Luk 9:40 | KingComments | STEP | The Lord has been with His disciples for (a part of) a day and a night on the mountain. Peter had wanted to stay there, but the glory was not yet definite there. They have to go down again. There a large crowd meets the Lord. On the mountain there was undisturbed glory. At the foot of the mountain there is hopeless distress and misery due to the present power of satan. It is the difference between heaven and earth. We also know this experience. We can have moments of undisturbed fellowship with the Lord when we read His Word or listen to it in a meeting. We forget everything around us and see the Lord Jesus in His glory. Then we have to return to everyday life and are confronted with the misery and need, either of ourselves or of people around us. Yet even then the Lord is there and He can be called, as this father does from the crowd. He calls upon the Lord because of his only begotten son. He asks Him to “look at” his son, that is, to look in compassion and offer help. It is calling for the Lord’s favor. Mary uses the same word in her song of praise when she says that God, her Savior, “has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave“ ( ). ‘Regard for’ has the meaning of ‘look at’. Thus God, our Savior in Christ, still looks in compassion at people in their humiliation and need to offer help. The man has a son he isn’t able to control, over whom he has lost control. The boy is in the power of a spirit, an unclean spirit, that controls him. The man sees its effect in the behavior of his boy, which he describes openly to the Lord. He does not paint an edifying picture of his child: screaming, convulsing, foaming. He is desperate. The father has no choice but to stand by helplessly as his boy is being abused. But now the Lord Jesus is there, that is to say His disciples, for the Lord was on the mountain. The father has thought that His disciples could deliver his son. He has begged the disciples to cast out the spirit from his son. They tried it, but they couldn’t. They had no authority over the demon. Previously the Lord had given them this power and authority ( ), and they had used it, but now they lacked the necessary faith. The Lord can entrust us with a gift, but there must also be fellowship with Him to exercise that gift. Apparently the nine disciples left behind were as ‘sleepy’ as the three on the mountain. They had forgotten Who the Lord is and what He had given them. As followers of the Lord we often disappoint people who expect certain things from us as His followers. We confess to follow and serve a Lord Who gives outcome in distress. Then we raise certain expectations with people. If they call on us, how do we respond? It is not a question of being able to solve all the needs that exist. The Lord has not done so either. The question is whether we are attentive and sympathetic to people in need, to go together with them to the Lord. If we try it by ourselves, the disappointment will be great. Fortunately, the Lord Jesus comes at the right moment from the mountain and the father calls Him. The Lord is indignant because of the lack of faith among His disciples. He calls them an “unbelieving … generation” and asks Himself how long He will be with them, how long He will be able to deal with those who show so little faith. His patience with unbelief will have an end. To the father He says to bring his son “here”, that is to Him. The demon doesn’t like to come near the Lord Jesus, but he also knows that he cannot escape the power of Christ. Before the demon is cast out, he will make every effort to cause the boy as much damage as possible. The Lord rebukes the unclean spirit. Then He also heals the child because he suffered a lot from the demon. He then gives the child back to his father. Also here He restores the parent-child relationship ( ). The father gets a new chance to take care of his son. We don’t know how the boy got the unclean spirit. However, we can make an application for today. Many parents do not know what their children see of pornographic pictures and magazines and movies. As a result, the impurity enters the child and it will show uncontrolled behavior. It can get out of hand in such a way that the child is no longer controllable. When parents are near despair, they can take refuge to the Lord Jesus for their children. It is never too late for that.