POWER FAILURE

Mark 9:14-29

Our Gospel reading from Mark narrates the event right after Jesus has returned from the Mountain after the transfiguration, where 3 disciples saw Him revealed as the Son of God. Returning to the plain, He finds out that the other disciples had failed in casting out a demon from a young boy, and were now surrounded by a crowd, arguing with the scribes.

Jesus enters the scene likely embarrassed by their failure and the crowd eager to see if he could succeed where the disciples had failed. The father of the boy begs that Jesus may help. But his plea is still filled with doubt, hesitation, and fear: “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

Even when this request is faithless, Jesus doesn’t turn away from it, but instead takes an opportunity to boost the father’s faith and to teach a lesson to his disciples. He asks almost in His own amazement, “If you can? For Jesus, the words “If you can” do not enter into the equation when you are asking God. With God all things are possible. There is no limitation to what God can do. To ask if God can is to forget who God is. With that, Jesus elevates the man’s doubt, hesitation, and fear to become faith and at the end this man cried out: I do believe.

The lesson is that faith and prayer go together. Faith is an ongoing process. We need to stay connected to the love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If we unplug our spiritual life from the love of God, we will experience a power failure. It seems like the disciples had taken the power of Christ for granted. Perhaps they started to rely on their own power and strength. Perhaps they thought that once you receive the power of Christ, it will always be there for you, no matter what. They disconnected themselves to Jesus.

Most of time we also think that way. We think once we are baptized and confirmed, then that’s good enough. We are a Christian any ways. The point is that we need to stay connected to Jesus Christ. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) in his commentary on this passage reminds us that “Where faith fails, prayer perishes. For who prays for that in which he does not believe? So then in order that we may pray, let us believe first, and let us pray that this same faith by which we pray may not falter.”