Mark 9:14-29  When Jesus was up on the mountain top with the three disciples, the others were left to fend for themselves.  They ran into quite a challenge.  They had authority over demons, but in this case, the authority didn’t seem to work.

There is a play on words that can go unnoticed. The man said he brought Yeshua his son (Mark 9:17). The boy’s symptoms were muteness and self-destruction. Yet, when Jesus was not available, the man “told” the disciples to cast the demon out (Mark 9:18). They were unable to cast it out. Yeshua questioned the man about the symptoms. The son had been plagued since childhood. Now for the second blunder, “if you can”. He saw the disciples fail miserably and extended that to Jesus. He was rebuked for this statement.

The focus of this passage is on spiritual authority. The disciples had a certain amount of spiritual authority. On the first missionary journey they received authority that allowed them to perform signs and wonders. They were at a loss as to why this authority did not work when trying to cast out the demon that was plaguing the boy.

Yeshua said that the only way to drive out a demon of that kind was through prayer. What is prayer? This is a direct communication with God. Praying is speaking out to God and making a request of Him. The authority involved is escalated from authority of the disciples to the authority of God.

Notice: Yeshua did not pray. This is significant in the context of the story. The prayer in this situation was from the boy’s father. He stated that he believed but was plagued with unbelief. The prayer was to help his unbelief. Yeshua accepted his prayer and commanded the unclean spirit to depart. Context comes into play once again. The transfiguration was a revelation that Yeshua was the actual Son of God, thus making Him God. This is a verification of that power and authority.

Mark 9:30-37  Private teaching.  Jesus warns the disciples of His coming crucifixion, death and resurrection. The disciples were not able to understand what He was teaching them. This was not the first time Yeshua instructed them concerning the upcoming persecution and death. Yeshua taught them the same thing earlier when Peter was rebuked for standing against Him. Perhaps they did not understand the rebuke that Peter received since they were afraid to ask what Yeshua meant by the teaching. It seems that the earlier teaching on his rejection, death and resurrection was not understood at all (Mark 8:31-33). They understood that Peter had gotten into trouble by questioning the teaching before. Fear stopped them from receiving a deeper revelation. I wonder what would have happened if they had grasped what they were taught.

The disciples thought that Yeshua would set up an earthly kingdom while He was on earth. The evidence of this is found in several places. This is one of them. They were arguing over who was the greatest. This was a matter of deciding who was the greatest among them. Who would be in positions of power? This is clear evidence that they did not understand that Yeshua was going to be killed at all. I believe that this was one of the factors that motivated Judas to betray Jesus. He was trying to force the hand of Jesus so that He would be forced to call on legions of angels to set up the earthly reign.

Instead, Yeshua taught them that in order to be the greatest, they had to be the greatest servant. The one who was the greatest servant would be the greatest in power and authority. Yeshua is the example of the greatest being who humbled himself to become man so that he could serve man. If we would really do as Jesus did as the slogan goes, then we must become the greatest servants of all.  The greatest person must emulate Yeshua by becoming humble in spirit to the point of serving.

Mark 9:38-41 John was annoyed that someone who was not part of their group was casting out demons in the name of Jesus. It is apparent that the person was successful in casting out the demons. God is merciful. Even people with misguided intentions are often successful when they work in His name. Remember context! Just a few verses prior, the disciples were not able to cast out a demon. It appears that people were trying out casting out demons. They were realizing that there is an authority that was higher than had happened before. Jesus brought with Him an authority that was never present before.

Through the ages, the Jewish people were supposed to be an evangelistic people. If you look at the crowd that was delivered from Egypt, a large portion of the people were mixed people from different races (Ex 12:37-38). God originally intended for the Jewish people to be evangelistic. Another example of a gentile prophet is Balaam. In the beginning, he had pure intentions. He understood who God was and followed Him faithfully. Later, he sinned against God by pointing out how to defeat the Jewish people.

Evangelism is treacherous, the results are not always what you expect. Yeshua wants His people to succeed when they follow Him. The Ten Commandments were given with the affirmation that the commandments are not to difficult or out of reach (Deut 30:10-16). God said His instructions were not too difficult to follow. Today we say that no one can possibly follow the instructions in the ten commandments, who do you believe?

The offering of a drink hits the main focus of Torah. The idea is to put God’s word into practice. That includes the very basic idea of taking care of a man’s need for water. We are talking about the elementary ideas that the instructions of God (Torah) is based upon. The men in question were casting out demons in the name of Jesus. They obviously were not following Jesus as one of His followers. They must have watched the disciples and learned technique from them. Their faith was on a very minimal elementary level. Are you following me? These men were infants in the faith, small children who learned to mimic others.

Contextually, we are dealing with small children. Yeshua uses them as a character study to demonstrate that the men who casting out demons were also children in the faith. Stumbling can certainly be applied to the children. Causing a child to stumble can be disastrous for that child through their entire lives. How often have you heard of someone who was stung spiritually as a child and has borne a grudge against religious Christians their entire lives?

On that flip side, we also have a contextual situation where the ones casting out the demons are children. Context in this passage offers two different views. One view takes into account the small children. The other view takes into account the baby believers. They didn’t have a clear understanding of God’s instructions since they were not under the tutelage of Yeshua. However, they were moving forward with what they knew to be true. These men were acting on faith by putting into action what they saw work. If we wait till we are spiritual giants to work or get active in our faith for God, we will wait a very long time.

The key word is “believe” from the Greek word “pisteuo”. Faith is putting into action what one knows to be true. Children often demonstrate incredible faith since they take things at face value. Here we are faced with a demonstration that destruction of the faith of baby believers is just as devastating. The warnings that follow are dire warnings.

Mark 9:43-48: This is a tremendous passage when take in context. Hell is a very real place. Once I shared with a Jehovah’s Witness from this passage. In the Greek it has an incredible message. The Jehovah Witnesses do not believe that hell really exists. They believe that the bad people are basically incinerated or annihilated upon death.  This passage teaches a very astounding truth.

There are two phrases that are quoted three times, “it is better to enter life than to go into hell” (my paraphrase). The word in the Greek language for “enter” and “go” are in all cases in the aorist tense. The verbal aorist tense indicates that the action was always taking place, is taking place and will always be taking place, all at the same time. It is a perfect continuation of action that continues forever. Life continues forever, on that same token, hell goes on forever. Both life and hell are permanent and are both realities.

The phrase “where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” is found three times in the English, but in the oldest version is only found in verse 48. The point has been emphasized for the understanding of the gravity off the passage by some scholar who copied manuscripts. The meaning of the passage is not changed.

Mark 9:49-50: Salt: What is salt? It is a seasoning, albeit, one necessary for life. Let’s look at context though. If you pile on a cup of salt on your hamburger, it is no longer fit to eat. On that same token, a little salt enhances the flavor. In this passage, the disciples were carriers of salt. They could have slaughtered the ones casting out demons in the name of Jesus. Or, they could season the situation with a little salt by encouraging the men in Yeshua’s name.

The context of the passage shows that Yeshua wants His people to mentor others. The instructions of God (Torah) are designed to guide people through life. It is not designed to be a hard and fast set of rules. Therefore, since it is a guide for life, there are a lot of variations that are possible. The main goal is to coax people to move toward true torah, or the pure instructions of God without the distractions of variant ideas. Salt, or encouragement moves those who are baby believers to growth.