Demons

The Teacher’s Dilemma and the Possessed Boy

One of the most overlooked aspects of the possessed boy narrative in Gospel of Matthew 17 and Gospel of Mark 9 is not the miracle itself, but the structure of responsibility surrounding it. The passage is usually interpreted as a straightforward lesson about the disciples’ lack of faith. The disciples failed to cast out the demon, Jesus rebuked them for weak faith, and then privately explained that prayer was necessary. This reading is common, simple, and not entirely wrong. Yet it leaves behind a number of uncomfortable details in the story that deserve closer attention.

The Rabbi Did Not Shame Us

The dust had already begun to rise before I understood that the situation was beyond us.

At first it looked like so many other cases. A desperate father. A suffering child. The usual gathering of faces around misery, half curious and half frightened. We had seen sickness before. We had prayed over the crippled, comforted the grieving, even watched the Rabbi restore people whom others had already abandoned. Somewhere along the road I had begun to believe that perhaps we too had changed—that perhaps some part of His authority now rested upon us in a way we ourselves could wield.

Demons