"EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE FOR ONE WHO BELIEVES" FAITH AND HEALING IN THE NT

The evangelist's remark in Mark 6:5-6, that Jesus could not do any powerful deeds and that he was amazed with their unbelief, has often been interpreted as saying that faith is a condition for miraculous divine intervention.11 Several observations must be made, however. The remark cannot be taken as an absolute statement of limited ability to heal, for that clearly goes against what Jesus says on more than one occasion in the gospel of Mark (9:23; 11:23-25). Rather, this means that it was not in accordance with Jesus' purposes to perform any miracles there. Nevertheless, he did perform a few, healing some sick people. If the point were simply that only those who had faith could be healed, the evangelist could have said so. The picture he draws, however, is of a town where he is not received in faith, and, consequently, he does not make a big showing of miracles there. The unbelief, however, is not predicated of the individuals seeking to be healed, that they did not have sufficient faith to be healed, but of the city of Nazareth collectively. There appears to be a corporate liability connected with the reprobate nature of the townspeople (cf. Matt 11:21; Luke 10:13). Their unbelief does not mean that they did not believe that Jesus had miracle working power (which is what faith normally refers to in the gospel of Mark). They did acknowledge the great works and they were amazed (6:2), but their unbelief was their failure to accept that this miracle working power was God's power and that this meant that Jesus was God's Son (6:4). In this spiritual climate, it would be against Jesus' purposes to perform miracles as his mission was not to make a public display and inspire "miracle working faith," but to produce faith in Jesus as God's Son (1:1, 15; 15:39).12 It was not the lack of faith as a prerequisite for miracles that troubled Jesus, but the lack of appropriate faith as the response to miracles. This understanding is confirmed by a comparison with the reports of Jesus' stilling of the storm, where it is revealed that Jesus' supernatural aid is not necessarily conditioned upon faith. The disciples did not believe and were reprimanded for their disbelief but that did not deter Jesus from helping them (4:35-41; 6:45-52).13

In Mark 11:22-25, Jesus makes his strongest affirmation of the power of prayer: "So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (v. 24). But the point is not that the one who prays can do anything he or she wants to do, as long as the faith is strong enough. The point is to say that the power of prayer, when directed in faith to the almighty Father, is unlimited. This power remains subordinate to the will of God, however, as Jesus' model prayer in Gethsemane (and in fact the only model prayer in the gospel of Mark) shows. Facing suffering and death, Jesus sincerely and intently prays for deliverance, but humbly subordinates his wish to the will of God (14:36). With this prayer, he models the attitude of taking up the cross that he demanded of his disciples (8:34) and accepts that, even though the almighty Father has the power to eliminate suffering, the Father's will may include suffering. This suffering is not the last word, however; Jesus promises that those who lose their life for his sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it (8:35).14