Here we have an account of a boy that has been demon possessed for quite a few years. People were arguing because the disciples couldn't cast out an evil spirit, and Jesus said to the people "You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." After all he had done, people still had doubts, even the father had some doubts as to Jesus' ability (vs. 21).
The boy convulsed and grinded his teeth, and foamed at the mouth. When Jesus saw the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the spirit. The spirit screamed and came out of the boy.
"Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, "Why couldn't we cast out that evil spirit?" "Jesus replied, "This kind can be cast out only by prayer". (some translates have prayer and fasting)
Some people think that the boy was suffering from Epileptic seizures (Grand Mal), and if the boy did, then Jesus healed him of that. "Then why Jesus refer to this as an evil spirit" My answer would be, you try to explain brain neurons to people 2000 years ago, heck try to explain it to people 100 years ago.
I also knew a guy who suffered from similar things to grand Mal seizures, and basically it turned out that he had been aware of abuse that happening when he was a child, and it manifested as a 'possession' or seizures. In verse 25 Jesus is rebuking the 'evil' spirit, or as some translations have it ..'unclean' spirit. But, once again, we have Jesus healing the boy.
How ever you want to spin it, the Boy was healed ... praise be to God!
The people doubted that Jesus could do it, but Christ did heal the boy. Again, the question we have to ask ourselves, is where do we place our faith? In God's ability, or our inability?
What we can also take out of this account is that when it comes to spiritual discernment on a situation ... like the disciples trying to figure out why they couldn't heal this boy, we need to 'pray and fast'. How much wrong has the Church done because we rely on human discernment instead of taking things to God in prayer?
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