The Only Child
37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great multitude met him. 38 Behold, a man from the crowd called out, saying, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only born child. 39 Behold, a spirit takes him, he suddenly cries out, and it convulses him so that he foams; and it hardly departs from him, bruising him severely. 40 I begged your disciples to cast it out, and they couldn’t.” 41 Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” 42 While he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him violently. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. 43 They were all astonished at the majesty of God. But while all were marveling at all the things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples, 44 “Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man will be delivered up into the hands of men.” 45 But they didn’t understand this saying. It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
At the foot of the mountain a father is waiting whom the nine could not help — and the crowd's applause is answered with the cross.
On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great multitude met him.
The descent is immediate and the contrast is deliberate: glory on the summit, failure at the bottom. The scene is told at length in the earliest account Mark 9:1–29.
Behold, a man from the crowd called out, saying, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only born child.
The word is this writer's again — an only son, as at Nain and in Jairus's house. He has now recorded three, and all three are given back.
The father's description is a catalogue of what he has watched: the seizures, the crying out, the foaming, the bruising, and the phrase it hardly departs from him Luke 9:39. This is a man who has seen everything there is to see and is describing it accurately to a stranger.
I begged your disciples to cast it out, and they couldn’t.”
He tried the delegation first. They had been given authority over exactly this a chapter earlier Luke 9:1, and had used it successfully.
Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”
The weariness is aimed at a generation rather than at the father, who is not rebuked at any point in the account.
While he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him violently. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.
The last clause is this Gospel's, and it is the same phrase used at Nain Luke 7:15. The healing is not complete until the child is back in the right arms.
They were all astonished at the majesty of God. But while all were marveling at all the things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples,
The placement is everything. At the peak of public enthusiasm — the crowd astonished, everyone marveling — he turns aside to the twelve and says the one thing nobody wants to hear.
“Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man will be delivered up into the hands of men.”
The preface is unusual and urgent: put this somewhere it will stay. And the saying is stripped to its hardest clause, with no resurrection attached this time.
But they didn’t understand this saying. It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
Three failures in one verse, and the account is unsparing. They did not understand; it was hidden from them; and they did not ask. The last is the only one that was theirs to fix.
settled What this mark means