An Unclean Spirit

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God.
Luke 9:37–43a
+
An Unclean Spirit
We like to have those experts in our lives that we can turn to when things go wrong. One is because they can help fix the problem, but more than that because then we don’t have to do it ourselves. For if we try and we fail, we have only ourselves to blame. We lack faith too often in the abilities God has given us. On the way down from the transfiguration, Jesus rescues a demon-possessed boy. Like the disciples that day, we, too, exhibit weakness of faith. Thankfully, Jesus does not simply rebuke such failures and then fall silent. Rather, He responds in compassion and forgiveness as well, and so rescues us from unbelief and the menacing power of Satan. Christ gives us the faith to know that He has already won the victory for us over sin, death, and the devil. He accomplished what we could never do. May our Lord Jesus keep us strong in faith, that neither fear of death nor the threats of the adversary divert our eyes from Him and the glories of His Gospel promises.