Casting Out Demons - Matt 17:14-21; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-45

I’m going to have to use some creative license here to understand exactly what happened next. We know that Jesus, Peter, James, and John were all transfigured on a mountain and that they went alone, leaving the other disciples at the bottom of the mountain while they went up. Walking back down the mountain, Jesus, P,J,J all talked about what happened and Jesus taught his chosen disciples gospel doctrine. However, when they reached the disciples that had been left at the bottom of the mountain, they were surrounded by a group of people, some of whom were scribes. They had apparently not been expecting him to arrive at that time and when the people saw Jesus approaching, they left the disciples and “running to him saluted him.” JTC gives an excellent description of the scene, “at or near the base of the mountain the party found the other apostles, and with them a multitude of people, including some scribes or rabbis. There was evidence or disputation and disturbance amongst the crown; and plainly the apostles were on the defensive… Of the contentious scribes He asked, ‘What question ye with them?’ thus assuming the burden of the dispute, whatever it might be, and so relieving the distressed disciples from further active participation. The scribes remained silent; their courage had vanished when the Master appeared.” There are so many aspects of Christ’s character that are emphasized here that I absolutely love. He took the dispute upon himself, as the leader of the group, and let the scribes know that he was ready for a discussion, but it was in a non-threatening way. His meekness was preserved, he wasn’t looking for a fight, but he stood his ground. Sometimes it’s better to walk away, this apparently wasn’t one of those times.

The scribes wouldn’t answer Jesus’ question, so a man among the multitude said, “Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnashed with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to they disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.” JTC comments, “The disciples’ failure to heal the stricken youth had evidently brought upon them hostile criticism, taunts and ridicule from the unbelieving scribes.” What’s interesting here is that apparently the disciples were able to cast out evil spirits while they were preaching the gospel on missions, which begs the question, why couldn’t they have done it this time? If it was their first time, then maybe I could see the nervousness, but they knew it was possible, they knew that they themselves could in fact do it, so why couldn’t they do it this time? Jesus rebukes the crowd, either specifically to the apostles or to all around, saying, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?” To me, this is Jesus saying, “Hey guys, I’m not going to be here much longer, you need to get your stuff together.” For the apostles to know that they were able to cast out the demon and weren’t able to do it at this instance, then there must have been something else going on. It might not have just been them, maybe at that moment, the father lacked the faith, maybe it was necessary that Jesus have this interaction with the man, so that the event could have been recorded so we could have it for all of time in the scriptures. Maybe the apostles were irritated that P,J,J got to go up in to the mountain and they didn’t, maybe there was a jealousy issue, maybe there was a personal worthiness issue, we know that Judas betrayed Jesus just six months later, so those bad seeds were probably starting to brew right about now. The apostles might have become complacent, assuming because they did it once, they could always do it again. There are many reasons why the apostles couldn’t cast out the evil spirit, Jesus makes it clear that there was certainly a lack of faith, but that doesn’t have to be the only reason.

Another point to consider is the importance of having the priesthood authority to cast out devils. JTC says, “the apostles who had tried and failed to subdue the evil spirit were disturbed. While on their mission, though away from their Master’s helpful presence, they had successfully rebuked and cast out evil spirits as they had received special power and commission to do; but now, during His absence of a day they had found themselves unable.” I’m not saying that they didn’t have the priesthood authority to cast out this devil, but the way that JTC worded this comment, it made me wonder if perhaps they had been released from their missionary calling and therefore had relinquished their authority to cast out devils.

Jesus calls for the boy, and “when he saw him,” which I assume to mean that when the evil spirit recognized Jesus, “straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.” JTC points out that while the parents were eager, impatient, and distracted, Jesus demonstrated “calm deliberation,” asking “How long is it ago since this came unto him?” The father answers, “of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him.” I just want to point out here the way the evil spirit treats the body that he inhabits. We know that Satan’s minions are spirits who were cast out of heaven, down to earth, because they chose to follow Lucifer instead of Heavenly Father. Because they rejected the plan of salvation the first time, we know that they can’t and won’t have bodies of their own, which makes them crazy. Because they are so desperate for a body, when they finally are able to get into one, you’d think that they would be so careful to not let anyone know that they are there so that they could stay as long as they wanted. But that’s not what happens, the demons get into a body and they do crazy things, they hurt the body, like in the case of the pigs they destroy the bodies as quickly as possible.

This is an excellent demonstration of the face that Satan doesn’t care about those who follow him, he wants to destroy everyone and everything and that includes his own followers. There’s an excellent portrayal of this in the movie Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. (Spoiler Alert): in the end, the guy who had worked to hard to free the fire monster, who is his grandfather, speaks and says something to the effect: “Grandfather, I have worked tirelessly to break your bonds, and now that you are free I am your most loyal servant.” And the fire monster (Grandpa) leans down and eats him. When I saw that, I thought, how accurate is that of the amount of loyalty that there is among Satan and his followers, mortal or otherwise. And clearly, the spirit in the boy recognized Jesus and knew that his time had come to leave his temporary body.

The father begs Jesus, “If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.” The father’s statement “if thou canst do anything,” implied that he wasn’t really sure that Jesus could save his son. I don’t think that we should be too hard on him, he’s sought out Jesus in hopes of help, he’s declared that he at least partially believes in Jesus’ power, in front of the scribes who could cause the father problems when they go back home, maybe even have him kicked out of the synagogue and ostracized from the community. He’s carried his sick child all the way from their home to a mountain, with only the hope of seeing the apostles and not Jesus himself. And JTC points out that by asking Jesus to “help us,” he’s clearly “made the boy’s case his own.” He’s embodied his son’s illness himself and has worked tirelessly to care for him and keep him safe. Clearly this man is desperate, and willing to do anything to help his only son.  

Jesus responds to the man saying, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” JTC comments, “The man’s understanding was enlightened; up to that moment he had thought that all depended upon Jesus; he now saw that the issue rested largely with himself. It is noteworthy that the Lord specified belief rather than faith as a condition essential to the case. The man was evidently trustful, and assuredly fervent in his hope that Jesus could help; but it is doubtful that he knew what faith really mean. He was receptive and eagerly teachable, however, and the Lord strengthened his feeble and uncertain belief.” I guess the question isn’t can Jesus do a certain thing, the question is do we believe he can. It’s not Jesus’ responsibility to do things for us, but for us to prepare ourselves for the blessings when it is time for them to be granted.

The man started crying and cried out, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” This has always been such an interesting concept to me because I’ve always thought that this meant that we didn’t have to hardly believe at all and Jesus would give us more testimony. But what I’ve come to realize is that, in this life we aren’t going to have a perfect knowledge of all things, we are going to have to rely on faith and belief and hope, and that’s the way that it is meant to be. As much as we “know” or believe or hope, there will always be an element of uncertainty because we don’t have all the answers to everything, we haven’t experienced everything that there is for us in the plan of salvation. However rock solid we are, there is going to be more that Jesus can give us if we want it and work to be ready for it. We acknowledge what belief we have, then ask for help in strengthening that belief.

The IM quotes Elder Jeffery R. Holland as giving three lessons to be learned from the father’s answer, “Observation number one… is that when facing the challenge of faith, the father asserts his strength first and only then acknowledges his limitation. His initial declaration is affirmative and without hesitation: ‘Lord, I believe.’ I would say to all who wish for more faith, remember this man! In moments of fear or doubt or troubling times, hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited. In the growth we all have to experience in mortality, the spiritual equivalent of this boy’s affliction or this parent’s desperation is going to come to all of us. When those moments come and issues surface, the resolution of which is not immediately forthcoming, hold fast to what you already know and stand strong unto additional knowledge comes.”

I remember listening to an article or something about President David O. McKay and in it the writer was astounded to hear the prophet pray for his testimony to be strengthened. He’s the prophet, if his testimony isn’t prefect then there’s not chance for me! But that’s not the point, it’s not who has the strongest testimony, it’s are we growing our testimony everyday. The point of the article was that we should be praying for our own testimony to be strengthened everyday, and I thought that asking for that would be to admit to Jesus that my testimony wasn’t strong enough. What’s really “strong enough” for a testimony? There’s no such thing. Admitting that your testimony isn’t perfect isn’t a bad thing, it’s not a slap in the face to Jesus, it’s putting us in a place of humility and teach-ability, which is where we need to be to have our testimony strengthened.

Elder Holland continues, “The second observation is a variation of the first. When problems come and questions arise, do not start your question for faith by saying how much you do not have, leading as it were with your ‘unbelief.’… I am not asking you to pretend to faith you do not have. I am asking you to be true to the faith you do have. Sometimes we act as if an honest declaration of doubt is a higher manifestation of moral courage than is an honest declaration of faith. It is not! So let us all remember the clear message of this scriptural account: Be as candid about your questions as you need to be; life is full of them on one subject or another. But if you and your family want to be healed, don’t let those questions stand in the way of faith working its miracle.”

There are a couple of points that are important here. First is the concept that you find what you are looking for. If there is an issue or doctrine that causes questions, they can be answered in time as we grow spiritually and become ready for the answers. But if we are looking for issues with that certain concept, then that is going to dominate our testimony. Say I have an issue with coffee in the word of wisdom. I can spend a lot of time and energy trying to find out why we can’t have coffee, what the term “hot drinks” really meant, and if decaf will work in it’s place. Are we growing our testimonies if we are thinking about a single concept or issue in place of an overall spiritual growth? It’s like hiking up a mountain and stopping because there is a big boulder. We can only see that obstacle, so we don’t see the pathway around it. There have been many times that I had questions and the answers didn’t come immediately, they came later, sometimes years later. As I grew spiritually overall, the answers came when I was ready for them.

Second, if we have a question or issue with something, it’s important that we keep moving forward spiritually until we get the answer. Like the staring at a boulder analogy that I used in the last section, if we halt our spiritual progress and stop and star at the “boulder” we are moving ourselves from a place of humility to a place of obstenance, we are not teachable at that moment, which is how we need to be to get our answers. At that moment we are giving God an ultimatum, we won’t move forward until we get our answer and it satisfies us. Even if God wanted to give us the answers at that time, we are not teachable, we can not receive the answers because of our demanding attitude. We are also usually not in a place spiritually to receive the answers that will satisfy us, I’ve learned many, many times, obedience first, then the lesson. Once we know the overall truth, that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can ask questions and be assured through personal revelation that the answers will come, even though it might take awhile. The answers that we seek might be way above our current understanding, and we have to accept that the Lord is holding back answers to preserve our agency and so that we

Elder Holland concludes, “Last observation: when doubt or difficult come, do not be afraid to ask for help. If we want it as humbly and honestly as this father did, we can get it. The scriptures phrase such earnest desire as being of ‘real intent,’ pursued ‘with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God.’ I testify that in response to that kind of importuning, God will send help from both sides of the veil to strengthen our belief.” The part of humility that makes us teachable is the fact that we are willing to take whatever the Lord deems that we are ready for. If we aren’t ready for complete understanding then we will accept any information that we are ready for. We aren’t conditioning our future discipleship on whether or not we get enough to convince us to continue, and we are going to move forward as disciples regardless of how long our answers take. When we approach God with that attitude, we are putting ourselves in a place where we are ready to commune with God, to hear his answers, and to use the new information to build our testimonies. We are also growing spiritually so that we will be more prepared for more in depth answers soon.

The father’s answer let Jesus know that he did believe as much as he could, even if it wasn’t a perfect faith, and that was good enough. Jesus cast out the evil spirit, “Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.” JTC pointed out that by making such a statement, the Lord ensured a permanent healing for the boy, not just a momentary respite from his torment. The evil spirit had to obey Jesus, “And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.” I can’t imagine how physically debilitating it would be to be possessed by an evil spirit for years, and then to have the demon give one last grand show of force with my rag doll body, I’m sure it looked like he was dead, in fact he might have been dead. But Jesus “took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.” The boy was healed, the father had faith, and the Lord had compassion.

The disciples, I’m sure, were still very disappointed because once they got Jesus in private, they asked, “Why could not we cast him out?” Matthew has Jesus answering, “Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if he have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” I used to look out the window in the car and think, if that mountain moves then I will know that I have faith. What I didn’t realize as a child at the time was that there were consequences of moving mountains, if wasn’t just a barometer of my faith. Especially in California, where there are literally millions of people that can see that mountain I’m talking about. I didn’t realize that people’s houses would have been destroyed, people might have even been killed, and then where was I going to put the mountain after that? It’s a good thing that Jesus didn’t give into a little girl’s idle curiosity. That being said, we can look in the scriptures to at least two times when the mountains were moved because of faith, the brother of Jared who moved mount Zerin, in Ether 12:30, and Enoch, who summoned the power of nature to protect his righteous people as recorded in Moses 7:13. So if can happen, it just has to be kept in the bounds that the Lord has set. The IM gives a more applicable explanation by quoting Bishop Richard C. Edgley as teaching, “I have never witnessed the removal of an actual mountain. But because of faith, I have seen a mountain of doubt and despair removed and replaced with hope and optimism. Because of faith, I have personally witnessed a mountain of sin replaced with repentance and forgiveness. And because of faith, I have personally witnessed a mountain of pain replaced with peace, hope, and gratitude.” 
After expanding on faith and miracles, Jesus finishes by saying, “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” This statement has a couple of implications as to why the apostles couldn’t cast out the devil in the boy. First, there is the implication that prayer and fasting lends itself to spiritual power that is makes one capable of experiencing miracles. Second, it implies that priesthood power is not a one time thing. To wield the power of God in a manner that would please him, one must be consistently in tune with the Holy Ghost so that one can know what, when, where, and how to use the priesthood power according to God’s will. Third, it implies that perhaps the apostles were not in this place of heightened spiritual awareness when they were asked to cast out the demon. This would teach us that we must always be ready and prepared in order for priesthood power to be available in our lives. Fourth, JTC points out that this statement indicates “gradation in the malignity and evil power of demons, and gradation also in the results of varying degrees of faith.” We’ve seen before that not all evil spirits have the same evil power or influence, there are varying levels of evil and there are varying levels of spiritual power. Finally, the last implication is that we can use the principle of fasting and prayer in our own daily lives. The IM quotes the manual True to the Faith as teaching, “This account teaches that prayer and fasting can give added strength to those giving and receiving priesthood blessings. The account can also be applied to your personal efforts to live the gospel. If you have a weakness or sin that you have struggled to overcome, you may need to fast and pray in order to receive the help or forgiveness you desire. Like the demon that Christ cast out, your difficulty may be the kind that will go out only through prayer and fasting.”