Healing of the Demon-Possessed Boy
14At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said,
15“Lord, have mercy on my son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water.
16So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”
17Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.”
18Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.
19Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”
20“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
21After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.
14When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them.
15When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him.
16“What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked.
17One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk.
18And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”
19Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.
21“How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was a little boy.
22The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
23“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
24The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
25When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”
26Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.”
27But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
28Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
29Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”
37The next day, after they had come down the mountain, a large crowd met Jesus.
38A man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, my only child.
39An evil spirit keeps seizing him, making him scream. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It batters him and hardly ever leaves him alone.
40I begged your disciples to cast out the spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”
41Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you and put up with you?” Then he said to the man, “Bring your son here.”
42As the boy came forward, the demon knocked him to the ground and threw him into a violent convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and healed the boy. Then he gave him back to his father.
43Awe gripped the people as they saw this majestic display of God’s power. While everyone was marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples,