Faith and Trust Answer Unbelief

Title:   Faith and Trust Answer Unbelief By Pastor Lohn Johnson

Text:  Mark 9:22-24  But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."  23 And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible for one who believes."  24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

INTRODUCTION: My dear friends in Christ, everybody has seen “Dumbo.”  Something about this text made me think about Dumbo.  Maybe it was that phrase: “All things are possible for one who believes.”  Maybe Dumbo is kind of an example of that – well maybe.  I do love it when the crows sing: “I’ve seen just about everything when I’ve see an elephant fly” Then they give Dumbo the magic feather and he flies.  There you see the impossible – an elephant who flies.  You could look at our text like that.  But our text’s significant difference is that it’s with God all things are possible—not with magic feathers.

I. The father in our text is confronted by an impossible situation.  His son is possessed.  A cure would seem as impossible as an elephant flying.

A. The father goes to the disciples and they fail to deal with the problem.  With that failure they thought it’s time to go to another place.  Let’s take the kid to Jesus.  Maybe Jesus can make elephants fly.

1. You could call this the magic feather approach, where you look for magic or miracles to deal with the impossible.

a. I think part of Jesus’ anger in this text was because of this approach.  How many miracles does He have to do before the people believe. But He knew that miracles don’t create faith, they just create a market for more miracles.  b. But when the miracles stop, the people stop believing and take their business elsewhere.  Isn’t that the way it goes. If you don’t get what you want, you shop around until you do.  And try all the magic feathers.

2. When Jesus finally gets around to exorcising the demon, things seem to go from bad to worse. The demon departs, but the boy looks like he’s dead.

a. It seemed as if the cure was worse than the disease.  The demon is gone, but the boy is dead, or at least, apparently so. b. And I’m sure they were all thinking that If Jesus and His crew can’t take care of the problem, well maybe we best look for someone else.

B. We too ask what happens to our faith when our religion doesn’t seem to work.  When the magic feather doesn’t work what do you do next? – look for another feather?

1. You can substitute whatever you like for the stubborn demon and come to the same place: the incurable cancer, the sudden accident, the failed economy, the child who abandons the faith, your unanswered prayers, your dashed hopes and dreams.

a. It works the same with church.  We think we can bring our problems to the church, but then church doesn’t fix them. You prayed for healing and you only got worse. You prayed for a better job and you lost the job you had. You know how it is; I know you do. So what next? b. The temptation at that point is to trade in your God for another model, and swap your religion for one that “works.” Another magic feather might work.  I think our culture particularly is prone to the “whatever works must be true” way of looking at things.  We admire whatever gets the job done. c. So if you go to some witchdoctor and he makes your lumbago go away, then it’s all good, right? Or you go to some fortune teller and she manages to pull a tidbit of your future and get it right, then it must be good, right?

2. You can see where this is heading, and how the devil has a brilliant deception under his sleeve if he can get us to bite on the notion that something is right if it “works.”

a. So then when it stops working, you have a ready-made excuse to move on. b. And you will chase what works straight into oblivion because “what works” is too short term. It’s too narrow. For the sake of things of now, we are sorely tempted to lose sight of things eternal. And it’s me-centered not God-centered.  It seems like you hold magic feather religion until the feather flies out of your trunk.

II. But with God All things are possible. That’s why Jesus says to the man “All things are possible for one who believes.”  It’s not about magic feathers at all.

A. With God a virgin conceives, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the demons are cast out, the dead are raised. But it’s not really about all the “magic.”

1.  Jesus reaches out His hand, and lifts the boy up and he arose.  The word used is the same used at the resurrection --- a mini resurrection. And the impossible is possible with Jesus. It’s not about magic feathers.  It about Jesus. 2. What Jesus did for that boy and his father, He does for all on the cross by His death and resurrection.

a. Mark even portrays the death of Jesus as an “exorcism.” Jesus has absorbed Sin and Death and devil into Himself and with a loud shout in the darkness of His death He casts out the devil and conquers humanity’s greatest and fiercest enemy, Death itself. He does it by dying and rising. He takes on the demons. He goes into the darkness. He becomes Sin for us. He dies. And in His death, He conquers. b. He baptizes you into His death, and in Him you conquer too. Nothing can harm you eternally.  So again with Jesus the impossible is possible.

