Section 27A very tough case

When Jesus and a few of his men came to meet the rest of the disciples, they saw them talking animatedly with a large crowd of people. Among them were scribes who were questioning their authority.

On drawing near, Jesus asked his men what was going on.

One man spoke up. "Rabbi, I brought to you my son, who has a demon. It often throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and the boy is faring poorly.

"I asked your students to cast out the spirit, but they couldn't do it."

The lad's condition was so severe that he could neither hear nor speak during the attacks. (Matthew observes that the youth was an epileptic.)

"Generation of unbelievers, how long will I be with you? How long will I stand by you?" said Jesus. "Bring your son here."

As the youth was brought near, the demon saw Jesus and immediately it tore the boy grievously. The lad fell down and rolled on the ground, foaming at the mouth.

"How long has this been going on?" Jesus asked.

The father replied, "Ever since he was small the demon has been throwing him into the fire and into water, trying to kill him. If there's anything you can do, please have compassion on us and help us!"

"IF? What do you mean IF? Everything is possible for the one who believes!"

The father shouted, "I do believe! Help me in my doubt!"

As more and more people started to crowd around, Jesus rebuked the demon. "I command you, spirit, to come out of him – and stay out!"

With a fearsome scream, the demon left. The boy lay on the ground. He was so still that people thought he was probably dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up.

Later, in private, his disciples asked the rabbi why they couldn't exorcise the demon. They had been able to cast out demons while on their preaching tour.

Jesus replied, "Your faith is really tiny. If you had as much as a mustard seed's worth of faith, you would be able to tell this sycamine tree here to pull itself out of the ground and plant itself in Lake Galilee, and it would obey.

"But in any case, this kind of demon won't come out without prayer."

After Mark was written, a later editor amplified that last comment into "prayer and fasting." This amplification was no doubt meant to emphasize that what Jesus meant by prayer here was not simply a quick few words to God. He meant a spiritual condition in which the inner person is earnestly striving to commune with God, a spiritual condition which oftentimes is marked by fasting. When a person denies the body its desires, that person's spirit may be more attuned to God's Spirit. The disciples would not be able to fully attain to such spirituality until after the crucifixion and resurrection, when the gift of the Spirit could be sent to believers in Jesus.

After arriving in Capernaum one day, Jesus asked his disciples as they gathered around, "What were you talking about on the road?"

But they kept quiet, because they had been arguing about which disciple was the top student. In addition, they were wondering who takes the chief place in the kingdom that Dunker John and Jesus were announcing.

Jesus then said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be least – and everyone's servant."

A toddler was nearby. Jesus brought him to the center of the group and held him in his arms.

“I really mean it when I tell you that unless you change your attitude and become like little children, you'll never get in to the kingdom," Jesus declared. "But whoever is considerate to a little child in my name,  is considerate  to me. And whoever is considerate to me isn't considerate to me, but to him who sent me."

Jesus added, "Whoever, in the name of a disciple, even gives a drink of cold water to one of these little ones certainly will never lose his reward."

Further, warned Jesus, "Anyone who makes one of these little ones stumble would be better off being thrown in the sea with a millstone around his neck."

Mark relates that saying to the time when the disciple John reported to Jesus: "Rabbi, we saw someone casting out demons with your name. We told him to stop, because he's not one of your disciples."

"That wasn't necessary," Jesus replied. "No one who does a powerful work in my name is likely to speak against me. He that is not against us is for us."

Matthew and Luke saw the incident just recounted as relating to another saying of Jesus:

"Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble!  It is necessary that such things happen, but woe to the person by whom they come!"

Quite a few commentators have remarked that Jesus is deliberately mixing the idea of a small natural child with a picture of his disciples, whom he taught to be childlike – though not childish.

Another time, Jesus was staying in Capernaum. Those who collected the Temple tax stopped Peter in the street and asked him, "Doesn't your master pay the half-shekel?"

"Of course," said Peter.

