Mark 9:22 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Mark 9:22

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Luke says he was constantly in a bruised condition, and that he had an unclean spirit. The young man could scream and shout and cry, but in these rages there was a constant urge to destroy himself. The father was desperate to get help, but what could he do? He could not pay anything to obtain a cure. Not that Christ would accept payment. He has no standing in society that would deserve the Lord’s help. He can only say, ‘Have compassion on us.’ It is an appeal to something that he believes is already in Christ. Why did Christ heal the boy? Out of compassion, because his condition was so terrible and because the father appealed to his compassion. He also did it to teach us: this healing was a picture of salvation. All his healing were like this and were a visual aid of how he had come to deal with souls. Consider this young man’s dangers! What an amazing amount we read of in this verse. He tried to do away with himself. He rushed into fire, threw himself into the river. He had to be watched constantly. His relatives had to chase after him and grab him, and hold him down. He couldn't hear them; he was deaf. He couldn't say what he felt and what he thought, because he couldn't speak. He could scream, he could cry, but he couldn't form words. What a sad and tragic condition! He had this constant urge to destroy himself.So the father brings the boy to Christ, and he asks, ‘If thou canst do anything.’ He doesn't yet believe entirely in the invincible power of Christ. He doesn't yet believe that he is Messiah. He is only master, teacher. Nevertheless, he does believe in his compassion. ‘This is an extraordinary man. He spends all his time healing. He goes around as a relatively poor man. He never takes any payment. He doesn't require anything of you. He heals morning, noon and night, and he is devoted to it. He has compassion; he has feeling.’ The words of the father betray what he felt: ‘If thou canst do anything,’ – there’s the doubt – ‘have compassion on us and help us.’ He is sure that Christ has compassion. That is taken for granted. If you can do it, then exercise the compassion which we know you have. So he's a half believer. He believes in the goodness of Christ, but he doesn't quite believe in his Godhead, and his mighty power.

Application

What is true of the boy is true of us also before we are converted, spiritually. We don't realise how much danger we are in, how constantly sin is getting its tentacles into us. We say, ‘I want my moral liberty; I want to do as I please. I don't want God’s laws restricting me. I don't want holiness.’ So we tell lies and make excuses. We act selfishly, we act proudly, and at the same time are very pleased with ourselves. We boast and misrepresent things in our favour. Yes, and these things are getting worse and worse. ‘They aren’t’ we protest. ‘I can control how I think and what I say.’ No, you can't. In ten years-time you will be much worse than you are today, much more firmly held in the grip of sin. All the small liberties you allow yourself today will become medium-size liberties, and then huge liberties. If your problem is uncleanness, you get to be a thoroughgoing deviant with the passage of time. All these things increase their hold, and that young man is a picture of what happens. You are under the control of the sinful life, the unbelieving life, the life away from God.

Although we are responsible for our sins, yet we are trapped in them. You become a hapless, hopeless victim, because unbelief and godlessness and self-serving, gets hold of you and controls you just like this poor youth. You see it every day on the television and in the news: the moral excesses of our day. All the old rules of society and of humanity and of the Bible have been thrown away. You can do the opposite of everything that used to be regarded as decent and moral, and that is applauded and defended. Everything is turned round. There is no authority in our lives, morally, spiritually. That is the cost and the danger of being away from God. You think of this boy’s anguish and his frustration, and as an unbeliever you will be very frustrated by life.

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Mark 9:22 Commentary and Bible Study