway the father of the child cried out, and said I believe; help thou my unbelief"  Mark 9:29

And he said unto them, This kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer. 

"Prayer was the means of increasing faith. Demons, like spirits in the flesh, have different degrees of will force, some being easier to subdue than others, and this once, being particularly willful and obstinate, required more faith to expel it."-FG