NOTES for Mar 9:14-29
Today's passage brings us back again to the theme of healings, and this time it again concerns the healing of a demon-possessed man. But now the healing of the demon-possessed man by Jesus Himself is preceded by an unsuccessful attempt made by the apostles (v. 18). In addition, the text contains a brief but meaningful dialogue about faith and unbelief (vv. 23-24). At first glance, the connection is not completely clear: after all, even Gentiles sometimes received healing, as happened with the Syrophoenician woman mentioned in this same Gospel (Mark 7:25-30). But much here becomes clearer if we consider the meaning of the word "faith." In modern religious language, faith often means conviction that certain opinions or ideas about God, the human person, spiritual life, and other religiously important matters are correct. Meanwhile, both the Hebrew word usually translated into Russian as "faith" and the corresponding Greek word used by the evangelist mean not so much faith as conviction, but faithfulness and trust toward the one to whom such faithfulness has been promised. Faithfulness and trust were the foundation of the relationship between Jesus and all those whom He met during His earthly ministry. If trust did not arise from the beginning between Him and those with whom He interacted, further interaction became impossible, just as it did in cases when a person who had once trusted Jesus then betrayed Him for some reason. But if a relationship was not established or was broken, then the Kingdom of God was closed to that person, for it is inseparable from the person of Jesus Himself; in that case, there could be no question of healing either. Such a person could still keep his religious convictions, but convictions and views by themselves cannot open the Kingdom to anyone. Conversely, trust in Jesus opens it even to a Gentile who, like the Syrophoenician woman who came to Him, may have had no carefully developed religious worldview at all. What matters to Jesus, it appears, is personal relationship with a particular person, or its absence, more than that person's worldview.