Mark 9:14-29

Go Deep

(Mark 9:14-29)

Read the story in Mark 9:1-29. This passage contains allusions to the Book of Exodus, particularly Israel’s time at Sinai. See how many you can find. What did Mark intend readers to gain from this connection to Exodus?

Read 2 Peter 1:16-18 in the light of this story. What effect might Peter’s experience on the mountain have made on him?

After the remarkable experience on the mountain, Jesus and his disciples returned to a scene of confusion and clamor. Do you think the transition from spiritual high to earthly woe is common for believers? How can a person carry the benefit of the “high” into the “valley”?

Read Jesus’s remark in verse 19. What do you make of this?

How do you think the father’s faith fared when he brought his son to Jesus’s representatives and they not only could not help, but got into an argument with the religious professionals?

Read verse 22. How would you characterize the father’s faith at his point?

Read v. 23. What do we learn about faith in this passage?

Read verse 24. Does this father believer or not? Can a person believe and not believe – have belief and unbelief – at the same time?

What can a person do who realizes that he or she has real unbelief in heart or mind?

Read verse 26. If you had been the dad, how would you feel at this moment? What would you be thinking?

Do answers to prayer always look like we expect them to look when they are first given?

Read verses 28 and 29. Jesus’s disciples are genuinely confused about why they could not cast out the spirit. Why does Jesus answer as he does? How does his answer apply to us? How can we act on it?