There is an incident in Luke 9 where a man brings his son, who has an unclean spirit that causes the boy to fall down and foam at the mouth. As the father begs Jesus to heal the boy, he states:
"I begged Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not.”
What, there is something that the disciples cannot do? These are men that have been with Jesus. They have witnessed his miracles and heard his teachings. They had even gone out and done some of the same themselves, as is told in the beginning of this 9th chapter. But then, they could not....
I have an assignment for this small group of men that I meet with at church. I am supposed to pick out a moment in my quiet times, before our next meeting, where I sense that God is speaking to me and then answer the questions:
"What is He saying?"
"What am I going to do about it?"
Now it is not going to make me look good in front of these other men if I have to say "I did not hear anything". If each of them can answer the questions with great spiritual insight, and I have nothing to say, where does that put me?
According to Luke, in this narrative, Jesus heals the boy, and then, as the people around are amazed at the miracle, this happens:
"But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples, 44 “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this statement."
The disciples heard what Jesus said, they heard the words, but did not comprehend the meaning, because God saw fit to conceal it from them. Those 12 men wanted to heal the boy, no doubt, and they also wanted to understand what Jesus was telling them, but they could not. Was there a greater reason than their "I want to"?
Is "saving face" a valid reason for wanting to do anything?
Did God just speak?
What will I do about that now?
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