Fasting and praying for faith to free us from oppression

 

Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees.  Have you any days of fasting and prayer?  Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.  --John Wesley

These days there is a lot of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth concerning the national sin of racism. Woke liberals, who are the most emphatic and dogmatic, like fundamentalist revivalists focus in on what they feel is the very worst kind of racism, which is white supremacy. All white people stand accused of it.

"White supremacy," they say, "is kind of like high fructose corn syrup. Very few people would purchase a bottle of it for themselves, but it's cheap, palatable, effective, and an ingredient in just about everything. To me the experience of opening my eyes to white supremacy was like realizing that high fructose corn syrup is a component in everything I picked up off the shelf at the supermarket--even in things you wouldn't expect. Just a constant refrain of, 'Seriously? It's in this too?' If you don't really care and aren't actively looking for it, you likely won't find it. You'll just consume it thoughtlessly. Those who are adversely affected, though, will be rigorous in identifying it because a failure to do so is harmful. They will look harder and find more." (Source: Twitter @absurdistwords Feb 26)

I suppose the remedy to this particular national sin is to confess my white supremacy, repent, and embrace BLM doctrine. Only then will all men be able to walk free together hand in hand, at least until another crisis emerges and we are again accused of a different societal transgression.

I submit to you that we should take a step back, and take a broader view. White supremacy is a sub-set of the sin of racism, which is a sub-set of the sin of pride. Pride itself is a subset of the sin of rejecting the grace of God that came through Jesus Christ. Romans 12:3 says, "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." The cure for this particular sin, then, is Jesus. He is the cure for pride and the other so-called "deadly sins", therefore He is the remedy for racism and all the other sub-sets of sin, all of which our nation is guilty.

The disciples of Jesus were guilty of a certain amount of pride, as well, a pride that led to frustration and arguments within themselves and within the religious leaders of the day. Let's look at Mark 9:14-28 to see more.

And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw Him, were greatly amazed and ran up to Him and greeted Him. And He asked them, "What are you arguing about with them?" And someone from the crowd answered Him, "Teacher, I brought my son to You, for he has a spirit which 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 the 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!" And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when He had entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And He said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."

Okay, there's a lot to go over here, so let's focus in on a few things that stand out. You remember the prior passage, where Jesus took three of the disciples with Him up the mountain (Mark 9:1-13). You will also remember in Mark 6 where Jesus gave them authority over sickness and over demons, and sent them out two by two (Mark 6:7). These are the same disciples, all with the same experience: "And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them." (Mark 6:13).

Frustration leads to dissension

When Jesus approached the multitude with Peter, James and John, He saw the scribes arguing with the other nine disciples. The Greek word used here is συζητέω (syzētéō), meaning to investigate jointly, i.e. discuss, controvert, cavil (make petty or unnecessary objections); dispute with. Scripture doesn't go into much detail, but based on our experience of human nature, we can kind of figure out what went on here. The man, maybe a Scribe himself, has a son with both a spiritual need(demon possession) and a physical need (epilepsy, or some other seizure disorder). Relying on past experience, the disciples took turns speaking to the boy, but to no avail. They may have begun accusing one another of unfaithfulness. "Simon, if you weren't so zealous, God might have answered you." Or maybe, "Judas, if you weren't so stingy with the moneybags, maybe you could heal this poor boy."

Anybody who has had an unhappy customer ask to see a manager might understand the disciples' reaction. When the people asked to see Jesus instead, they could only say, "Jesus isn't here, I'll do the best I can." This, in turn, might have led to discussions about their best not being good enough. That would describe the reaction of the crowd when Jesus appeared on the scene. To their utter amazement, Jesus showed up at just the right time. Someone in the crowd may have shouted, "Hey look, there's Jesus; let's ask Him." So they all ran up to Him and greeted Him heartily.

Focus on the wrong problem

It strikes me as odd that the man in verse 17 identifies the unclean spirit as one that mutes his son. According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon, the evil spirit was identified as a mute spirit "because the defects of demoniacs were thought to proceed from the nature and peculiarities of the demons by which they were possessed." In other words, the boy was mute because it was a mute spirit that indwelt him.

As frustrating as it must have been for the father of the boy to ask time and again, "Son, what is wrong?" and to have no answer, his being unable to speak was not his greatest problem. The demon was set upon destroying the boy. Only later does the man admit that not only does the demon manifest in seizures with grinding teeth and foaming at the mouth, but it also throws him into the fire or the water to destroy him. How often must the father have had to rescue his son from burning or drowning without being able to address the root cause? John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."

The problem was not just that the boy could not speak; it was that he was shriveling up and dying because the demons that beset him were set upon his destruction. The answer to this problem, as it is with every problem on earth, is Jesus.

Faith like a mustard seed

The poor father inherently knew that Jesus was the answer. He just needed a little encouragement. He told Jesus, "If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help him." Jesus may have raised his eyebrows here. "If?" He asked. "If you can? All things are possible for one who believes." The man answered with what little faith he had: "I believe; help my unbelief!"

Later, when the disciples were alone with Jesus, they asked him about their inability to do what He did, what they had been able to do before. Let's read Jesus' response in Matthew 17:20-21. "He said to them, 'Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you'." Mark and Luke add these words: "This only comes about by prayer and fasting."

Faith in Jesus covers a multitude of sins. Prayer and fasting can build our faith, but it also can point out the sin that so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1). In this way, I agree with the Twitter analogy above, not about the specific sin of racism, but for every sin that separates us from God. "If we don't really care and aren't actively looking for it, we likely won't find it. Those who are adversely affected by it (like the father in this passage, or like the disciples, or like all of us) will be rigorous in identifying it because a failure to do so is harmful."

Jesus forgives us from all sin. He imputes His righteousness to us, and took our sin upon Himself on the cross. If that is all we know, that is all we need to know. However, continued or habitual sin can make us ineffective in our walk and work for Christ. To be effective as a Christian, we must purge all sin from our lives, not for our own salvation (for He saved us out of our sin) but for our work in salvation and service to others. If we are active in prayer and fasting, the Spirit of God will reveal our sin to us, and help us repent from it and stop doing it. In this way our faith can grow from the size of a mustard seed to the size of a large tree or shrub, and then how much more effective we could be for His glory.