That’s Not the Gospel
Priests spend a considerable amount of time in hospitals, visiting the sick and praying with and for them. Some of those we visit are young and generally very healthy; they are expected to make quick and full recoveries. They almost always do. Praying for them is “easy” because our prayers for healing are often answered, and we appear competent and perhaps even a little holy.
Gospel Hope & Prayers for Bleak Times
Others we visit are terminal. If the patient and his family are reconciled to death and have Christian hope, these visits carry great blessings. While emotionally fraught, the prayers we offer are theologically straightforward. They include prayers for Christ’s presence, for peace, for comfort, and for a good and holy death at God’s right time. As priests, we present a pastoral image, sharing messages that echo the gospel of hope.
Sponsored
The difficult prayers are for those whose lives really hang in the balance. We all feel they should live, but we know they might not. Something seems wrong about the situation. It could be a young child seriously injured or a man in the prime of life stricken with a heart attack. Stroke or cancer could also be factors. In these cases, the family’s expectations for priestly prayer can be quite high. Even though we know it’s not true, it can feel like the priesthood, or at least the validity of our priesthood, is on the line. And yet, when we speak of the Gospel, we always realize that it’s faith in something greater that comes into focus. We do not worry about appearing competent, holy, or pastoral. We may worry about looking like a fraud.
The Gospel’s Power
I can sympathize with Jesus’ disciples in the text this morning. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain for the glorious experience of His transfiguration. He has left the other nine disciples below. A crowd quickly forms around them, with everyone clamoring to catch a glimpse of Jesus.
Out of that crowd, a father steps forward, bringing his demon-possessed son for healing. Expectations are high. Jesus has an excellent reputation as a healer and exorcist, and he has empowered his disciples to do similar work in his name. They must feel that their discipleship is at stake, and perhaps even Jesus’ reputation.
Everything is Possible Through Faith in the Gospel
Try as they might, the disciples cannot exorcise this particular demon. You can sense the tension in Mark’s account: disappointment, frustration, and anger from both the father and the crowd. The disciples don’t look competent, or holy, or pastoral at all. They appear to be frauds, and they may even feel that way. Then Jesus comes. The father complains that the disciples were unable to do anything and then pleads with Jesus: “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
Jesus’ response is the climax of this story:
‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.
Mark 9:23
What happens next – the father’s response – is, I believe, a case of tragic misunderstanding, and one to which we are all too susceptible.
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Mark 9:24
Why would the father say this? What is it he thinks Jesus is saying? This reflects a misunderstanding that obscures the depth of the gospel’s message.
My disciples couldn’t exorcise this demon because you—the boy’s father—don’t have enough faith. You don’t believe enough. So, if you’ll just try a little harder, work at it a little more, screw up a little more faith, then I’ll heal your boy. It all depends on you, now. All things are possible for one who believes.
Yet, this can’t be right, can it? Can you imagine a priest standing by the bedside of a person at the verge of death? Telling that person or his family that he could get up and walk out of the hospital totally healed if he, or they, only had more faith? Try a little harder, work at it a little more, screw up a little more faith, and then God will heal you.
The Gospel is Grace Rather Than Doing
However, that’s not the Gospel. The Gospel says that we can’t try a little harder and that even if we could, it wouldn’t matter. It focuses on the transformative power of grace. The Gospel says we can’t work at it a little more, and that even if we could, it wouldn’t change things. The Gospel says that the issue is not my faith or my faithlessness but the faithfulness of Jesus. Listen to Paul.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:7-11
Don’t Miss the Point of the Gospel
That’s the Gospel: while we were still weak—not able to try harder or work a little more or muster up more faith, in fact, while we were still God’s enemies—Christ died for us, for the ungodly. Jesus was and is faithful to the nature and mission of God, which is to show compassion to sinners and, through his blood, to make them his very own.
The father in our story missed the point, I’m afraid. Jesus was not telling him to have more faith, but to trust in the faithfulness of Jesus. “If you can!” Jesus says. Well, of course, he can! Everything is possible to him because he believes in God the Father. The Father who sent him. Because he has faith that the Father will answer his prayers, and because he is faithful to his Father’s will.
This is the only thing that gives me (or any priest, I suspect) the courage to stand by the hospital bed of someone whose life hangs in the balance. We pray for healing. When the Gospel is our guide, we understand our place in the grand narrative of faith. If the outcome depended upon my feeble faith, I would never dare to ask. It all depends on Jesus: on his faithfulness and compassion. It all depends on the Gospel, for it embodies the essential truth of the message we cling to. Whatever happens as a result of prayer happens not because we worked for it, but because Jesus loves us and is faithful. Amen.
Note from John Roop: My parish hosts a monthly Eucharist at a local residential care facility. This month, I offered the following reflections on Mark 9:14-29.
Image by Amber Clay from Pixabay
Published on
5 Essential Elements of a Funeral Sermon
It’s been an exhausting week. You spent much of it at the hospital, praying for a dying Christian, giving comfort to a grieving family. You missed time with your own family to be a pastor to the parish. You sat with a beloved parishioner’s children as they argued over how they wanted the funeral and…
The Presentation of Our Lord: The Message of Candlemas
Why does the Church return to Jesus’ infancy every February 2 for the Feast of the Presentation, also called Candlemas? The reason is both chronological and theological.
