February 21: Help My Unbelief
♫ Music:
Saturday, February 21
Scripture: Mark 9:17-24
And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
HELP MY UNBELIEF
There is no shortage of difficult or puzzling statements in Scripture. The attentive reader finds everywhere claims that stymie understanding, and it may seem at the outset as though the father’s statement in Mark 9:24 falls into this category. After all, “I believe; help my unbelief!” sounds like an outright contradiction. Oddly, though, this claim has never given me a moment’s confusion, and I would wager that my experience isn’t unique in this. The truth is that when the father makes his strange confession, I know exactly what he means.
Here is a man who has experienced terrible difficulty, who has looked on helplessly as a demon attacked his young son again and again. No doubt this is not the first time he has sought a cure. No doubt this is not the first time he has prayed for healing. He has brought his son to Jesus because, at least in some sense, he believes that Jesus is able to save his son. Without some faith, he would not have come at all, but a long history of unanswered prayers has left his belief threadbare.
To make matters worse, when the man arrives the disciples are unable to drive the demon from his child. It is unclear to me whether it is a lack of faith in the father or in the disciples that results in this failure, but Christ’s lament is extended beyond the father to an entire generation devoid of faith.
Why does Christ’s ability to heal, or that of his disciples, depend on this father’s faith? My suspicion is that it doesn’t. God’s power to heal, as with everything else, is absolute. But Christ’s mission that day extended beyond the physical healing of the child. I suspect that the events of that day, and perhaps of the years preceding, was a process meant to bring this father to this prayer: not the prayer to heal his son, but rather the prayer to heal his own heart in its lack of faith.
This is not to say that Christ’s desire was not to heal the child. In both Tissot’s and Covington’s depictions of the scene, Christ attends to this child with profound compassion. However, it is Covington’s depiction that captures this second element of the scene. Christ’s healing hand is on the father, and the father is clutching his robe. Christ’s healing will not end with the son, it will extend directly into his father’s heart, and there Christ’s central mission will be accomplished.
Christ’s ministry on earth was vexed with this challenge. The multitudes came to be healed of their physical illness, but only the few asked for the healing that was most needful, and that Christ came most to bring. Sometimes, it is only by letting these physical mercies fail that Christ can induce us to pray the prayers we truly ought to pray, and that he greatly desires to answer.
PRAYER
Lord, this Lenten season help me to examine my prayers. Lord Jesus Christ, whether it be with an answer or with your silence, direct me to pray the prayer that is needful, and be pleased to answer that prayer in your mercy. Amen.
Janelle Aijian, Professor of Philosophy, Torrey Honors Institute
Jesus and the Little Child
James Tissot
1886
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Opaque watercolor and graphite on paper
&
Lord Help Thou My Unbelief
N J Covington
Oil on canvas
About the Artist & Art (Piece 1)
James Tissot (1836-1902) was a French Impressionist painter and illustrator who was friends with fellow artists Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, and American painter James McNeil Whistler. Known for his bourgeois lifestyle, in 1888 he underwent a religious conversion when he entered a church to “catch the atmosphere for a picture,” and thereafter devoted himself to religious subjects. He visited the Holy Land in 1886-87 and again in 1889. His many Biblical works were enormously popular, both in book form and when the original drawings and paintings were exhibited. Jesus and the Little Child is part of Tissot's series The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ (La Vie de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ).
About the Artist & Art (Piece 2)
Niki J. Covington studied in Florence, Italy, and received a Certificate in Classical Architecture from the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art in New York. He now teaches drawing and anatomy at several schools across the country. The goal of his work is to “accomplish ‘un bel composto’, a synthesis of painting, sculpture and architecture.”
http://njcovington.blogspot.com/
About the Music (Piece 1)
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing lyrics
Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of joyful praise.
While the hope of endless glory
Fills my heart with joy and love
Teach me ever to adore thee
May I still thy goodness prove.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let that grace now like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above.
On, that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see thy lovely face
Clothed in the blood-washed linen
How I’ll sing thy wondrous grace.
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away
Send thine angels soon to carry
Me to realms of endless day
Alleluia to the Lamb, Praise the great I Am.
Amen.
About the Musicians & Composer
John Leavitt (b. 1956) is a composer, conductor, and teacher. Leavitt received his undergraduate education at Emporia State University. He holds a master’s degree from Wichita State University and the Doctorate of Musical Arts from The Conservatory of Music at the University Missouri. Dr. Leavitt lives in Wichita where he directs community choral and orchestral activities. His compositions include works for choir, piano, organ, hand bells and orchestra. His music has been performed in more than 30 countries around the globe.
http://www.johnleavittmusic.com
Robert Robinson (1735-1790) was an English Pastor. He wrote the words to Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing in 1757. Robinson used imagery from the Parable of the Prodigal Son as inspiration for this beloved hymn
About the Music (Piece 2)
Chase Away My Unbelief lyrics
Lord, when I think You’re far away
Returning silence for my prayer,
When I’m reminded of old doubts
That You still reign, or that You care,
Teach me how to doubt no more,
To know You’re found by those who seek,
And my emotions can deceive;
Chase away my unbelief.
In the face of deepest loss,
Blinded by my bitter tears,
Broken by what might have been,
A slave to things as they appear,
Then whisper peace into my soul
In midst of pain and piercing grief.
My own perspective’s incomplete.
Chase away my unbelief.
When I suspect You’ve lost control
Or You’ve forsaken what You made,
When children starve both near and far
And love has wilted under hate,
Remind me of Your promises:
A kingdom full of life and peace!
Help me to trust eternity.
Lord, chase away my unbelief.
My emotions can deceive
My own perspective’s incomplete
Help me to trust eternity,
Lord, chase away my unbelief.
About the Musician
Kristen Gilles is a worship pastor at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky. She is an accomplished pianist, singer, guitarist, and songwriter, and has toured and led worship in churches and at conferences all over the United States. She and her husband Bobby Gilles, also a songwriter, wrote their worship album Parker's Mercy Brigade, which features Chase Away My Unbelief, in 2014 following the stillbirth of their son Parker.
http://kristengilles.com/
http://mysonginthenight.com/