This stands out in striking contrast with the halcyon hour on the mountain with which the three had been favored. Their brethren were experiencing a greater difficulty than they had ever yet known. But the discussion of the saying they had kept, formed for the three an intermediate step down into actual life, and daily events and troubles. Christ, on the other hand, appears to have received a greater fullness of Messianic consciousness and power through his transfiguration, as was his wont after similar retirements into spiritual seclusion. This incident affords a view of Christ's manner of dealing with exceptional difficulties in spiritual service.

I. ACCREDITED SERVANTS OF CHRIST WERE BEING DESPISED AND DISCOURAGED. (Vers. 14-18.)

1. Their spirit was being daunted. The people ceased to respect them, and the scribes began to turn the failure to account as an argument against their Lord. What could they say or do? Their Master was absent, and they were at their wits' end. A situation with its parallels in every age of the Church. Moral phases of individual, social, and national life which seem to defy remedy or even amelioration. Difficulties and failures in mission work, etc.

2. Their usefulness was at a standstill. The enemies of their cause had now the upper hand, and they were pressing them with objections and sneers. Perhaps they were even asking why their Master had gone away so mysteriously, and left them to cope with difficulties for which they were unequal. It was high time Jesus should come to their rescue. And lo! as the thought arose within them almost despairingly, he appeared! "The multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed." He had come just at the right moment, as if he divined the need for his presence.

II. THEIR MASTER MADE THE DIFFICULTY AN OCCASION FOR SPIRITUAL REBUKE AND INSTRUCTION.

1. To the people, or generally. He laments their want of faith, and slowness to receive the things of God. They had the highest reasons for faith - his works and himself - in their midst, and yet would not believe. He gives vent to the feeling of weariness and moral disgust which overcame him, and in the face of which he still labored and forbore. The want of faith, only immediately manifested towards the disciples, was in reality towards himself. That was the root and spring of their readiness to cavil, and their questionings and arguments.

2. To the father. His conversation with Christ is made by the latter a perfect spiritual discipline. Already the dealings of God had been experienced in his home and heart, and that which has been begun is carried to a successful issue. It is amongst the compensations of great sorrows that, if they do not themselves induce a high spirituality of mind, they, at all events, help us to feel our need of the Savior. There was a preparatory work already done, and Christ wastes no advantage thus gained. Having signified his willingness to undertake the cure, he begins to question the father, partly as an expression of sympathy, partly to show the true character of the case. In this he succeeds in eliciting an expression of the sceptical spirit of the man: "If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us." Here there is room for a commencement, and the Savior repeats in grieved astonishment, "If Thou canst! It was a qualification that had no business in such a request, and it showed how poor was the spiritual life or power of the man. He then declares the grand condition of all his cures, All things are possible to him that believeth;" which in this connection meant that all the blessings Christ conferred were given only in response to faith, but where that was there was no limit with regard to their bestowal. He did not mean that any request, of whatever kind it might be, would be granted if it were only accompanied by faith, but that all requests that were the outcome of a Divine faith, and consequently subject to its conditions - as, for instance, their being agreeable to God's will - would be granted, however hard they might appear to man. This remark awoke the slumbering spiritual nature of the father, whose love for his son was also at work to quicken his susceptibilities, and he cried out, "I believe; help thou mine unbelief." There is great difference of opinion as to the true meaning of these words, and no certainty would seem to be attainable; Yet that they reveal a low, self-contradictory spiritual state is evident. Still, progress is perceptible. He at least knows his shortcoming, and has asked for its removal. That was probably effected by the cure of his son, which took place, not because of satisfaction with the father's confession - a very faulty one at best - but through desire to prevent tumult, etc.; for when "he saw that a multitude came running together," he quickly completed the miracle. But even in his expedition there is no hurry. The whole scene is solemn and expressive, and must have had a strong influence on all who looked on.

3. To the disciples. A call to a more intense and elevated communion with God. Prayer (and fasting) was a means to that. Faith is thus seen to be a condition both of getting good and doing good. It is because Christians live habitually on such a worldly plane that they lack power. Oneness in heart and life with God would remove "mountains." This power should be sought by all.

