Beyond the Limits

Mark 9:21

Why is Mark 9:21 significant?

 The Gospel of Mark is traditionally the second of the New Testament Gospel, ascribed to Mark the Evangelist. It narrates the life of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to his resurrection, but it concentrates particularly on the last week of his life.

In this passage, the disciples are arguing with several teachers surrounded by a crowd. Jesus asks what is going on and a man says he brought his possessed boy for Jesus to heal. The boy "...foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid." The man says the boy has been made to fall both into water and fire by the demon. Jesus' followers could not heal him. He commands the boy be brought to him. The father begs Jesus to help the boy if he can, to which Jesus replies ""Everything is possible for him who believes." and the man says he does believe it can be done and then Jesus heals the boy.

In this passage, Jesus’ words do not mean that we can have anything that we want by simply wishing for it to happen. Jesus meant that anything is possible with God, and if we truly , then he will kindly grant our request.

Believing isn’t easy... oftentimes believing involves changing old habits and dutifully performing a lot of hard work. This kind of belief is the kind that God rewards.