Perverse unbelief
This week's study is on Luke 9:38-43:
There are a few cool things to be found in this account of Jesus healing a boy. A guy with a sick boy goes out of his way to find Jesus so he can complain about what didn't happen when Jesus' disciples prayed for his son. You can imagine his distress. He's got one son. One guy to carry on his family and trade. One retirement plan. All of it is thrown into uncertainty because an evil spirit keeps seizing his boy and abusing him. They're humiliated as a family, and there is no hope for the future. He reaches out to God through the disciples and even that door is slammed in his face.
If you've had the misfortune to run up against the limitations of modern medical science, you can only imagine what it must have been like two thousand years ago, especially for the poor. What hope was there for this boy? Or for the family? The man's clock was running down, counting the days or years left before he'd be too old to support his family and they'd all be plunged into hell on earth, begging for alms on the street and being abused by society. You can see why he begged Jesus and begged the disciples!
Jesus is angry. He says "You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?" Jesus seems more upset with people's lack of faith and love than at things we would ordinarily look at as sin. He calls the disciples lack of faith, and possibly the father's lack of faith, perverse. Like it's messed up and twisted and wrongly devised. He's demonstrated over and over to them who he is, and they still don't get it. And now an innocent boy is still held captive by an evil spirit because of it.
Jesus could have told the guy to go home and pray harder or listen to another sermon on healing or whatever, like preachers do now to paper over the lack of a miracle. He could have left off at condemning the disciples' unbelief and moved on to the next topic, but he didn't. The boy needed to be set free. Jesus, once again, is total love and total grace. The boy and his father came up short. The disciples came up short. Jesus, however, delivered in full.
The evil spirit tries to humiliate the boy (and his father and the disciples) one more time in front of Jesus. The enemy understands humiliation as a tactic in warfare too, but when it comes against Jesus its plan blows up in its face. The evil spirit overplayed its hand, and now everything it has done is instead turned into an opportunity to glorify God. When the boy is healed and set free, everyone is amazed at the greatness of God! Would that have happened had the evil spirit not gone too far?
Our lack of belief is perverted. We're unbalanced in a way that is defiling and destructive to ourselves and those around us. It was infuriating and exhausting for Jesus to deal with it in his disciples. And yet Jesus had such love that he healed the boy anyway! But shouldn't the perspective in this story still make us hungrier to understand God and his kingdom more, so that we can overcome our perversity?
As you can tell from reading the Book of Acts, the disciples did overcome their perverse unbelief. So it is possible for us to do it too. But it is sobering to think that even if we think we're doing well in our Christian life by not "sinning" conspicuously, we can still be considered perverse by not seeing a miracle when we pray for people. The perversity of unbelief isn't enough to separate us from God's love, but life is so much better for everyone involved if we can overcome it.
A man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”
“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.
There are a few cool things to be found in this account of Jesus healing a boy. A guy with a sick boy goes out of his way to find Jesus so he can complain about what didn't happen when Jesus' disciples prayed for his son. You can imagine his distress. He's got one son. One guy to carry on his family and trade. One retirement plan. All of it is thrown into uncertainty because an evil spirit keeps seizing his boy and abusing him. They're humiliated as a family, and there is no hope for the future. He reaches out to God through the disciples and even that door is slammed in his face.
If you've had the misfortune to run up against the limitations of modern medical science, you can only imagine what it must have been like two thousand years ago, especially for the poor. What hope was there for this boy? Or for the family? The man's clock was running down, counting the days or years left before he'd be too old to support his family and they'd all be plunged into hell on earth, begging for alms on the street and being abused by society. You can see why he begged Jesus and begged the disciples!
Jesus is angry. He says "You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?" Jesus seems more upset with people's lack of faith and love than at things we would ordinarily look at as sin. He calls the disciples lack of faith, and possibly the father's lack of faith, perverse. Like it's messed up and twisted and wrongly devised. He's demonstrated over and over to them who he is, and they still don't get it. And now an innocent boy is still held captive by an evil spirit because of it.
Jesus could have told the guy to go home and pray harder or listen to another sermon on healing or whatever, like preachers do now to paper over the lack of a miracle. He could have left off at condemning the disciples' unbelief and moved on to the next topic, but he didn't. The boy needed to be set free. Jesus, once again, is total love and total grace. The boy and his father came up short. The disciples came up short. Jesus, however, delivered in full.
The evil spirit tries to humiliate the boy (and his father and the disciples) one more time in front of Jesus. The enemy understands humiliation as a tactic in warfare too, but when it comes against Jesus its plan blows up in its face. The evil spirit overplayed its hand, and now everything it has done is instead turned into an opportunity to glorify God. When the boy is healed and set free, everyone is amazed at the greatness of God! Would that have happened had the evil spirit not gone too far?
Our lack of belief is perverted. We're unbalanced in a way that is defiling and destructive to ourselves and those around us. It was infuriating and exhausting for Jesus to deal with it in his disciples. And yet Jesus had such love that he healed the boy anyway! But shouldn't the perspective in this story still make us hungrier to understand God and his kingdom more, so that we can overcome our perversity?
As you can tell from reading the Book of Acts, the disciples did overcome their perverse unbelief. So it is possible for us to do it too. But it is sobering to think that even if we think we're doing well in our Christian life by not "sinning" conspicuously, we can still be considered perverse by not seeing a miracle when we pray for people. The perversity of unbelief isn't enough to separate us from God's love, but life is so much better for everyone involved if we can overcome it.
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