Later, as Peter entered the house where Jesus was staying, Jesus spoke up before Peter could utter a word. "So, what do you think, Simon? Who do earthly kings collect taxes from: their relatives or strangers?"

"Strangers," Peter responded.

"In that case, the sons are free," said Jesus. "But, rather than trip up anybody, go to the lake, throw out a line and pull in the first fish you hook. When you open its mouth, you will find a shekel inside. Use that to pay the tax both for you and for me."

This incident implies a break in Jesus' touring ministry. Evidently Jesus is staying in the house of Peter's mother-in-law with Peter. Of course, we cannot rule out that other disciples were not far off, but that Jesus was unconcerned about paying their Temple tax. He wanted Peter to understand something.

Because the Temple tax was, supposedly, meant for God and his work, Jesus' point was that, as sons of God, the disciples were not bound by this rule, which could be a burden on people who roamed about doing God's will rather than "earning a living." The inclusion of this episode also appears to be meant to clarify that born-again Christians were not bound by Jewish law, a point made by the Apostle Paul. [vtc.1] On the other hand, rather than offend religious Jews unnecessarily, Jesus is willing to pay the tax – but note that it is paid through the grace of God and not through human effort.

Jesus spent a lot of time instructing his disciples as they roamed Galilee and other areas. He was very focused on God's kingdom, a concept that, in his hands, was radically new. A major point was the importance of the individual in God's New World. Jews tended to believe that the Messiah would rescue Israel as a nation-state with an appointed human king who would use the sword to subdue Israel's foes.

But God wasn't all that interested in institutions. His focus was the individual human being, no matter how lowly and downtrodden.

The following teaching puts across that point.

"What do you think?" said Jesus. "If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, doesn't he leave the 99 and go looking for the lost one? And if he finds it, he rejoices over it more than he does the 99 which aren't lost.

"When he comes home, he calls over his friends and neighbors, saying, Let's rejoice because I have found my lost sheep."

Jesus continued, "I am telling you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 99 who need no repentance."

The rabbi added, "Your Father doesn't want any little one to perish."

Then he added a warning. "Be careful not to despise one of the little ones. For I am telling you that their angels are always beholding the face of my Father. For the son of man comes to save the lost."

The notion of guardian angel is tied to this saying. Yet, we should be aware that the word angel can mean projection. Once a person is born again, her or his spirit blends with God's Spirit, so that her or his "angel" is always communing with God. The fuller meaning of Jesus' utterance here, like so much else that he had to say, would not be revealed until after the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit to ordinary people.

Another teaching:

"Suppose a woman has ten silver coins but loses one of them [vtc.2]. Doesn't she clean her house and hunt diligently until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls her friends and neighbors over and says, Let's celebrate, for I have found the coin I lost."

Jesus added, "That's how it will be in heaven, where there is joy among God's angels over one sinner who repents."

In a similar vein, Jesus told the following story:

There was a man with two sons, and one of them said to him, "Father, give me my share of the inheritance now."

The man gave the son that portion of the estate that was in the will. Not long after, the younger son converted the whole inheritance to cash and took off for a distant country, where he spent everything on wild parties. After he had spent every penny, a severe food shortage struck the country and he became very needy. So he linked up with a leading citizen, who sent him to feed the hogs. He became so hungry that he wished he could fill his stomach on the husks the pigs were eating. But no one would give him any.

Finally coming to his senses, he thought, "All my father's servants have plenty of food and here am I dying without a crumb to eat. I will pick myself up and go back to my father and say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in front of you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me the same as one of your hired workers."

And he rose up and went back to his father. But while the son was still at a distance, his father saw him and, moved with compassion, ran to him and hugged him and kissed him on the neck. 

The son said, Dad, I have offended heaven and sinned against you. I am no longer worthy of being called your son.

But his father told the servants, Hurry up and fetch the best robe, and put it on him! And give him a ring for his hand and put shoes on his feet! And bring the best calf and kill it, and let's eat and have a good time! For this is my son who was dead, but now is alive again. He was lost, but now he is found.

