The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE LUNATIC BOY
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE LUNATIC BOY
Lesson Plan:
1. Coming Down from the Mountain
2. The Work to be Done (vs 14-18)
3. How the Epileptic Boy Was Cured (vs 19-27)
4. Why the Disciples Could Not Cast Out the Evil Spirit (vs 28, 29)
5. Modern Application
Lesson Setting:
Time: The next morning after the Transfiguration. Summer of A.D. 29
Place: At the base of the Mountain of Transfiguration, in the region of Cesarea Philippi in
Northern Galilee.
Characters: Jesus, the three who saw the vision, the nine other apostles, a lunatic boy, his
father, scribes, a great multitude.
Research Thoughts: The lesson teachings from the bringing of the vision into contact with the world's deepest needs. The lunatic boy. Why the nine could not cure him. What new power the vision brought to the help of those under the power of evil. Why was it necessary that the father should believe? What power does fasting add to prayer? Of what in our time is this sick boy a type? How is Christianity helping to deliver such from their evil within and without?
1. Coming Down from the Mountain
From the Vision to the Work: We recall from our last lesson the Transfiguration vision on the mountain, which revealed to the disciples the true glorious nature of Jesus, and gave them glimpses of what their own spirits would become, and what to some extent they actually were, hidden under the veil of the flesh. It is still one of our needs, and the needs of the church, to see "the clear shining hills of Beulah above the mists of detraction and the thunderbolt of suffering." But the disciples were not allowed to remain on the Mount, nor did the heavenly visitants remain. The disciples were to take their heavenly experience with them down into the sinful, suffering world below, and use it in the service of God and man. It was not to be a mere day dream, a vision, but a power to transfigure life and men. It was by shining in the darkness that the light would retain its radiance. The church that would be a club for its own enjoyment, the coterie that would keep its culture to itself, always lose the blessing they seek to retain. People often desire to retain the ecstasies of religious feeling. This they cannot do, but they can retain its blessing by going down from the mount and using their experience in transfiguring their daily burdens and cares, and attracting men to the cross of Christ. ‘God does not make the mountain tops to be inhabited; they are not for the homes of me. We ascend the height to catch a broader vision of our earthly surroundings, but we do not tarry there. The streams take their rise in these uplands, but quickly descend to gladden the fields and valleys below. We are to take these crystal waters to quench the thirst of others’ (Henry Drummond).
Illustration: Loch Katrine, embowered among the Highlands of Scotland, a poem in water, immortalized in story and song till it seems almost transfigured with a glory beyond its natural beauty and charm, is yet the source of the water supply of the city of Glasgow, flowing down among the homes of the poor, cleansing the filth from the streets, bringing refreshment, cheer, comfort, cleanliness, and health everywhere. It does its best work here, without detracting from its natural charm among the highlands.
Illustration: The Legend Beautiful: Of Longfellow’s Tales of a Wayside Inn, is one of the finest expressions of this truth in its story of a monk who had been longing and praying for a better life, and that he might see Jesus himself. At length, one day, the vision came, flooding the room with its radiant shining. While he was gazing entranced upon his Lord, the convent bell tolled the hour when it was his duty to go out and feed the poor. He hesitated, for he hated to leave the vision, and feared it would not remain for his return. Should he who, "Rapt in silent ecstasy Of divinest self-surrender, Saw the vision and the splendor – Should he slight his radiant guest, Sight this visitant celestial For a crowd of ragged, bestial Beggars at the convent gate?" But he heard the voice – "‘Do thy duty; that is best; Leave unto thy Lord the rest.’" He fed the beggars, and, returning, found the vision still there – "When the blessed Vision said, ‘Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled.’"
Advice from a Psychologist: Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. It is not in the moment of their forming, but in the moment of their producing motor effects, that resolves and aspirations communicate the new ‘set’ to the brain. Novel reading of theater going, or even music, can produce monsters in the way of people who feel but do not act. The remedy would be never to suffer one’s self to have an emotion, say at a concert, without expressing it in some active way. Let the expression be the least thing in the world – speaking genially to one’s aunt, or giving up one’s seat in the bus, if nothing more heroic offers – but let it not fail to take place! (William James, Habit)
Scripture Reading: Mark 9:14-18
2. The Work to be Done
The Tormented Child: "And when" (v 14), on the following morning "he came to his disciples," the nine who had remained at the foot of the mountain "he saw a great multitude about them," attracted by the demoniac boy and the vain efforts of the nine to cure him. The disciples had at other times been able to cast out demons (Mk. 6:7, 13), and Jesus Himself had explicitly promised them power and authority to cast them out; but now they met a cast that was beyond their power. They were perplexed, humiliated before the multitude, baffled, disappointed. They could not understand it.
v 14 ... "and the scribes questioning with them." "The disciples have tried to heal the boy and failed; the scribes, delighted with the failure taunt them with it, and suggest the waning power of the Master ... The baffled nine make the best defense they can, or perhaps listen in silence" (Expositors Greek Testament). The scribes seized an opportunity of discrediting the disciples of Jesus before the people. The Master drew near ...
v 15 ... "and straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed." The Greek word expresses a very strong sense of amazement, ‘utterly amazed.’ It is used only by Mark in the New Testament, in three situations; here, the agony in the Garden (14:33); and the appearance of the angel at the resurrection (16:5). Why Were They So Amazed? (a) The appearance of Jesus was a joyful surprise, which always gives an emotional shock. (b) It was a marvelous coincidence; Jesus coming unexpectedly and suddenly at the most opportune moment when the disciples were being overwhelmed with gloomy forebodings by the questionings of the scribes which they could not answer. The relief to them must have been intense. (c) While it is not probable that Jesus’ face shone as did Moses’ when He came down from the mount, yet that experience must have left traces of the exceeding brightness on His face, the victorious calm, the dignified assurance; the same power which made the soldiers who attempted to arrest Him some months later, fall to the ground.
v 16 ... "And he asked the scribes, What question ye with them?" The R.V. makes the people included in the persons He questioned. ‘What is the matter?’ ‘What is the trouble?’ or,’ Why question ye with them?’ ‘If you have anything to say, say it to Me, and I will answer.’
v 17 ... "And one of the multitude" kneeling to Him (Matthew), "answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son," my only child (Luke), Lord, have mercy on him (Matthew). The Epileptic Boy (The description as given in the three Gospels): Abbott wrote He is epileptic and suffereth grievously. He has a mute spirit, and wheresoever he taketh him he teareth him, and dasheth him down, and he foameth and gnasheth his teeth, and pineth away; ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and ofttimes into the water, to destroy him; and when the spirit taketh him, he suddenly crieth out, such sounds as a mute person utters, and it hardly departeth from him, bruising him sorely. His disease is called lunacy in the A.V. of Matthew and epilepsy in the R.V. The symptoms are those of some convulsive disorder of the nervous disease, such as hysteria or epilepsy, or some combination of these. How far the cause is mental and how far physical is by no means determined by medical science. On the one hand we are not absolutely compelled either by Scripture or by the authority of our Lord, to dispense with all physical explanation of the trouble. But on the other hand, it is as certain that we are not altogether precluded from interpreting the ailment as being at least partly due to demoniac agency. Who is prepared to assert, and to support the assertion by any evidence, that the unstable nervous system which underlies this nervous disorder is not the physical condition which makes demoniac possession possible?
v 18 ... "And I spake to thy disciples ... and they could not." ‘They were not able,’ R.V. The disciples had power given them by Jesus, but here was a case beyond their faith to receive and use that power (see vs 28, 29).
Scripture Reading: Mark 9:19-27
3. How the Epileptic Boy Was Cured
v 19 ... "O faithless generation," the multitude including the father and the nine. Jesus here struck the very heart of their failure. They failed in faith, faith in its widest sense, the faith that led to prayer, the faith that gave power, the faith that used means, the faith expressed in love. Matthew and Luke add ‘perverse’ to faithless. ‘Perverse’ is "perverted, turned aside from the right path" (Thayer’s Lexicon). Possibly it was a wish to see what the disciples could do, rather than faith in divine power, which prompted the bringing of the boy to them. Possibly it was a wish to see what the disciples could not do.
v 19 ... "How long shall I be with you?" as your Teacher, manifesting My power in wonderful cures, showing the love and desire to help, before you will see Me and know Me as I am.
v 19 ... "How long shall I suffer [bear with] you?" such dull students, a generation so spiritually dull and unsympathetic. It is the question of one who feels that his surroundings have become almost unbearable, and who wonders how long they are going to last.
v 19 ... "Bring him unto me" the proven healer. Let Me give you one more lesson. This command was the testing of the father’s faith, and the first step in its development. The act of bringing him implied some degree of faith.
