I liked your homily. I was trying to understand what Jesus meant when he said “This kind can only be driven out by prayer”. I was thinking Jesus was referring to the boy’s father since the father’s comment was “l do believe, help my unbelief” that he needed more faith and trust. Your point that the diciples were trying to heal this with their own power was helpful.
Thank you.
Jim
Here’s an interesting commentary on that episode, entitled:
“Silent no more”
The healing of the epileptic boy raises questions as to how we are to read the healing miracles of Jesus. Matthew’s version of the boy’s condition includes a term that has superstitious overtones: σεληνιάζεται (from σεληνη, the moon.) The English equivalent is ‘moonstruck’ or “lunatic”. It suggests that someone is acting crazily under the influence of the moon! In Greece it’s often used in everyday language to describe someone acting strange. And it was not uncommon to be called σεληνιασμένος or be dismissed as “βρέ σεληνιασμένε!”
Matthew’s use of σεληνιάζεται suggests superstitious notions about the moon’s influence on madness. Mark’s version of this healing avoids the word σεληνιάζεται, but attributes the boy’s condition to a demon. The symptoms that Mark describes would today be regarded as epileptic seizures. So we have this medical condition being treated as demon possession and labeled by a word from popular superstition. Then, how literally are we to take Jesus’ when he says that if we have faith we could move a mountain? Even he never told a mountain to move! You want to give it a try?
Jesus was exaggerating, as he often did, to get them thinking. We cannot know whether Jesus himself saw this boy’s condition as demononic possession or connected to the moon’s phases. I like to think that all the talk of moon and demon were invented by the Gospel writers.
It raises the question I started with: How should we read the miracle stories of the Gospels? Are they just miracle stories to be taken at face value, or are there further meanings and messages that can inspire us in our own situations? Surely there are such meanings and messages in all the miracle stories, including the healing of the epileptic boy.
Mark reports this healing in greater detail than Matthew or Luke. Two moments in Mark’s version are notable: (1) When Jesus asked how long his boy had been like this, the father said, “From childhood.” (2) When Jesus challenged the father’s faith, the father cried out those famous words that still challeng us 2,000 years later: “I believe; help my unbelief!”
The key to the miracle is faith. For Matthew it is the weak faith of the disciples who could not cure the boy. Mark focuses on the faith of the boy’s father! This is vital, because the faith of the father is also our faith – or lack of faith.
The true demons, the powers that Jesus confronts are those that make us despair that real change,real spiritual growth is impossible. It’s no accident that this comes immediately after the transfiguration of Christ. Raphael’s painting of the Transfiguration includes the episode of the epileptic boy underneath. While Jesus is transfigured on the mountain, failed attempts are made to heal the boy down below. (click to enlarge)
Back in the 1960s and 70s it was common to hear about the “silent majority.” Or, perhaps it’s more correct to say, the silenCED majority. We are the silenced majority when we don’t have enough faith in the power of the transfiguration, which is the power to fill our lives and our planet with the holiness and light of Christ. We are the silenced majority when we believe that the forces for evil are just too strong for anyone to conquer. That was the father’s problem. And Jesus gave him voice for the first time: “I believe, help my unbelief!” That was the turning point. And it’s the turning point for every one of us too.
Be silent no more. We believe; Lord, help our unbelief! https://ancientanswers.org/tag/healing-of-epileptic-boy/
Pat Rogers
I liked your homily. I was trying to understand what Jesus meant when he said “This kind can only be driven out by prayer”. I was thinking Jesus was referring to the boy’s father since the father’s comment was “l do believe, help my unbelief” that he needed more faith and trust. Your point that the diciples were trying to heal this with their own power was helpful.
Thank you.
Jim
Here’s an interesting commentary on that episode, entitled:
“Silent no more”
The healing of the epileptic boy raises questions as to how we are to read the healing miracles of Jesus. Matthew’s version of the boy’s condition includes a term that has superstitious overtones: σεληνιάζεται (from σεληνη, the moon.) The English equivalent is ‘moonstruck’ or “lunatic”. It suggests that someone is acting crazily under the influence of the moon! In Greece it’s often used in everyday language to describe someone acting strange. And it was not uncommon to be called σεληνιασμένος or be dismissed as “βρέ σεληνιασμένε!”
Matthew’s use of σεληνιάζεται suggests superstitious notions about the moon’s influence on madness. Mark’s version of this healing avoids the word σεληνιάζεται, but attributes the boy’s condition to a demon. The symptoms that Mark describes would today be regarded as epileptic seizures. So we have this medical condition being treated as demon possession and labeled by a word from popular superstition. Then, how literally are we to take Jesus’ when he says that if we have faith we could move a mountain? Even he never told a mountain to move! You want to give it a try?
Jesus was exaggerating, as he often did, to get them thinking. We cannot know whether Jesus himself saw this boy’s condition as demononic possession or connected to the moon’s phases. I like to think that all the talk of moon and demon were invented by the Gospel writers.
It raises the question I started with: How should we read the miracle stories of the Gospels? Are they just miracle stories to be taken at face value, or are there further meanings and messages that can inspire us in our own situations? Surely there are such meanings and messages in all the miracle stories, including the healing of the epileptic boy.
Mark reports this healing in greater detail than Matthew or Luke. Two moments in Mark’s version are notable: (1) When Jesus asked how long his boy had been like this, the father said, “From childhood.” (2) When Jesus challenged the father’s faith, the father cried out those famous words that still challeng us 2,000 years later: “I believe; help my unbelief!”
The key to the miracle is faith. For Matthew it is the weak faith of the disciples who could not cure the boy. Mark focuses on the faith of the boy’s father! This is vital, because the faith of the father is also our faith – or lack of faith.
The true demons, the powers that Jesus confronts are those that make us despair that real change,real spiritual growth is impossible. It’s no accident that this comes immediately after the transfiguration of Christ. Raphael’s painting of the Transfiguration includes the episode of the epileptic boy underneath. While Jesus is transfigured on the mountain, failed attempts are made to heal the boy down below. (click to enlarge)
Back in the 1960s and 70s it was common to hear about the “silent majority.” Or, perhaps it’s more correct to say, the silenCED majority. We are the silenced majority when we don’t have enough faith in the power of the transfiguration, which is the power to fill our lives and our planet with the holiness and light of Christ. We are the silenced majority when we believe that the forces for evil are just too strong for anyone to conquer. That was the father’s problem. And Jesus gave him voice for the first time: “I believe, help my unbelief!” That was the turning point. And it’s the turning point for every one of us too.
Be silent no more. We believe; Lord, help our unbelief!
https://ancientanswers.org/tag/healing-of-epileptic-boy/
Pat Rogers