Last week, we saw the radiant glory of Jesus on the mountaintop. This week, in Mark 9:14–29, we find Him stepping down into the valley—a place filled with confusion, chaos, and weak faith. The contrast is striking: on the mountain, a Father’s voice declared His pleasure in His Son; in the valley, a father pleads for the life of his son. The disciples who had just witnessed divine glory are now powerless against demonic darkness. Yet this is where Jesus chooses to go. He steps into the mess to reveal that His strength is not for the heights of human experience but for the depths of our need.

When the desperate father brings his demon-possessed boy to Jesus, he says, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus’ response is both firm and tender: “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” The father’s cry, “I believe; help my unbelief,” captures the honest tension of faith. True faith is not the absence of doubt but dependence on the One who never fails. It’s not the strength of our grip on Jesus that saves us—it’s the strength of His grip on us. Jesus meets weak, trembling faith with strong, unshakable grace.

Then, before the eyes of the crowd, Jesus rebukes the unclean spirit, saying, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” The boy convulses violently and appears dead. But Jesus takes him by the hand, lifts him up, and he arises. That word—“arises”—is the same word used for resurrection. In this moment, we glimpse the power of the gospel: Jesus not only delivers from evil, He raises the dead. He enters the darkness, confronts evil head-on, and restores life where there was none. The same Savior who lifted this child will soon be lifted on a cross to defeat sin and death forever.

Later, when the disciples ask why they couldn’t cast out the demon, Jesus tells them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” They had tried to act in their own strength, forgetting their dependence on Him. Prayer, Jesus reminds them, is the posture of true faith—it’s the expression of weakness leaning on divine power. The story ends not with the disciples’ failure but with Jesus’ victory. And that’s the point: our hope is not in the measure of our faith, but in the might of our Savior. In your weakness, bring your doubts, fears, and failures to Him—because the same hand that lifted that boy still lifts those who come in faith today.