"Deaf and dumb spirit," he said, "I command you at once come out of this boy, and never again trouble him!"
With a loud cry, the evil spirit threw the boy into a violent spasm of pain and then left him. The boy lay on the ground, looking like a corpse. In fact, many who were standing near, as they saw him, said, "The boy is surely dead!"
But Jesus took his hand, lifting him from the ground. The boy stood up and walked away well, free from the evil spirit and able to speak.
When Jesus was alone with his disciples in the house, they asked him, "Why was it that we could not drive out the evil spirit from the boy?"
"It was because you have so little faith. I tell you that if your faith were only the size of a grain of mustard-seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from this place to that,' and move it would; for nothing would be impossible to you."
But he added, "An evil spirit of this kind is harder to drive away than most. Only by special prayer can it be cast out."
Soon after this Jesus left that place at the foot of the mountain, and led his disciples toward the south. They saw that he was now going in the direction of Jerusalem, and were quite sure that there he would set up his throne and kingdom. But Jesus knew what they were thinking of, and he said to them,
"Listen carefully to my words. The Son of Man is to be given into the hands of his enemies. They shall kill him, and three days after he has been killed, he shall rise again to life."
But the disciples could not understand these words, for they would not believe that he was to die, and they were afraid to ask him what these sayings meant.