III. HE MADE IT ALSO AN OCCASION FOR MORE SIGNAL DISPLAY OF HIS GLORY. The delay, failure of disciples, gradual extraction of all the circumstances of the case from the father, etc., all tended to increase the moral effect of the final exercise of power. His authority as the moral Governor of the universe, and Destroyer of the works of the devil, is also vindicated in addressing the demon. Not less, but far more, awful are the effects of sin upon the soul. Its expulsion is a work of Divine power and grace, and exhaustive of the nature in which it has dwelt. It is for Christ to raise up and revivify the poor wreck, the spiritual impotency that survives. So are the failures of weak disciples retrieved, and where disgrace is, humanly speaking, inevitable, the glory of God is revealed. The servants of Christ may despair of themselves, but never of him. - M.

I. The first thing that seems to be in these words is not anger, indeed, but a very distinct and very pathetic expression of CHRIST'S INFINITE PAIN, BECAUSE OF MAN'S FAITHLESSNESS. The element of personal sorrow is most obvious here. It is not only that He is sad for their sakes, that they are so unreceptive, but He feels for Himself, just as we do in our humble measure, the chilling effect of an atmosphere where there is no sympathy. There never was such a lonely soul on this earth as His, just because there never was another so pure and loving. The plain felt soul-chilling after the blessed communion of the mountain. For once the pain He felt broke the bounds of restraint, and shaped for itself this pathetic utterance, "How long shall I be with you?" I do not know that there is one in which the title of "The man of sorrows" is to all deeper thinking more pathetically vindicated than in this — the solitude of the uncomprehended and the unaccepted Christ — His pain at His disciples' faithlessness. And then do not let us forget that in this short sharp cry of anguish — for it is that — there may be detected by the listening ear not only the tone of personal hurt, but the tone of disappointed and thwarted love. Because of their unbelief He knew that they could not receive what He desired to give them. We find Him more than once in His life hemmed in, hindered of His purpose — simply because there was nobody with a heart open to receive the rich treasure He was ready to pour out Here I would remark, too, before I go to another point, that these two elements — that of personal sorrow and that of disappointed love and baulked purposes — continue still, and are represented as in some measure felt by Him now. It was to disciples that He said, "O faithless generation!" He did not mean to charge them with the entire absence of all confidence, but He did mean to declare that their poor, feeble faith, such as it was, was not worth naming in comparison with the abounding mass of their unbelief. There was one light spark in them, and there was also a great heap of green wood that had not caught the flame, and only smoked instead of blazing. And so He said to them, "O faithless generation!" Do not we know that the purer our love, and the more it has purified us, the more sensitive it becomes, even while the less suspicious it becomes? Is not the purest, most unselfish, highest love, that in which the least failure in response is felt most painfully? Though there be no anger, and no change in the love, still there is a pang where there is an inadequate perception, or an unworthy reception, of it. And Scripture seems to countenance the belief that Divine Love, too, may know something, in some mysterious fashion, like that feeling, when it warns us, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." So we may venture to say, Grieve not the Christ of God, who redeems us; and remember that we grieve Him most when we will not let Him pour His love upon us, but turn a sullen, unresponsive unbelief towards His pleading grace, as some glacier shuts out the sunshine from the mountainside with its thick-ribbed ice.

II. Another thought, which seems to me to be expressed in this wonderful exclamation of our Lord's, is — THAT THEIR FAITHLESSNESS BOUND CHRIST TO EARTH, and kept Him here. As there is not anger, but only pain, so there is also, I think, not exactly impatience, but a desire to depart, coupled with the feeling that He cannot leave them till they have grown stronger in faith. And that feeling is increased by the experience of their utter helplessness and shameful discomfiture during His brief absence. That had shown that they were not fit to be trusted alone. He had been away for a day up in the mountain there, and though they did not build an altar to any golden calf, like their ancestors, when their leader was absent, still when He comes back He finds things all gone wrong because of the few hours of His absence. They were not ready for Him to leave them; the full-grown tree was not strong enough for the props to be removed. Again, here we get a glimpse into the depth of Christ's patient forbearance. We might read these other words of our text, "How long shall I suffer you?" with such an intonation as to make them almost a threat that the limits of forbearance would soon be reached, and that He was not going to suffer them much longer. But I fail to catch the tone of indignation here. It sounds rather like a pledge that as long as they need forbearance they will get it; but at the same time, a question of "How long that is to be?" It implies the inexhaustible riches and resources of His patient mercy. There is rebuke in His question, but how tender a rebuke it is! He rebukes without anger. Plainly He names the fault. He shows distinctly His sorrow, and does not hide the strain on His forbearance. That is His way of cure for His servants' faithlessness. It was His way on earth. It is His way in heaven. To us, too, comes the loving rebuke of this question, "How long shall I suffer you?" Thank God that our answer may be cast into the words of His own promise: "I say not unto thee, until seven times; but until seventy times seven." Bear with me till thou hast perfected me; and then bear me to Thyself, that I may be with Thee forever, and grieve Thy love no more. So may it be, for with Him is plenteous redemption, and His forbearing "mercy endureth forever."

(A. Maclaren, D. D,)

Elias, Elijah, James, Jesus, John, PeterCaesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Galilee, High MountainAgo, Child, Childhood, Early, Happening, Questioned, Questioning1. Jesus is transfigured.
11. He instructs his disciples concerning the coming of Elijah;
14. casts forth a deaf and mute spirit;
30. foretells his death and resurrection;
33. exhorts his disciples to humility;
38. bidding them not to prohibit such as are not against them,
42. nor to give offense to any of the faithful.

Mark 9:21

     2045   Christ, knowledge of
     2054   Christ, mind of

Mark 9:14-27

     5658   boys

Mark 9:14-29

     5168   muteness
     8611   prayer, for others

Mark 9:17-27

     4132   demons, malevolence
     5333   healing
     5669   children, examples

February 2 Evening
One star differeth from another star in glory.--I COR. 15:41. By the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all.--Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Christ's Lament Over Our Faithlessness
'He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?'--Mark ix. 19. There is a very evident, and, I think, intentional contrast between the two scenes, of the Transfiguration, and of this healing of the maniac boy. And in nothing is the contrast more marked than in the demeanour of these enfeebled and unbelieving Apostles, as contrasted with the rapture of devotion of the other three, and with the lowly submission and faith of Moses and Elias. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Omnipotence of Faith
Jesus said unto him, If them canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.'--Mark ix. 23. The necessity and power of faith is the prominent lesson of this narrative of the healing of a demoniac boy, especially as it is told by the Evangelist Mark, The lesson is enforced by the actions of all the persons in the group, except the central figure, Christ. The disciples could not cast out the demon, and incur Christ's plaintive rebuke, which is quite as much sorrow as blame: 'O faithless …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Unbelieving Belief
'And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.'--Mark ix. 24. We owe to Mark's Gospel the fullest account of the pathetic incident of the healing of the demoniac boy. He alone gives us this part of the conversation between our Lord and the afflicted child's father. The poor man had brought his child to the disciples, and found them unable to do anything with him. A torrent of appeal breaks from his lips as soon as the Lord gives …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

An Unanswered Question
'What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?'--Mark ix. 33. Was it not a strange time to squabble when they had just been told of His death? Note-- I. The variations of feeling common to the disciples and to us all: one moment 'exceeding sorrowful,' the next fighting for precedence. II. Christ's divine insight into His servants' faults. This question was put because He knew what the wrangle had been about. The disputants did not answer, but He knew without an answer, as His immediately …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Salted with Fire
Every one shall be salted with fire.'--Mark ix. 49. Our Lord has just been uttering some of the most solemn words that ever came from His gracious lips. He has been enjoining the severest self-suppression, extending even to mutilation and excision of the eye, the hand, or the foot, that might cause us to stumble. He has been giving that sharp lesson on the ground of plain common sense and enlightened self-regard. It is better, obviously, to live maimed than to die whole. The man who elects to …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Salt in Yourselves'
'Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.'--Mark ix. 50. In the context 'salt' is employed to express the preserving, purifying, divine energy which is otherwise spoken of as 'fire.' The two emblems produce the same result. They both salt--that is, they cleanse and keep. And if in the one we recognise the quick energy of the Divine Spirit as the central idea, no less are we to see the same typified under a slightly different aspect in the other. The fire transforms into its own substance …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'This is My Beloved Son: Hear Him'
'And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son: hear Him.'--Mark ix. 7. With regard to the first part of these words spoken at the Transfiguration, they open far too large and wonderful a subject for me to do more than just touch with the tip of my finger, as it were, in passing, because the utterance of the divine words, 'This is My beloved Son,' in all the depth of their meaning and loftiness, is laid as the foundation of the two …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Jesus Only!
'They saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.'--Mark ix. 8. The Transfiguration was the solemn inauguration of Jesus for His sufferings and death. Moses, the founder, and Elijah, the restorer, of the Jewish polity, the great Lawgiver and the great Prophet, were present. The former had died and been mysteriously buried, the latter had been translated without 'seeing death.' So both are visitors from the unseen world, appearing to own that Jesus is the Lord of that dim land, and that …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Transfiguration
'And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and He was transfigured before them. 3. And His raimemt became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. 4. And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. 5. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Receiving and Forbidding
'And He came to Capernaum: and being in the house He asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? 34. But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. 35. And He sat down, and called the Twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. 36. And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, 37. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

