Anything But Prayer
“This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” -Jesus, Mark 9:29
Jesus’ disciples had just asked Him, “Why could we not cast out the unclean spirit in that child?”
I often find myself having similar conversations with Jesus. “Jesus, why is this not working? Jesus, what’s wrong with what I’m doing? Jesus, I don’t understand why I’m not receiving my desired-outcome, and frankly I’m starting to get frustrated. Jesus, don’t you want me to be doing good things for people? Don’t we want the same thing here?!” (To which Jesus replies, “Yes, but I don’t want you to do it by yourself. If we’re gong to do real good in this world, we’re going to need to do it together. [More specifically, you’re going to need Me.]”)
The disciples weren’t able to cast out the “spirit that makes my son mute.” (17) And yet they hadn’t prayed about it?
When I look at my life and I think about all the things I’m not praying about, all I can say is, “No wonder.” It’s not that what I’m doing isn’t working, it’s that, without prayer, I’m not actually doing anything. I’m a tire spinning in the sand, sinking deeper and going nowhere.
The comedy of the scene is in 9:13: “When they came to the disciples they saw a great crowd around them, and the scribes arguing with them.” What were they arguing about? How To Cast Out a Mute, Seizure-Inducing Spirit. The disciples are arguing with the scribes about how best to handle a situation like this. And none of them think to pray?
I wonder if they were talking about praying? Like, “You should read a psalm, and then pray, and then kneel down seven times, and then hold hands and form a prayer-circle around the boy and then all say together…” I find myself drawn to approaches like that, arguments like this. Here’s a problem and I’m going to fix it! Well, I guess I can’t fix it, but I can work on clarifying and arguing for my method (even though it doesn’t work).
Notice the contrast embedded in Jesus’ teaching: “this kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” First, the phrase, “this kind cannot be driven out by anything but…” alludes to the difficulty of the problem. Jesus is admitting that this is a substantial concern that requires substantial effort. But then, second, the solution to this substantial problem is “prayer”? Why, that can’t be right! I mean, anyone can pray! Praying is easy! [Jesus stares at you silently without expression and nods slowly while it dawns on you…]
Oh, so even really substantial problems can be effectively addressed by this extraordinary gift we all have and all have with us all the time. Really big problem? Thank God you have a really big tool: prayer.
And the prayer doesn’t need special words or works, special dances or forms, special degrees or experiences. Prayer requires only a problem, large or small is fine, and a willingness to ask God for help. And just like that, since God is so big, prayer is so powerful.
Prayer is what God has decided to confine Himself to working through.
The final fascinating piece of this story is the asterisk and footnote at the end of 9:29, “…by anything but prayer.”* And you look down in your Bible and it says, “Some manuscripts add and fasting.” That means that an early copyist read this verse and thought, “That can’t be right! Prayer isn’t that hard. Just prayer to handle a problem like that? That can’t be right! Someone omitted a phrase. Probably, ‘and fasting.’ Yeah, because fasting is hard. I don’t like to fast. So then prayer, plus fasting, yeah, that’s powerful stuff!”
But that’s not what Jesus said. He said, “prayer.” This kind of too-big problem can only be addressed by what seems like a too-small solution. That's so we all understand how the problem actually got handled: not by works, not even by our work of prayer, but by God and His grace.
As opposed to arguing about how to address the problem, which, admittedly, has a certain appeal. But it does nothing. Prayer, on the other hand, is what God has decided to work through to do everything. And anything.
Do you have problems in your life that you no longer even worry about? The elephant in the room you’re pretending is an art installation? The boulder that’s dropped into your life that you’re trying to use as a coffee table? I have a secret for you. That kind of problem? That kind can only be driven out by—are you listening? This is important—prayer.
Photo by Geran de Klerk on Unsplash
