“You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
Mark 9:10,20
Art Linkletter[1] pioneered both radio and television with a game show called “People Are Funny[2].” If they were to resurrect that show today, they’d have to rename it to “People Are Angry.”
Everywhere you turn, people are angry and frustrated. Whether it’s waiting at a red light. Standing at the deli counter. Trying to add sweetener and cream to your coffee while people you don’t know are pressing in, breathing, and coughing on you without masks. Yes, people are angry.
If you want to do something to take the edge off of feeling good, then watch TV where there is a cornucopia of shows that are all designed to amp-up your frustration. And yet, if you want grow your frustration even more, click onto the internet and watch people with a wild assortment of bloggers from around the planet. I promise you; you will not just be frustrated a little bit. No, your internal anger and frustration will be pushed to new heights.
With the levels of frustration pushing ever upwards, people are looking for ways to cope. So, why not look to someone who had his life all together to see how he coped with frustration.
Jesus has just literally come down from a once-in-a-lifetime mountaintop experience. God the Father verbally identified him as His Son, the one who God loved above everyone else. From this high, Jesus is thrown into the teeth of an argument the likes of which you’ve probably never encountered.
We have all these people yelling and disagreeing with one another.
· We have a deeply disappointed father who wants his son to be healed.
· We have the disillusioned disciples who have thrown out demons in the past but just can’t seem to get it done on this day, with this demon.
· We have the delighted teachers of the law who are beside themselves at the failure of the disciples.
Talk about frustration.
Jesus doesn’t bottle it up inside. He doesn’t take a pill, drink a beer, hit a punching bag, kick the dog, yell at the wife and kids. No. He does something that most people today refuse to do.
He faced the problem and people face-to-face. There was no backdoor diplomacy, no backstabbing gossip, no blabbering on and on about how it hurt him. No.
He comes right out and tells them their problem. And it’s a big problem too – unbelief. These people were without faith. And the “these people” included the father, the disciples, the teachers of the law. No one was left out.
The result of their unbelief was the frustration Jesus had. They had everything they needed to have faith in him. But they just refused. He was face-to-face not just with them, but face-to-face with their unbelief.
To this ongoing lack of faith, Jesus’ response was consistently standing tall, straight, and true for who God was. Jesus also was consistent about who he was, and how we’re to arrange our words and life to align with him. Jesus never took a word back, or corrected himself, or said that he could have done something better or different.
If anyone on planet Earth deserves to be frustrated, it’s Jesus. Frustrated with us. Frustrated with you. Frustrated with me. And while he spoke about his frustration, he didn’t lash out at them. He doesn’t lash out at you. He doesn’t lash out at me.
He is God, and God does not change. He’s not fickle, he’s always consistent. He’s the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow.
Hebrews 13:8
He’s exactly the kind of stability we so desperately need at this hour. While the world seems like it's spinning out of control, we need a rock to stand on. A rock to cling to. A rock to protect us.
And that rock is Jesus.
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