July the Ninth Scholars in Christ's School
"He taught His disciples." --MARK ix. 30-37. And my Lord will teach me. He will lead me into "the deep things" of God. There is only one school for this sort of learning, and an old saint called it the Academy of Love, and it meets in Gethsemane and Calvary, and the Lord Himself is the teacher, and there is room in the school for thee and me. But the disciples were not in the mood for learning. They were not ambitious for heavenly knowledge, but for carnal prizes, not for wisdom, but for place. …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Lenten Fast.
"This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer."--ST. MARK ix. 29. You remember the narrative from which I have taken this verse. Jesus, as we read, had just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration, and when He was come to the multitude, a certain man besought him saying, "Have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore vexed, and I brought him to Thy disciples, but they could not cure him." Then Jesus rebuked the devil, and the child was cured from that hour. Thereupon His disciples …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

The Child in the Midst.
"And He took a child and set Him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name, receiveth Me: and whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me."--ST. MARK ix. 36, 37. It is one of the characteristics of our time, one of its most hopeful and most encouraging signs, that men are awaking to higher and purer conceptions of the Christian life and what it is that constitutes such a life. We …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

Of Hell
"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Mark 9:48. 1. Every truth which is revealed in the oracles of God is undoubtedly of great importance. Yet it may be allowed that some of those which are revealed therein are of greater importance than others, as being more immediately conducive to the grand end of all, the eternal salvation of men. And we may judge of their importance even from this circumstance, -- that they are not mentioned once only in the sacred writings, but are repeated …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

A Caution against Bigotry
"And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name: and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not." Mark 9:38, 39. 1. In the preceding verses we read, that after the Twelve had been disputing "which of them should be the greatest," Jesus took a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, said unto them, "Whosoever shall receive one of these little children in My name, receiveth …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Faith's Dawn and Its Clouds
In the text there are three things very clearly. Here is true faith; here is grievous unbelief; here is a battle between the two. I. Very clearly in the text there is TRUE FAITH. "Lord, I believe," says the anxious father. When our Lord tells him that, if he can believe, all things are possible to him, he makes no demur, asks for no pause, wishes to hear no more evidence, but cries at once, "Lord, I believe." Now, observe we have called this faith true faith, and we will prove it to have been so. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

The Child in the Midst.
And he came to Capernaum: and, being in the house, he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Absolute Surrender
"And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that …
Andrew Murray—Absolute Surrender

Thoughts Upon Striving to Enter at the Strait Gate.
AS certainly as we are here now, it is not long but we shall all be in another World, either in a World of Happiness, or else in a World of Misery, or if you will, either in Heaven or in Hell. For these are the two only places which all Mankind from the beginning of the World to the end of it, must live in for evermore, some in the one, some in the other, according to their carriage and behaviour here; and therefore it is worth the while to take a view and prospect now and then of both these places, …
William Beveridge—Private Thoughts Upon a Christian Life

The Three Tabernacles
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. MARK ix. 5. Caught up in glory and in rapture, the Apostle seems to have forgotten the world from which he had ascended, and to which he still belonged, and to have craved permanent shelter and extatic communion within the mystic splendors that brightened the Mount of Transfiguration. But it was true, not only as to the confusion of his …
E. H. Chapin—The Crown of Thorns

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