The present article, archived at Suite101 seeks to explain the four rules previously mentioned using Mk. 9:14-29.
The present article seeks to illustrate the four rules outlined previously by a reading of a story from Mark's Gospel.
Before proceeding with this article, I would ask the guest to first, download the New American Bible text of Mark 9:14-29 and then, read it intelligently by
- identifying the setting (with special attention to transitions)
- identifying the principal actors
- identifying the action performed and by whom
The context of the story: Application of Rule 1. The episode is found within a sub-section called: "The Mystery Begins To Be Revealed" which contains the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah (through Peter), the two pronouncements regarding his destiny as the Suffering Messiah, and the Transfiguration. The sub-section ends with a statement about the death and resurrection of Jesus -- a statement that the disciples failed to understand and did not question him about because of fear. The immediate context of the episode is the Transfiguration and explains why Jesus was separated from the group of disciples who were approached first for the healing of the possessed boy. This is discernible from the way the NAB divides the story into parts (see the NAB Introduction) and from the subheadings provided.
Highlights of the story. One immediately senses that this is not an ordinary story about an exorcism. There are too many new elements here that sets the story off from the preceding exorcisms involving Jesus:
- The exasperated reaction of Jesus in v. 19 which reflects some kind of impatience regarding his disciples' lack of faith. The sarcastic remark of Jesus in v. should also be noted.
- The conversation between Jesus and the boy's father who speaks for the crowd in answer to Jesus' query in v. 16, and from whom Jesus learns about the boy's years of enslavement to the mute spirit. From the father, Jesus learns of the incapability of the disciples to expel the evil spirit (these were the same disciples who have been commissioned to exorcise, see...) and the boy's pitiful condition.
- The resistance offered by the unclean spirit and the violence with which he left the boy. It was as if the spirit had so completely possessed the boy that when it finally leaves him, the boy "died."
- The explanation of why the disciples were unable to drive out the unclean spirit makes the event of the demon-possessed boy similar to a parable that Jesus had to clarify in private for his associates. For one who works in association with Jesus then, the episode becomes an object lesson about the necessity of prayer.
For the intuitive reader: Application of Rules 3 and 4. If the reader has noticed one or any of the points above after reading the story, then that would already be enough to be a starting point for prayer and reflection. One can for example dwell with the passages where the father explains to Jesus his reason for being there, and to ask the Lord with his voice to increase one's capacity to believe. "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." can at this point be used as a kind of prayer mantra, that can express our own need to be strengthened in the faith. For one who is associated with the various ministries of the Church, especially that of healing, the resistance of the unclean spirit and the violence with which it manifests its control over its victim should become a warning that without faith and prayer, no Church ministry can truly be liberating and life-giving. The sarcasm of Jesus in this story, and his impatience at the slowness of his disciples to learn and understand from him, merely underscores the importance that He places on faith and prayer.
Overcoming a snag: Application of Rule 2. But what if after reading the text, and following the instructions I gave above, the reader is still unable to grasp the message of the story? Then the notes provided by the NAB should become a prompt for a closer inspection of the story. Remember that explanatory notes have as their goal the understanding of the biblical passage, they can never substitute for the text of Scriptures. At most they can only serve as a goad that draw our attention to something that we may have missed. Here, the explanatory note of the NAB is terse but informative:
"9. 14-29: The disciples' failure to effect a cure seems to reflect unfavorably on Jesus (14-18). In response, he exposes their lack of trust in God (19) and scores their neglect of prayer, i.e. of the conscious reliance on God's power when acting in Jesus' name. Mark and Matthew (17,14-18) concur on this point; Luke (9, 37-43) centers attention on Jesus' sovereign power."
There are two parts in this explanation. The first part deals with what can already be gained from a reading of the text: that the disciples were not able to heal the possessed boy because of their lack of prayer, the sarcasm and impatience of Jesus, and the resistance of the unclean spirit. The second part of the explanation shows the story as it appears in two other versions of it, i.e., in Matthew and Luke. We set aside the second part of the explanation for a more advanced topic (the synoptic gospels). Let us concentrate on the first part.
Taking notes. One of the nice things about explanatory notes in both NAB and the JB is that they have been written by Bible experts. Like lessons from a text book, they can be memorized and used as mental references for subsequent rereadings of the Scriptures. The definition that is given of prayer in the note given above -- "Prayer is... the conscious reliance on God's power when acting in Jesus' name" -- can draw the reader's attention to many passages in Mark and in the other gospels on the need for prayer. Specifically, it should draw the reader's attention to Mk. 9:29: "This one can only be driven out by prayer" and from there, to the other points of the story I have mentioned above.
Notice that in this illustration, the examination of the explanatory note comes as a last resort in the understanding of the story of the possessed boy in Mark 9:14-29. The actual reading of the gospel story itself already takes into account the "Introduction to the Gospel of Mark" as found in the NAB, some remembrance of what episodes went before the story being read, and the reader's personal assessment of the story's flow and the relationship among its component parts (the grammar and the syntax). Obviously, the amount of data that the reader can gain from his/her reading of the gospel story, at this level, will depend much on many factors: the relative familiarity he/she has with the the Gospels in particular and the whole Bible in general, his/her ability to think in the language used for the modern translation used, previous experience in reading and reflecting on the Scriptures, his/her mind's "connaturality" with the Bible, (Let us not forget even the way the Spirit is working him or her at a given moment),etc... It is precisely when unassisted intelligent reading fails us where supplementary materials -- such as your Bible's explanatory notes -- must be used in order to facilitate the mind's grasp of the realities hidden in the rich soil of the Divine Scriptures.
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