April 13th, 2024

With the title of this Sunday being ‘The Third Sunday of Easter’, both the importance and the distinctiveness of Easter continue to be obvious. And with the writings of this website, we continue to make our way through the Gospel according to Mark, and we are currently at somewhat of a midway point in this gospel account. We just started what is usually termed chapter nine of the account, and that is usually called the ‘transfiguration’ of Jesus. From that ‘high point’, the text then travels on to the next high point, that of Golgotha, Calvary, the cross.

What follows could be called a somewhat-literal translation of the next section of the book (Mark 9:14-29; you may wish to look at other translations; there are certainly many from which to choose; or you may wish to look at a study bible to examine the text more closely; if you are new to these writings, it should be noted that the words in bold print are sometimes called ‘historical presents’, and they occur when a past-tense verb is expected, but a present-tense verb is given):

And having come toward the disciples, they saw a crowd, great, around them, and scribes debating toward them. And immediately, all the crowd, having seen him, they were out-marveled, and running up, they were greeting him. And he questioned them: “What are you debating toward them?”

And he answered him, one out of the crowd: “Teacher, I brought the son of me toward you, having a spirit, non-speaking; and whenever him, it seizes, it tears him, and he foams, and he grinds the teeth, and he withers; and I said to the disciples of you, that it, they would throw out, and not, they were able.”

Now the one, having answered them, he says, “O generation, unbelieving, until when, toward you, I will be? Until when will I endure you? Bring him toward me.” And they brought him toward him. And having seen him, the spirit, immediately completely convulsed him, and having fallen upon the ground, he was rolling, foaming. And he questioned the father of him: “How much time is it as this has happened to him?”
Now the one said, “From childhood; and often, both into fire, him, it threw, also into waters, that it may destroy him; but on the contrary, if anything you are able, help us, having had compassion upon us.”

Now the Jesus said to him, “The, ‘if you are able’? All things, possible, to the one believing.”

Immediately, having cried out, the father of the child, he was saying, “I believe; help of me, the unbelief.”

Now having seen, the Jesus, that it is running together, a crowd, he rebuked the spirit, the unclean, saying to it, “The non-speaking and deaf spirit, I, myself, am commanding you, come out from him, and no more you may enter into him.” And having cried out, and much having convulsed, it came out; and he became as dead, so as the many, to say that he died. Now the Jesus, having grabbed the hand of him, he raised him, and he stood up.

And having entered, he, into a house, the disciples of him, according to their own, they were questioning him, “We, ourselves, not were able to throw out it?”

And he said to them, “This, the kind, in nothing, is able to come out, if not in prayer.”

The invention of the book was a significant one. And with a book one is able to compare different parts quite easily. The account of this healing in the Gospel according to Matthew also has only one historical present, but it is a different one. At the very end, when Jesus is teaching the disciples, that verb is in the present tense (Matthew 17:20). In the above text, Jesus may be said to be ‘attacking’ the unbelieving generation that is presently surrounding him.
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With these differences, you might want to compare this account to the living creature of the lion. And, when it comes to this text in the Gospel according to Matthew, that living creature is a man, a teacher. Both are important living creatures, and both point out significant tasks. Both continue to show Jesus’ important authority, referencing the throne that appears at the beginning of Ezekiel—but really present for all time.