One
of the multitude answered, “Teacher, I brought to you my son, who has a mute spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren’t able.”
Mark 9:17-18
Mark 9 [14.] Coming to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes questioning them. Immediately all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him greeted him. He asked the scribes, “What are you asking them?”
Mark 9 [17.] One of the multitude answered, “Teacher, I brought to you my son, who has a mute spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren’t able.”
Mark 9 [19.] He answered him, “Unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.”
Meaning:
Jesus had asked the scribes what they were arguing about (Mark 9:14-16), but before they can answer, a man from the crowd speaks up. He is a father, and his words pour out the story of years of suffering and of a hope that has just been disappointed. In a few sentences he describes his son’s terrible condition and the failure of Jesus’ disciples.
- “Teacher, I brought to you my son”
The father had come looking for Jesus himself. Finding only the disciples, he asked them to help, as many people had seen them do in the villages of Galilee. The love of a parent for a suffering child is one of the most moving themes in Mark: Jairus begged for his daughter (Mark 5:23), and a Gentile mother pleaded for hers (Mark 7:24-27). This father’s cry, “I brought to you my son,” is a prayer from the depths of a parent’s heart.
- “Who has a mute spirit”
The father describes symptoms that look like severe seizures: the boy is thrown down, foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes rigid or wastes away. Mark, however, makes clear that an evil spirit was behind the illness, a spirit that left the boy unable to speak and that tried to destroy him (Mark 9:21-22). The Bible does not treat every illness as demonic, but here it describes a real spiritual enemy at work. The same destructive pattern appeared in the man among the tombs who cut himself with stones (Mark 5:1-8).
- “Wherever it seizes him”
The suffering was unpredictable. The spirit could seize the boy anywhere, at any time, leaving the family living in constant fear. It had been like this since childhood. This is the work of the enemy: to rob, to wound and to destroy what God has made. But “To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
- “I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren’t able”
This is the painful centre of the story. Jesus had given the twelve “authority over the unclean spirits” (Mark 6:7), and on their mission “They cast out many demons” (Mark 6:13). Yet this time they failed, in public, while scribes looked on. Later, in private, Jesus would explain why: “This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:28-29). Authority given in the past does not replace living dependence on God in the present.
The Significance of Mark 9:17-18
- Bring your burdens to Jesus
The father’s honesty is a model for prayer. He tells Jesus exactly what is wrong and how others have failed him. Believers can bring their deepest troubles, including disappointment with other Christians, straight to Jesus.
- When God’s people fall short
Christians and churches sometimes fail people who come for help. That failure is real and painful, but it is not the end of the story. The disciples’ inability led the father to Jesus himself, who is never unable. And it taught the disciples to depend more on prayer.
Cross-References:
Mark 6:7: "He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits." The disciples had been given authority, yet here they failed.
1 John 3:8: "To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil." Jesus came to undo the destruction the evil spirit was causing.
Hebrews 2:14-15: "that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Christ’s victory brings freedom to those held in bondage.
Mark 7:25-26: "For a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. … She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter." Another parent who brought a tormented child to Jesus.
Conclusion: A desperate father told Jesus about his son, tormented since childhood by a mute spirit that threw him down and tried to destroy him, and he admitted that the disciples had not been able to help. The passage shows the cruelty of the enemy, the love of a parent and the weakness of disciples who had relied on past authority. It also points to the One who came to destroy the works of the devil, and to whom every burden can be brought.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible