" All things are possible to him who believes.”

Leviticus 21:16-24   Mark 9:14-29 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

¹⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “Speak to Aaron, saying, ‘No man of your offspring throughout their generations who has a defect shall approach to offer the food of his God. ¹⁸ For no one who has a defect shall approach: a blind man, or a lame man, or he who has a disfigured face, or any deformed limb, ¹⁹ or a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye or eczema or scabs or crushed testicles. ²¹ No man among the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a defect is to come near to offer the Lord’s offerings by fire; since he has a defect, he shall not come near to offer the food of his God. ²² He may eat the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy, ²³ only he shall not go in to the veil or come near the altar because he has a defect, so that he will not profane My sanctuaries. For I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’” ²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel.

¹⁴ When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. ¹⁵ Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. ¹⁶ And He asked them, “What are you discussing with them?” ¹⁷ And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; ¹⁸ and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” ¹⁹ And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” ²⁰ They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. ²¹ And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. ²² It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” ²³ And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” ²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” ²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” ²⁶ After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. ²⁸ When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” ²⁹ And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

Under the old covenant, before Jesus paid the price on the cross for our redemption, reconciliation and restoration, sinful man could not come into the presence of God. In Exodus 33:20, when Moses asked to see God, God answered: "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!" In today’s text we see regulations concerning the priests who would minister in the temple. Any priest who had a physical defect was not permitted to minister in the presence of God. Verse 23 says:   ”he shall not go in to the veil or come near the altar because he has a defect, so that he will not profane My sanctuaries. For I am the Lord who sanctifies them.” So neither sin nor physical defects, deformity or disease could be in the presence of God, inside the veil.

When Jesus was on the cross, when He completed the work of redemption, reconciliation and restoration, Matthew 27:51 says:    the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.   Jesus said, “It is finished” and the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. The finished work of the cross made it no longer necessary for man to be separated from God. In Christ we are no longer seen as sinful, we are redeemed and reconciled to God. Sin no longer separates us, Jesus sacrifice on the cross paid the price for sin, once for all. When Jesus ministered on the earth He often combined the forgiveness of sin with healing. In Mark 2:5-12 we see an account of people bringing a paralyzed man into the presence of Jesus, a man with a deformity or defect, a man who would have been denied access to God under the old covenant.

⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.

Jesus equated the forgiveness of sin, redemption, with healing and restoration. He came to redeem, reconcile and restore. Today much of the church only recognizes part of the finished work of the cross. Many believe that Jesus came to provide forgiveness for sin. They believe that  the torn veil allows man access to the presence of God because we are forgiven. We need to understand and accept all that we possess in Christ. We often hear it said when a believer who struggled with sickness and disease dies that they are finally healed. In heaven, in the presence of God they no longer suffer with the affects of sickness. That’s true and that’s wonderful and comforting, but the whole truth is that because of the finished work of the cross the healing, the restoration is already complete in heaven. We don’t see the manifestation of it here on earth. That after all is what a miracle is, it is the circumstances here on earth aligning with the finished work of the cross, the realities of heaven. That’s why Jesus says we are to pray; Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Our prayer is that the things of earth will come into alignment with the realities of heaven, through the finished work of the cross.

In today’s text in Mark we see an account of Jesus healing a child who the disciples were unable to heal.   , “From childhood. ²² It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” ²³ And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” ²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” ²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” ²⁶ After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. ²⁸ When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” ²⁹ And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

Two things stand out in this account: To the boy’s father Jesus says:  “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”       And to His disciples He says: “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”    In Mark 11:22-24 Jesus says:   “Have faith in God. ²³ Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. ²⁴ Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.       Most believers will agree that prayer changes things. But if we will come to a better understanding of what and how things are changed we will see more of the manifestations of the realities of heaven here on earth. When we pray we not only put ourselves in alignment with the will of the Father, but we also locate ourselves in the presence of Jesus and the Father. Romans 8:34 says: Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.    Jesus says:  “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:19-20) When we pray, not only does our will become aligned with God’s but our spiritual location also changes, we are in Christ’s presence. Not only does our location change but also like the ones who lowered their friend into the presence of Jesus, when we pray and intercede for others, we also bring them into the presence of Christ.

Jesus says: “all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” If we do not have the faith to believe may we at least, like the father of the boy say:   “I do believe; help my unbelief.”  Prayer changes things. It brings us into alignment with God and it brings the circumstances of this earth into alignment with the realities of heaven.

Thank You Lord Jesus Christ, my Redeemer and Restorer for the finished work of the cross, which forgives my sin, reconciles me to the presence of God the Father and restores all things to God’s will. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen