GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 9:18
Man’s Extremity is God’s Opportunity
In Egypt, the Pharaoh became alarmed at the progress of the Jewish captives. To increase their burden, he ordered that they not be furnished with straw to make bricks: “But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota.” (Ex. 5:8) The captives found the task beyond their ability, and the Pharaoh would not change his order. Workers are sometimes assigned a task with the command, “I need this by yesterday.” There is a children’s tale about a king who ordered the villagers to build a “ladder to the moon,” a task obviously beyond their resources, skills, and physical possibilities. In the children’s tale, the villagers lacked one block high enough to complete the task. There is a story about a commander who asked the Seabees, the U.S. Navy’s Construction Battalions (CBs), to build a bridge to next week.
Some of those impossible tasks came to mind as I worked on Mark 9:18. “And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and becomes stiff; and I spoke to your disciples that they might cast it out, and they were not able.” Jesus and three of his disciples had been on a mountain where they saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. When they returned to the valley, a group of people had gathered around the other disciples and was arguing with them. A father had brought his son “having a mute spirit” to them: “And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and becomes stiff; and I spoke to your disciples that they might cast it out, and they were not able.”
A short time before this, Jesus had sent the disciples on their first evangelistic tour: “And they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed many sick people with oil, and healed them.” (Mark 6:12-13) In this instance, however, they lacked the power. It appears that the disciples had prayed as before, but their prayers were ineffective. There are several possible explanations to account for the disciples’ failure in this instance—whether a reliance on their own resources, the haranguing of the opponents, the urgency of the father, perhaps the boy was in a state of seizure, or a lack of faith. However one understands the disciples’ position, they needed resources beyond what they possessed—then Jesus appeared.
There is an axiom that says that man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. That was certainly true for those disciples, and it is true for the believer today.
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