v 20 ... "And they [some of the people] brought him unto him" from someplace where he had been kept while his father was appealing to Jesus.
v 20 ... "And when he [the epileptic] saw him" at some distance, ‘as he was yet a coming’ (Luke) "straightway the spirit tare him" ‘grievously,’ R.V. The attempt to obey the command only produced an aggravation of the boy’s affliction. An enemy is always most destructive when he is on the very point of being dislodged, and when an army is compelled to evacuate a city the soldiers try to leave it in flames.
v 21 ... "And he asked his father, How long is it ago since," etc. This was a word spoken in sympathy, and drew the father’s attention away from the boy who had fallen to the ground "wallowed foaming." That the boy had been afflicted ‘from a child,’ showed the greater difficulty of a cure, and partly explained the failure of the nine.
v 22 ... "But if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." It was the parent’s grief as well as the son’s. These words imply a growing faith, small though it was.
v 23 ... "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe," the ‘if’ does not lie with Me, but with thyself. If thou canst. Why must he believe? Believe what? Believe in the power and willingness of Jesus to save his boy; for this would be the beginning of faith in Jesus as the Son of God, the Teacher sent from God, the Way, and the Truth and the Life; the beginning of trust in Him, obedience to Him, choice of Him as Guide and Savior. This was the greatest blessing that could possibly come to father and son, infinitely greater than the cure of the disease.
v 23 ... "All things are possible to him that believeth." Even removing mountains of difficulty, things that are insurmountable to other forces.
v 24 ... "Cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." I have some faith, give me more. Help me to overcome my doubts and fears and unbelief. How often we make the same prayer.
v 25 ... "Then Jesus ... rebuked the foul (unclean) spirit," by saying, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit," the spirit that made the boy deaf and mute ('dumb' because deaf) ... "I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him." "This last was the essential point in a case of intermittent possession" (Exp. Gk. Test.).
v 26 ... "The spirit cried" out, not in definite speech, but in wild cries.
v 26 ... "And he was as one dead" from the exhaustion of his terrible struggles. So that "many," ‘the more part,’ thought he was dead.
v 27 ... "But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up." The old preacher’s sermon was titled, ‘The Saving Power of Hands.’ He suggested that one reason why the nine could not cure this boy in Jesus’ name, was because they shrunk from touching with their hands, as Jesus did, this repulsive boy, the white foam about his mouth, his clothes torn and thickly coated with the dirt in which he had rolled, his face and hands one mass of blotches and filth from his wallowing in the mud. He said, "It is possible that we might do mighty works if we were not so dreadfully afraid to touch people – Jesus took by the hand. Ah; what a handshaking that was. It was as warm as love could make it. It was thrilling with tenderness and vibrating with compassion. The beating of a divine heart was in all its pulses. Churches may be cold, but the Master of the church never is. The saints may be too respectable to speak to you but Jesus’ hands would meet yours with such a pressure of love and welcome as you have never felt in your lives, even from your own mothers. Though you were the most loathsome sinner that ever breathed, He would take you by the hand and life you up." It is through our hands that the Master now takes the hands of the outcasts, the friendless, the discouraged, and the sick.
Scripture Reading: Mark 9:28, 29
4. Why the Disciples Could Not Cast Out the Evil Spirit
Here our attention is called to the power house of success in overcoming obstacles in the progress of the kingdom of God.
v 28 ... "When he was come into the house" apart from the multitudes "his disciples asked him privately." It was a question to be discussed only between them and the Master, "Why could not we cast him out?"
v 29 ... "And he said unto them," ‘Because of your little faith: for ... if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed (small, but living and growing) ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you’ (Matthew). Their faith though as great as formerly was yet not sufficient for this difficult case ...
