Mark 9:23

If Thou canst Believe - This was an answer to the inquiry above. I can furnish a sufficiency of power, if thou canst but bring faith to receive it. Why are not our souls completely healed? Why is not every demon cast out? Why are not pride, self-will, love of the world, lust, anger, peevishness, with all the other bad tempers and dispositions which constitute the mind of Satan, entirely destroyed? Alas! it is because we do not believe; Jesus is able; more, Jesus is willing; but we are not willing to give up our idols; we give not credence to his word; therefore hath sin a being in us, and dominion over us.

THIRD EXPLICIT AND STILL FULLER ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS APPROACHING SUFFERINGS, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION--THE AMBITIOUS REQUEST OF JAMES AND JOHN, AND THE REPLY. ( = Mat 20:17-28; Luk 18:31-34). (Mar 10:32-45) And they were in the way--on the road. going up to Jerusalem--in Perea, and probably somewhere between Ephraim and Jericho, on the farther side of the Jordan, and to the northeast of Jerusalem. and Jesus went before them--as GROTIUS says, in the style of an intrepid Leader. and they were amazed--or "struck with astonishment" at His courage in advancing to certain death. and as they followed, they were afraid--for their own safety. These artless, lifelike touches--not only from an eye-witness, but one whom the noble carriage of the Master struck with wonder and awe--are peculiar to Mark, and give the second Gospel a charm all its own; making us feel as if we ourselves were in the midst of the scenes it describes. Well might the poet exclaim: "The Saviour, what a noble flame Was kindled in His breast, When, hasting to Jerusalem, He march'd before the rest!" COWPER And he took again the twelve--referring to His previous announcements on this sad subject. and began to tell them what things should happen unto him--"were going to befall Him." The word expresses something already begun but not brought to a head, rather than something wholly future.

Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe,.... As the man put an "if" on the power of Christ, Christ puts an "if" on the faith of the man; and tacitly suggests, that power was not wanting in himself, but faith in him; and should that cure not be performed, it would not be owing to any inability in him, but to his own incredulity. The Arabic version renders it, "what is this thy: saying, if thou canst do any thing?" What dost thou mean by it? Thou oughtest not to doubt of my power; there is no reason for it, after so many miracles wrought; upbraiding the man with his unbelief; and the Ethiopic version renders it thus, "because thou sayest, if thou canst": wherefore to show that power was not wanting in him, provided he had but faith, it follows, all things are possible to him that believeth; that is, "to be done" to him, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions supply: for all things are not possible to be done by the believer himself, but all things are possible to be done for him, by God, or Christ, or the Spirit of God: thus our Lord, as he elsewhere does, ascribes that to faith, which is done by a divine power.

In this chapter, we have, I. Christ's transfiguration upon the mount (Mar 9:1-13). II. His casting the devil out of a child, when the disciples could not do it (v. 14-29). III. His prediction of his own sufferings and death (Mar 9:30-32). IV. The check he gave to his disciples for disputing who should be greatest (Mar 9:33-37); and to John for rebuking one who cast out devils in Christ's name, and did not follow with them (v. 38-41). V. Christ's discourse with his disciples of the danger of offending one of his little ones (v. 42), and of indulging that in ourselves, which is an offence and an occasion of sin to us (v. 43-50), most of which passages we had before, Mt. 17 and 18.

9:23 Jesus challenged the man to believe in the power of God—Anything is possible if a person believes (see 11:22-24), while lack of faith can hinder God’s saving activity (see 6:5).