Amy C Walters

Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit | Luke 9:37-43

In the first of four short, related stories, we meet a boy whose problem the disciples could not fix. Jesus calls them out as “unbelieving and perverse.” They had twisted their confidence and belief to be in themselves, not in Jesus. But seeing his greatness is the antidote to unbelief.

We have come to a cluster of short stories–Jesus healing a boy, an argument about greatness, and someone else healing in Jesus’ name. At first glance, they seem to be unrelated. But I think there are some key elements that tie these stories together. 

In each of these stories, the disciples are missing something. They are out of sync with Jesus and he has to keep correcting them and teaching them. 

The story that comes before this is the Transfiguration in Luke 9:28-36. Jesus took Peter, James and John up onto a mountain. And as Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Moses and Elijah appear as well and it’s such an incredible moment that the disciples want to just stay in it forever. 

But they have to come back down. So this story starts with them returning from the mountain and encountering the mess of regular life on earth: a large crowd, people needing Jesus, and the disciples’ incompetence. 

Suddenly, a man in the crowd calls out to Jesus, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son!” This poor father has watched his son suffer. “There’s a spirit that seizes him and causes him to scream suddenly. It sends him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It barely ever leaves him and is destroying this boy.” And then the father says, “I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.” 

How might that father have felt, helplessly watching his son suffer like that? It would be heartbreaking. It’s a sad, sad situation.

The issue with the disciples is sad as well. They tried to help the father and son but were incapable. Just a few verses before this in Luke 9:1-6, the disciples went from town to town preaching and healing people under Jesus’ authority. They had experienced God’s power working through them before to drive out demons, yet here they fail. 

Jesus responds to this situation by saying, “Oh, you unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I stay with you and put up with you?” 

At first, this feels like a harsh response. Jesus is publicly rebuking his disciples for their failure. That would hurt. There’s a part of me that says, “they’re only human, Jesus.”

And yet, the disciples had seen God work in and through them before. What Jesus is saying here echoes something from the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. 

Moses is about to die and leave the people, and he is recounting all of the incredible things that God had done for the Israelites in bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. But he also recounts how Israel continued to grumble against God and doubt his goodness and power and provision. And the words Moses uses in that indictment are very similar to Jesus: “they are a crooked and twisted generation” (Deuteronomy 32:5c). 

Synonyms for “unbelieving” and “perverse” include “faithless,” “crooked,” and “twisted.” Moses is telling the Israelites that they have twisted things around. They believed God was doing all those things for them because they were great, and God would always serve their purposes. But the reality is that God was doing those great things because he is great. And everything that they had seen up to that point pointed to God’s greatness. 

And this kind of an attitude is one that so easily seeps into our lives. What do we tell people to get motivated and excited and ready to accomplish things? We tell them, “You can do it. You’ve got this. You’re awesome!” 

This seems to be how the disciples approach the situation too. This father comes to them asking them to drive out the demon from his son. The disciples have done it before, they can do it again. “We know the formula for this. We know how this goes.” And maybe their belief in God’s work has become twisted around to be belief in themselves. 

Jesus also says to the disciples, “How long shall I stay with you and put up with you?” Just after this, Jesus is going to tell his disciples a second time that he will be handed over into the hands of men. When that happens, they are going to need to carry on his ministry without him physically present there. Are they ready for this?

Apparently not. Jesus is striving to get them ready to keep that ministry going. And in order to do that, they had to have a foundation of belief in God, not themselves.

So Jesus tells the father to bring his son to him. And even as the child is coming, the demon throws him into a convulsion. But Jesus rebukes the impure spirit, heals the boy, and gives him back to his father.

Such an incredible display of power from Jesus! Where the disciples failed, Jesus has succeeded. 

How do the people respond to this miracle? It says that they were amazed at the greatness of God. There’s that thread running through it again. In the previous story, we saw Jesus’ glory in the transfiguration. That was at the top of the mountain. But even down on earth with the chaos and the troubles, Jesus is still great. Jesus is still powerful. 

Luke is drawing a connection for us in this story. The disciples had a problem of unbelief. The solution is not to look at themselves and focus on their own greatness. It’s instead to look at the greatness of Jesus. Look at what Jesus can do. 

Our key truth for today is that the antidote to unbelief is to see the greatness of God. 

This feels so foreign to us. We’re used to propping ourselves up with mantras of “you can do it!” “You’ve got this!” “You did it before and you can do it again!” 

We rest on formulas and our own abilities. We twist things around to be about us. But everything is about God and his greatness. 

I once heard a recording of a coaching session where the coach told their client, “Just believe this!” The client asked, “Why should I believe it?” The coach’s response was, “Just believe it.” That’s it. As if they could manufacture that belief on their own. 

Jesus doesn’t do that. He says, look at me, look at all the things that I’ve done, look at who I am. I am the foundation for your belief.