And they began to have a party.

Now the older son had been out in the country and as he approached the house, he asked one of the servants what was going on.

The servant replied, Your brother has come, and your father has killed the prize calf because he has him back home safe and sound.

But the older brother reacted with anger and refused to go inside, even though his father came outdoors and begged him to join the fun.

That son responded, All these years I have been serving you, and I have never broken any of your rules. But you never gave me a kid so that I could have a party with my friends. Yet when this son returns after wasting your money on whores, for him you kill a prize calf!

The father said, Son, you are always with me, and whatever is mine is yours. But it was proper to celebrate and be happy. Your own brother was dead, but he's alive, and lost, but he's found.

Misconduct toward our fellow human beings is a major immediate cause of the trouble in the world, as it stirs up resentment, anger and hatred. Mistreated people often go astray – though, as in the cases of the prodigal son and his older brother, one need not be mistreated in order to make poor decisions. How does one deal with these disorders in this world? Matthew gives some of Jesus' views in the following:

"Now if your brother wrongs you, go and explain to him the problem. Keep it between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But, if he won't listen, go back to him with one or two more people to serve as witnesses, so that everything you say is established. If he still ignores you, report the problem to your congregation. And if he won't yield to the congregation either, put him out of your group and treat him as a nobody."

We cannot be sure in what context Jesus gave this advice, since it seems to apply to a church that would not come to fruition until after the resurrection. His immediate disciples were not associated with a particular synagogue at the time, as they traveled along with him. Of course it is quite possible that this was something Jesus preached to the crowds composed of people not quite ready to be his disciples.

On coping with an obtuse brother, Peter quizzed Jesus. "Rabbi, how many times should I forgive my brother for doing me wrong? Seven times?"

As seven was at the time used as a symbol for complete, we can see Peter's reasoning. But Jesus replied, "Not seven, but seventy-seven times" [vtc.1a].

Jesus meant, of course, always forgive.

Luke gives this teaching a bit differently. "If your brother wrongs you seven times in one day, and each time, he says, 'I was wrong,' then you are to forgive him every time."

Of course, Jesus may have said both things on different occasions. They are not irreconcilable.

But, we observe that Luke's version dovetails better with Matthew's account of dealing with a balky member of a congregation. The brother is presumed to repent of his mistake, but in his answer to Peter there is nothing about expecting the wrongdoer to change his ways toward you.

My thought is that Jesus was giving good advice to the common man when he urged that problems between people be resolved peaceably. But, he told Peter what he expects of the true Christian. Before the resurrection things were not so clear to the disciples. But afterward they could have understood this sentiment: "Why are you complaining! You have eternal life! Your opponents have nothing. You should be feeling sorry for them, not for yourself." That point is made in the following teaching on forgiveness.

"Think of God's kingdom this way:

A certain king brought in his stewards for a reckoning of accounts. As the king and his advisers were going over the books and checking on the stewards, one steward was brought forward who owed 10,000 talents of silver but was too broke to pay anything. So the king ordered that, to settle the debt, all the man's property be confiscated and that the man and his wife and children be sold off as slaves.

The steward then fell at the king's feet and pleaded with him, 'Lord, please be patient with me and I will pay off everything.' Moved with compassion, the king let him go and forgave the debt.

But that servant went out, found one of his fellow servants and grabbed him by the throat, telling him, 'Pay up, or else!' That man then fell at the other's feet and pleaded, 'Please, have patience, and I will repay.'

But the steward refused to listen and instead had the other man thrown into a prison where debtors slaved away to pay off judgments. The other servants were very upset and reported everything back to the king. So the king summoned that steward and declared, 'You are quite a pervert. I forgave you all you owed me because you begged me. How could you not be merciful to your coworker the way I was merciful to you?' "

The furious king then handed over that man to the tormentors who would squeeze every last cent out of him."

Jesus summed up, "If you don't truly forgive your brother, my Father will treat you like the king treated the heartless servant."

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Next Page: Section 28
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