How can two opposite things be true at the same time?
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is February 6, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called The King is Dead, Long Live the King. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Genesis 39, Mark 9, and Job 5.
Please open your Bibles to Mark 9.
I wonder if you have heard the phrase, “The King is Dead, Long Live the King.” I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I went a long time thinking this was a really dumb phrase. I understand each phrase independently. “The king is dead” means, our beloved sovereign has passed from this life. No problem. “Long live the king” is a benediction, a desire for his continued good health and prosperity. What I was too dense to understand was why would you put these phrases together? How can two opposite things be true at the same time? Finally—and this was actually not that long ago—I realized that if the king dies, you get a new king! His son ascends to the throne. So you’re basically saying, The old king is dead, long live the new king.
In today’s Scripture for Students we’re going to find a kind of similar sentence that seems to express two opposite ideas at the same time. I’m going to read Mark 9:14–29. Please follow along with me and see if you can spot the sentence I have in mind:
14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.
15 And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him.
16 And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”
17 And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.
18 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.”
19 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.”
20 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.
21 And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.
22 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.”
23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
25 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.”
26 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.”
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
28 And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”
29 And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
Wow, there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on in this passage. In one sense, it is pretty straightforward: it is the story of Jesus freeing a young boy from the ravages of demonic oppression. There is an interesting subtext that runs through the passage: apparently the disciples thought they should be able to cast out the unclean spirit but they weren’t able to; at the very end, Jesus explains that “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” That’s instructive for us; even if we aren’t in the business of casting out unclean spirits, sometimes prayer and fasting are needed for accomplishing God’s purposes in our lives.
For now though, I want us to focus on the response of the father in this story. This poor guy—he’s had a rough time of it. It’s bad enough that his son has been afflicted by an unclean spirit that has made him mute—meaning, the boy can no longer talk. The unclean spirit appears to desire the boy’s harm, even his death, by often hurling the boy into fire or into water. The man begs Jesus, “But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
I would have been a little indignant, but Jesus is always compassionate and gives the man hope. He says: “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Now, a quick note here. Jesus does not mean that if you just believe, you can fly or walk through walls or something. And he does not mean that if you are sick and pray and don’t get healed, the problem is that you didn’t have enough faith. Remember that it is Jesus saying these words. So “all things are possible” is not just generically true. It is true only through Jesus. Other verses in the Bible tell us that we are to make our requests known to God; our faith is in him and his ability to act, but he may decide to delay an answer to our prayers, maybe so that we can learn to trust him and to persevere in prayer.
This is what makes the father’s response all the more remarkable. This seems to be an incredibly honest moment and he says, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
This is just the right response to Jesus. Jesus could have healed the man’s son right at the start, but I wonder if Jesus has carried on this little bit of dialog with the man to bring him to this moment. Obviously, the man believes Jesus can heal his son: he brought his son to Jesus to be healed. But he’s also just a man. He’s limited in his belief by sinful doubt and fear, and so he asks Jesus for help.
I think this man’s request can serve us so well as a prayer. There are many things we might pray for in life that seem like really big requests: the salvation of a loved one, help on a test, resolution to an argument with a friend, provision of a job, healing from a chronic illness. In every case, of course we believe that God is powerful and able to act, to intervene, to save, or to heal. But we also doubt. Sure, I know he can do that, but will he do it for me? That’s where this father’s prayer can serve us so well. We can pray, like he did: “I believe, help my unbelief.” That prayer is a good confession of confidence in God and an honest accounting of our own sin, weakness, and frailty.
I want to encourage you to make Mark 9:24 part of the regular language of your prayers towards God. Just as it is good to declare that you believe in God and are confident in his ability to act, so too, it is good to ask him for help in the areas that we are weak. And when we pray this way, let’s expect him to respond by strengthening our faith and answering our prayers. Father, we believe; help our unbelief!
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!