Nehemiah 1: Prayer Overcomes Anger—Nehemiah 4: 1-9; Mark 9: 20-29
Once upon a time, I dealt with a bully in elementary school. I was in the 5th or 6th grade, and there was a boy who thought it would be fun to needle and pick at different kids in the class. Now I’m not sure if he was mean, or if there were life problems, but nonetheless he was a bully who was mean and taunting. One day it was my turn. I had watched him pick on different ones in the class. I had watched him tease until folks were teary-eyed, and I was prepared for him to one day come for me.
Sure enough, I was washing my hands in the bathroom, and he pushed me hard and called me a couple of names. I thought they were awful at the time, but I’m sure they pale in comparison to what my poor ears hear in the criminal justice system. But I was ready. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and held him to the wall with one hand, totally startling him, while splashing water all over his pants so it looked like he’d had an accident on himself. You see, I don’t really believe in hitting people, and God doesn’t want us to do violence. But there’s nothing wrong with outwitting someone a bit to teach them a lesson. And I told him if he was ever mean again, I’d sit his behind in chocolate next time.
Maybe that’s a bit crude for church, but sometimes we face an opponent who has to be outwitted instead of overpowered. When you face deep-seated anger and range, someone who is a hateful bully, you cannot match rage with rage. You must use the better tools God has given you: trust and prayer.
One of the most poignant and moving stories in the gospels is here with the father of the boy mentally and physically tortured by an evil presence. The child is ravaged and brutalized by the evil lurking within him. It throws him into fire and water. He’s writhing and foaming at the mouth. He was in and of danger in his life, and his father brought him to Jesus as a last hope for nothing could overpower the evil presence. Jesus tells the father that anything is possible with belief. We see, then, in verse 24 that perhaps the father’s belief wavered a bit, but his trust in Jesus did not. “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
You see, I think the father had lost his belief that his child could be fixed. I think his hope had worn thin. But there was just enough there to push him past his doubts and into one final burst of trust in Christ to heal and save. I imagine (embellishing a bit here) that he immediately says back to Jesus, “I do believe!” And then he sees Jesus looking at him, maybe quietly, maybe knowingly, and so the boy’s father adds, “But help me overcome my unbelief!” Immediately, Jesus was able to rebuke the evil spirit, and it came out of the boy. What the father lacked in his belief, he made up for in his trust. We don’t know what made him suddenly trust Jesus so much, but I can’t help but wonder what was exchanged in the looks and body language between them.
That trust formed a prayer, and that prayer was enough for Jesus to rebuke the evil spirit and cast it out. He later tells the disciples, “This kind [of evil spirit] can be cast out only by prayer.” The disciples could cast it out. They likely fought with it and rebuked it, but you can’t always match the rage of evil with and equal amount of rage. Sometimes prayer, trust, and faith in the Holy One is what can help and save. The father found his trust, and that trust in Christ is what healed his suffering son.
The tool of trust will often go hand in hand with the resource of prayer. In our Old Testament, which is the focus of our short series on overcoming opposition, we read about Nehemiah and the Israelite people. They are doing the work of rebuilding the demolished city. This comes after Daniel, after the time of captivity in Babylon, and after the downfall of both Israel and Judah. There was a remnant in Jerusalem, but they have fallen away from God, and lived in a mess. Nehemiah asks to go and fix the crumbling city.
We learn that when he begins helping rebuild the wall, he and the Jewish people encounter bullies. Just as the boy in the New Testament was bullied by the evil spirt, Nehemiah is bullied by the nearby kings: Sanballat, Tobiah, and others. They attempt to insult and humiliate him. They speak out against him in fierce anger, and they make plans to come and fight with them. For a small, fledgling group of people, this could be oppressive and intimidating. The Jewish people were a minority at this point, and they faced tremendous and systemic oppression from the more powerful people around them. Nehemiah responded not with summoning an army, or reinforcing, or raiding the bullies’ encampments. Instead, he prayed, and kept watch. And in return, God protected.
I think sometimes we miss the lessons in the Gospels and other parts of the Bible that teach about God’s power. We worship and all-powerful God, robed in majesty, armed with strength, and sovereign over all of live from the heavens to the lowest depths. Too often, when someone has great power, they use it either to bully those they don’t like or to grow more power for themselves. But what does God choose to do with that all the power he has? God stands up for the marginalized, the broken, the vulnerable, and the little guy. We see it over and over.
Here, the broken and demoralized Jewish minority is protected. In the Gospels, demons are cast out, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the silent speak, the unclean outcast is healed and restored to society. We read that the sinner is forgiven. We read that the hurting and lonely find rest and comfort. We read that God is close to the broken-hearted, the vulnerable, and the oppressed. In fact much of the indictment of the Jewish people before their destruction in the Old Testament is about how the exploit and oppress others.
Sometimes the resource of prayer and the tool of trust is intended to help us when we are the broken, the hurting, and the vulnerable. And sometimes, it’s designed to call us to repentance when we are the bully. I’ve met a bully or two before, some of whom were in church, and I’ve dealt with folks who were mean to the core. If you choose to fight on their terms, you will never win. But if you trust in God, pray for guidance, and stand in peace and strength, not backing down from what is right and true, the bullies of life will disappear. So find your voice, pray your prayer, trust in God, and then firmly say, “Lord plant my feet on higher ground.”
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