Let’s take one more look at this story:

One 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. And 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.” …Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?” Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.” (Mark 9.17, 18, 28, 29, NLT)

My son David’s question was, “If this kind of spirit can be cast out only by prayer, why is there no record of Jesus praying during this incident?”

It’s a good question, and David suggested some good answers:

• Jesus didn’t pray during the incident because he had prayed before the incident. We have many explicit references to Jesus’ habit of prayer:

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. (Mark 1.35, ESV)

But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. (Luke 5.16, ESV)

• Jesus lived in a spirit of prayer and dependency on his Father:

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11.38 – 44, ESV, emphasis mine)

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. (John 5.19 – 20, ESV)

There it is: “pre-prayer” and a spirit of dependency and prayer. Let us do likewise!

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5.17, ESV)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might…praying at all times in the spirit… (Ephesians 6.10, 18, ESV)