v 29 ... "for this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting," the prayer that is so intense, so earnest, that every ordinary good, even food, must be of less importance than the object desired. The mere going without food is not real fasting, without the true spirit as expressed in Isaiah 59:6-9: "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, And to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, And that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; And that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am." It means that that one so believes in God, in His promises, and in His cause, that he expects success, that he is willing to make sacrifices, to give up leisure, pleasure, and worldly good, in order to do the work and reach the goal. All things are possible, even removing mountains, to him that thus believeth. At some time, in some way, the good end shall be obtained, the goal shall be reached, the kingdom come. Matthew at this point illustrates the faith needed by the promise that they should be able to remove mountains. The disciples proved the truth of Christ’s words in later years. They learned their lesson. They removed mountains, not literal mountains, which has often been done, but higher, larger, more impossible mountains, mountains of difficulty, of opposition, of prejudice, of worldly powers. A little band of twelve unlearned men, without money, without armies, without rank, without everything that would seem able to do the work, set out to conquer the Roman Empire, when ‘to be a Roman was greater than a king;’Rome, the mistress of the world; Rome, that had subdued the whole known world; Rome, the embodiment of wealth and power, that could have swept these few men out of existence as easily as one would brush away so many insects. What was removing Mount Hermon to this? But it was done. The apostles were to graft a new kingdom on the old Jewish stock, and everything stood in their way: pride, prejudice, custom, learning, sacrifices, the temple, the formal religion, office, wealth, i.e., mountains higher than Lebanon. But these mountains were removed. They had to conquer the human heart, entrenched in sins, luxury, fashion, habit, and social customs interwoven with the whole daily life. What were Tabor or Hermon to this hopeless task? Yet they did these things. The promise was literally and really fulfilled. Moral changes were wrought that to all human power were impossible. The Christian world today, holding within it the greatest part of the civilization, the power and the blessings of the world, has been brought about against obstacles that no human power could overcome, and of which material mountains were but a faint symbol. And the work is still going on. The whole history of the church of our Lord from beginning to now represent the fulfillment of this promise. The faith that has removed mountains is a faith that takes hold of the power of God, that sees the invisible victories afar off, and waits patiently, obediently, in active work for the promised results; that so trusts its Leader and Master as never to be discouraged by defeat or disaster, nor by hope long delayed.
5. Modern Application
(A) As we saw above, the demon haunted boy is a representative of not a few children in our day.
(B) The efforts made in the more distant past, to deliver them from their terrible situation, have been only partially successful. One method after another has been compelled to say, ‘Why could we not cast them out,’ these evils that are a curse to the children.
(C) The only help is in Jesus Christ and His Gospel, applied to this problem. And this help is given not only by His direct personal power upon us, but by working through His people. In Raphael’s picture of the Transfiguration, referred to in a preceding lesson, the most prominent object in the lower scene is the hand uplifted by one of the group near the possessed boy, and pointing up to the mountain top. In that uplifted hand and pointing finger is embodied the Gospel. From humanity at its highest and heavenliest must come help for humanity at its lowest and worst.
(D) We must take sick and fallen humanity by the hand if we would give them real help. Jesus took the possessed boy by the hand, and with His hand lifted up the ruler’s daughter, and when Peter was sinking in the boisterous waves He put forth His hand and caught him. The first need of the unfortunate, the outcast, the neglected, is to have the least bit of self-respect infused into him, and some faint glimmering of hope; to be taught that he is not utterly despised, and that somebody really cares for him. And nothing will convince him of that more than a kindly grip of the hand. You may tell him a thousand times that Jesus loves him, but you will not make him believe it unless he feels that there is a bit of love in you. Take his hand. That will be the proof he wants and needs.
(E) It will cost time, care, labor, wisdom, experience, self-sacrifice, prayer, faith that can remove mountains, in order to deliver the suffering children. A man once dreamed that he was swept into heaven and he was there in the glory world. He was delighted to think that he had at last made heaven – that he was actually there. All at once a voice said, ‘Come, I want to show you something.’ He led him to the battlements and said, ‘Look down yonder; what do you see?’ ‘I see a dark world.’ ‘Look and see if you know it.’ ‘Why, yes,’ he said, ‘that is the world I have come from.’ ‘What do you see?’ ‘Why, men are blindfolded there; many of them are going over a precipice.’ ‘Well, will you stay here and enjoy heaven, or will you go back to earth and spend a little longer time, and tell those men about this world?’ He was a worker who had been discouraged. He awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I have never wished myself dead since.’" D.L. Moody said, "I see the shining faces of little children from whose backs heavy burdens have been lifted". "If we are hoping to reform mankind, we must begin, not with adults whose habits and ideals are set, but with children who are still plastic. We must begin with children in the home, the school, the street and the playground" (C.W. Eliot). "The city that cares most for its children will be the greatest city" (Charles Fergusion). We pray for a new earth – a condition of things right here, into which it will be safe for a child to be born; safe for his body, his mind, his soul".
