Chapter 9:14-29 All Things Possible

9:14 And when He came to His disciples, He saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them.

and the Scribes questioning with them - disputing and contending with them about their master, His doctrines and miracles, and their mission and authority from Him;

9:15 And straightway all the people, when they beheld Him, were greatly amazed, and running to Him saluted Him.

and running to Him, saluted Him - expressing their great joy at His coming to them;

9:16 And He asked the scribes, What question ye with them?
what question ye with them? - what is it ye seek and require of them?

9:17And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto Thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;

A dumb spirit - That is, a demon who afflicted those in whom it dwelt with an incapacity of speaking.

9:18 And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to Thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.

Pineth away - By these continual torments; so he was not only deaf and dumb, but sorely tortured besides.

9:19 He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto Me.

That is a grand piece of advice, and a blessed word of permit — “Bring him unto Me.”

9:20 And they brought him unto Him: and when he saw Him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.

When this demon saw Jesus, he had great rage, knowing that his time was short; and hence the extraordinary convulsions mentioned above.

9:21 And He asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.

We are all by nature children of disobedience, 

--and in such the evil spirit works, and has done so from our childhood; 

--for foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, 

--and nothing but the mighty grace of Christ can cast it out.

9:22 And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if Thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.

Have compassion on us, and help us - Catching at His words, “If thou canst do anything,”....

9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

all things are possible to him that believeth; that is, "to be done" to him.

9:24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.

Help mine unbelief, help me to a pardon for it, help me with power against it; help out what is wanting in my faith with Thy grace, the strength of which is perfected in our weakness.

9:25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

I charge thee - Considerable emphasis should be laid on the pronoun: - Thou didst resist the command of My disciples, now I command thee to come out. 

*If this had been only a natural disease, as some have argued, could our Lord have addressed it, with any propriety, as He has done here?

9:26 And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.

Note, Whom Christ cures, He cures effectually. How the unclean spirit took it; he grew yet more outrageous, he cried, and rent him sore, gave him such a twitch at parting, that he was as one dead; so loth was he to quit his hold, so exasperated at the superior power of Christ, so malicious to the child, and so desirous was he to kill him.

This demon may be considered as an emblem 

of deeply rooted vices, and inveterate habits.

9:27 But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.

Jesus took him by the hand, kratēsas - took fast hold of him, and strongly bore him up, and he arose and recovered, and all was well.

9:28 And when He was come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, Why could not we cast him out?

His disciples asked Him privately, why could not we cast him out? The disciples, who were particularly concerned in this matter, fearing they had lost the power of casting out devils, conferred upon them, inquired of Jesus, when He was alone, why they could not cast the demon out of the child, when they had ejected unclean spirits out of many others;

9:29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.

There are some things, which we are not fit to do until we have drawn very near to God, and have been deeply humbled, and, with sincere repentance, and the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit, have been cleansed so as to receive so great a boon.

Chapter 9:1-13 The Transfiguration

9:1 And He said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power - When Jesus was declared both Lord and Christ, by the wonderful effusion of the Holy Spirit; the Gospel spread in the world both among Jews and Gentiles, in spite of all opposition, under the power and influence of the grace of God, to the conversion of thousands of souls; and that branch of Christ's regal power exerted in the destruction of the Jewish nation.

9:2 And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and He was transfigured before them.

By themselves - That is, separate from the multitude.

9:3 And His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

White as snow, such as no fuller can whiten - Such as could not be equalled either by nature or art.

9:4 And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus.

And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses - Or Moses and Elijah.

9:5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias - Luke adds, "not knowing what he said";.....he spoke as a mistaken man, being ignorant of the design of this appearance; which was, not that this glory should continue, only that should be an emblem and pledge of what was future; and besides, he was wrong in putting these two men upon an equal foot with Christ.

9:6 For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.

For he wist not what to say - He did not know what he should say, or what was proper to be said by him, at such a time, in such circumstances.

9:7 And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son: hear Him.

There was a cloud that overshadowed them, and was a shelter to them. And a voice came out the cloud, saying, this is My beloved Son, hear Him. - This was the voice of God the Father, bearing a testimony to the sonship of Christ.

9:8 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.

The vision, being designed only to introduce the voice, when that was delivered, disappeared; Suddenly when they had looked round about, as men amazed to see where they were, all was gone, they saw no man any more. Elias and Moses were vanished out of sight, and Jesus only remained with them, and He not transfigured, but as He used to be.

9:9 And as they came down from the mountain, He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.

He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen; on the mount, as the transfiguration of Himself, the persons of Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud from whence the voice came, which bore testimony of Christ's sonship: He ordered to keep the whole of this a secret from every man, even from their fellow disciples till the Son of man were risen from the dead.

9:10 And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.

questioning with one other what the rising from the dead should mean - they inquired, disputed, and reasoned with one another, what should be the meaning of such an expression: not that they were ignorant of the general resurrection of the dead; for this was the hope of Israel, and the general sense of the Jewish nation: but they did not know what he meant by His particular rising from the dead: whether He meant it in a literal sense, which supposed His death; and that though He had lately told them of, they knew not how to reconcile to the notions they had of a long and flourishing temporal kingdom of the Messiah.

9:11 And they asked Him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come?

And they asked Him, saying - Being put in mind of it, by seeing Elias on the mount, or else by what Christ had said concerning His resurrection, or both: why say the Scribes, the Vulgate Latin adds, "and Pharisees", that Elias must first come? before the Messiah comes;

9:12 And He answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of man, that He must suffer many things, and be set at nought.

and how it is written of the son of man, that He must suffer many things, and be set at nought -  The sense of Christ is, that John the Baptist, whom he means by Elias, comes first, and restores all things: and among the rest of the things he sets right, this is one, and not of the least; namely, that He gives the true sense of such passages of the sacred writings, which related to the contemptuous usage, rejection, and sufferings of the Messiah; as that in these He was the Lamb of God typified in the sacrifices of the law, who by His sufferings and death takes away the sin of the world; and therefore He exhorted and directed those to whom He ministered, to look unto Him, and believe in Him.

9:13 But I say unto you, That Elias is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.

But I say unto you, that Elias is indeed come - Meaning John the Baptist.