B. But if we are honest, there were times when we resembled the boy in our text when the crowd said, "he is dead."

1. And those same words may have been said about us.  For even though Jesus has been casting Satan out every time His Word is preached here, and every time His Sacraments are given, we have often acted as though it meant little or nothing to us.

a. We have lain down like corpses, who are not filled with the life of Christ.  How many times have visitors come to our church and said, "They are not really living ...they are dead?" b. --Jesus is here to lift you up. You did not feel Him grab your hand earlier, but in truth He did. When I spoke the words He commands me, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” Jesus was doing what those words declare. He was lifting you up out of your sins just as He lifted up the boy in our text. When you come up to God’s altar in a few minutes, Jesus is here in bread and wine to lift you into life--the life you were given in your baptism. You do not feel Him, but He is here for you as He promises to be. c. So the onlookers are wrong. The observers are in error. You are not dead.  You are alive, alive in Christ, for He Himself comes to you, as He came to the little boy, and He lifts you up; He raises you to life.

2. In our text Jesus’ disciples are reminded that power lies not with them, not with magic feathers but with Jesus.  And we need reminding of this too.

a. We need to be reminded that the question for Jesus shouldn’t be “if you can” but “if you are willing.” God can do anything He wants. That’s not the issue. The only issue is if He’s willing. The man should have said, “If you are willing, have compassion on us.” But it’s not a matter of whether Jesus can do something, but only if He is willing to do something. And faith is open to all possibilities. b. That’s how we can pray for a miracle and go to the doctor and accept a sickness all at the same time. Nothing is impossible with God, and all things are possible for one who believes. That doesn’t mean that you get everything you want if you believe hard enough and in the right way, but that faith is always open to every possibility because with God nothing is impossible. c. When we truly understand this we don’t act like the woman in this story: “Many years ago there was a woman in Chicago whose child was desperately ill and who read in the papers that the great Austrian orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Adolf Lorenz, was in the city. In desperate faith she prayed that God would send the renowned specialist into her modest home to cure her child. There was no influence to summon him, no money to pay him — only her prayer. In the midst of a busy day, Dr. Lorenz went out on a walk to relax. He told his driver as they came to a humble residential area to let him out for an hour’s stroll and to pick him up at a designated place. In the midst of his walk a sudden violent rainstorm swept down over Chicago, and the stranded doctor sought shelter in a simple cottage near where he was walking — and surprise it was the very house where the praying mother and the sick child lived. But when he courteously gave his last name and asked for sanctuary from the rain, he was rudely refused admission. The next morning the Chicago papers carried the famous doctor’s indignant account of a poor housewife’s inhospitality to a man from another land seeking shelter from a storm. And in the home where it all happened, a shocked woman, who had not really expected God to send Adolf Lorenz, was overcome by sorrow because she had missed the opportunity that God had provided.”

3. And then when we understand Jesus we are brought to see that our perspective should be that of the father in this text as he said: “I believe, help my unbelief.”

a. You can’t say it any better than this. He is simultaneously believer and unbeliever. I believe Lord, and only you, the author of my faith, can deal with my unbelief. b. That’s a very Lutheran way of saying it. Simultaneously a sinner and a saint. A believer and an unbeliever. That’s you; that’s me. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. In face of things where I cannot find a way out, where You, O Lord, appear not to be doing anything, help my unbelief. Teach me to trust You when You appear weak. Teach me to trust Your Word when it doesn’t appear to work. Teach me to trust your promises over and against my own reason and senses.”

CONCLUSION: Yes, in Dumbo the crows sang: “I’ve seen just about everything when I’ve seen an elephant fly.”  But for us there is no magic feather faith.  Jesus makes All things possible for one who believes, because with God nothing is impossible. This is all about trust. It’s about faith. It’s about prayer that is in tune with the will of God because it has heard and is shaped by the Word of God. So whether things are working out well or not; whether God is doing things your way or not; whether it “works” or not. We trust in the Lord. We trust His promises. We trust our Baptisms into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  He will raise you; He already has. The Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.