“PRAYING WITH DOUBT”
Midweek Lenten Worship II
March 4, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
[The father of the boy who had an evil spirit said to Jesus]: “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “If You can! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Every fall I attend the Good Shepherd Institute at my alma mater, Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. At the event this past November, one of my former professors (one of the precious few who are still around) was speaking about Martin Luther’s explanation of the First Article of the Apostles’ Creed and he made the following statement: “To confess that God still preserves this body when my knees hurt, my lower back aches, my hair is falling out, and I have to wear glasses is to make a statement in defiance of experience.” His point was that there are many things in our day-to-day experience that seem to contradict what we believe, teach, and confess to be true, based on the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, and yet, by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, we somehow continue to believe, teach, and confess what the Scriptures tell us, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.
This is what the father in this evening’s text was going through with his son. The boy was possessed by an evil spirit almost his entire life. It made him mute and gave him seizures that were so severe that they had endangered his life on many occasions. Though we are not specifically told in the Scriptures, I think it would be pretty safe to assume that this boy’s father had taken him to many physicians and practitioners through the years, all without success. Even the disciples of Jesus were not able to help him. Probably in desperation the man, who was in a crowd of people, approached Jesus with his son and asked the Lord to help him. At first Jesus’ words were discouraging: “O faithless generation,” He said, “how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” (Mark 9:19). But then Jesus spoke words that the father no doubt wanted to hear: “Bring him to Me” (Mark 9:19). On seeing the Lord, the evil spirit caused another violent seizure, prompting the exchange between the boy’s father and Jesus that serves astonight’s text. The father’s two closing statements are not only an honest admission of his own spiritual condition as he approaches the Lord in prayer, but a pretty good description of ours as well.
“I believe.” To believe is to have hope. Contrary to our common usage of the word today, hope is not just a wish or desire for trivial things; it is a belief that things can and will be better in the future than they are now. The man in the passage before us wouldn’t have bothered to bring his son to Jesus if he didn’t think that there was at least a possibility that the Lord could help the boy. That’s what he meant by saying: “I believe.” He no doubt had heard about the ministry of Jesus, especially His power over demonic forces. He saw in Jesus not only a chance to make his son whole, but the only chance. Sometimes people frown on that kind of faith--faith that comes alive only after all else fails--but if that’s what it takes for the Holy Spirit to do His work of creating faith, that’s what He will use. It is nothing to be despised. It is faith just the same.
Faith placed in Christ is not like faith placed in ourselves, in our family and friends, or even in the strongest and most intelligent people that we know. Faith in Christ is a sure and certain hope--a confidence that when our problems are placed in His hands, He will deal with them according to His infinite power, love, and wisdom. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we will receive everything that we ask for but it does mean that whatever we receive will be what is best for us. We commit our concerns to the Lord Jesus because we believe that He can handle those problems better than we can. Our confidence is not in getting what we want; it is in the One who gives us what we need, whether we want it or not. The father of the boy in our text came to Jesus because he didn’t know where else to turn. Having tied many other avenues, he came believing that Jesus might be able do something to help. But his words were conditional: “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
Those words betrayed the weakness of the father’s faith, which he feely confessed when he said: “Help my unbelief.” He believed that Jesus could help, but he wasn’t absolutely sure. The reason why this man’s faith was less than perfect is the same as the reason why our faith is less than perfect: because, no matter what we may believe, we still live in this fallen and broken world and, as a result, we still struggle with the old Adam in us--our old sinful nature that continues to resist the work of the Holy Spirit within us. The apostle Paul struggled with this and he wrote about it, telling the Romans: “I do not understand my own actions. . . . For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:15; 18, 19). Finally, in frustration, he says: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Our faith, like that of Paul and the father in the text, is less than perfect because in this life we are less than perfect. Like the boy’s father in the passage before us, we need to pray sincerely to the Lord: “Help my unbelief.”
And such a prayer will not fall on deaf ears. Our Lord, who has redeemed us with His own blood and who as given us faith by His Holy Spirit working through the Gospel, loves to hear and answer our prayer. The faith that He has planted in us is a faith that He does and will nourish with His means of grace. The forgiveness of sins that He gained for us applies also to our weakness in faith. He knows that in this world of hardships, disappointments, and broken dreams our faith may suffer from momentary doubt, but even that doubt He uses to our benefit, as He did in the case of His disciple Thomas. As Thomas’ doubt gave the occasion for the risen Savior to confront him and to reassure him, so our weakness in faith provides us with an occasion and a reason to turn to the Lord, simply because we have nowhere else to turn.
As Christians we are people of faith. But as sinners living in a world of temptation and sin our faith is less than perfect. The Lord chooses who He will and uses them as He will, not on the basis of what they have to offer but on the basis of what He chooses to do in them and through them. The eleventh chapter of the letter to the Hebrews has been called “The Hall of Fame of Faith” because it lists so many heroes of the faith, but every one of those heroes had weak moments. Jesus said of a Roman centurion, even before He healed that centurion’s servant: “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Luke 7:9), while He said to His own chosen disciples, before calming the sea: “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26). We need not beat ourselves up because our faith is lacking. The One in whom we have faith is stronger than our weakness. He forgives, restores, and strengthens us according to His good pleasure as He perfects us for the glories that He has won for us with His own blood.
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.