View from the Valley
Opening Prayer
My God, in my busy, cluttered world, I long to see Your face and be touched by Your healing grace.
Read MARK 9:14–29
14 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.
17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
19 “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psa. 23:4, NASB).
We often speak of the “ups and downs” of life and faith, for the high points do not last and we soon seem to face the lows again. Our metaphorical language became literal for Moses, who, returning from meeting with God on the mountain, found the Israelites abandoning their faith by engaging in idolatry (Exod. 32). So also with Jesus and his disciples in this story, for they return from their mountaintop meeting place to find the people oppressed by evil and without the faith to respond to it.
Although many would interpret the boy’s symptoms today through a medical diagnosis of epilepsy, in the ancient world the symptoms pointed to spirit possession and, here, a spirit whose intention was nothing less than the boy’s destruction (22). In the light of the awe wrought by Jesus’ presence (15), this evil is shown in sharp relief. Today our joyous expectations of God’s kingdom reveal plainly the evils of the world regularly writ large before us. In response, we may feel like the father of the boy. His faith is all but overcome, yet he still clings onto it in spite of the apparently victorious march of evil (24).
It is appropriate that the healing of the boy is described in terms similar to Jesus’ own truly victorious resurrection, for Jesus in the valley is the same as Jesus on the mountaintop. In him, the new age is beginning, where neither death nor evil have any part: their hour has come. As Joel Marcus comments, “Jesus descends from the Mount of Transfiguration still blazing with resurrection splendor, and it is this radiance that overwhelms the stubborn and seemingly invincible demon that has driven the helpless epileptic nearly to death.”
Apply
Quoting Isaiah (Isa. 40:4, KJV), Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted.” What valleys would you pray for to be raised up?
Closing prayer
Lord, I have journeyed from mountaintop experiences into dark struggles in the valleys. I’m grateful that You are the Lord of the ups and downs of life and that You walk with me through each one.
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