McDonald’s takeout with a Mark 9:23 sticker…

Picking up an order from the local McDonalds today, attached to the takeout order was this sticker.

Note that it’s a Bible verse.

McDonalds is known for fast food and branding.

It is not known for using Bible verses on drive thru bags.

Note the words on the sticker, especially the capitalized lettering—POSSIBLE and BELIEVES.

I can only assume that these reflect the (especially) American optimism that things will eventually get better, that all is possible because of believing (that things will get better).

They may, or they may not.

God doesn’t promise that “all will be well” in this life, no matter how much faith you have.

Believing (anything) does not mean that it will be so.

A wrong or misplaced belief does not at all mean that life will resume as it once was or that we will be the stronger for having struggled and endured through the challenge.

Belief is founded on something, whatever that something might be.

Faith has an object.

The McDonald’s sticker does not indicate what that object is, what that belief is in.

Does it mean that the object of believing is the “possibileness” of something? If so, such ground of faith is quite weak, taking a chance that something might be so with nothing but doubt and uncertainty to “back it up”.

Most probably do believe this way, or at least demonstrate that they do by what they say and how they live.

An ungrounded faith is such a faith that places hope in possibility, yet the “hoped for possibility” as determined by the one believing.

Such a belief is subjective and relativistic to the core.

Such is not the Christian faith.

The use of this sticker with the truncated Bible verse is a use of the Bible, likely a use for which many Christians will agree.

However, it is also misleading, by itself.

The Bible can be used in various ways, and most of them not according to its intended usage.

This McDonald’s sticker examples just one of those uses, which is not helpful.

Self-made religious belief helps no one.

For the Christian, these words are encouraging, but divorced from context, the text can be used according to anyone’s guess, including the Christian’s.

To keep from going off “the deep end” and misusing that which is good and wholesome, it’s necessary to exegete the text in its context, that is, according to its place in the biblical text.

Doing so, we will find that that “everything” is, most notably, not referring to believing what might be possible, but rather, believing that unto which the Lord has given promise, that thing which God makes “concrete” by what He says and not according to anything that we believe.

Here’s the full text…

“¹⁴ And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. ¹⁵ Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. ¹⁶ And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?” ¹⁷ Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. ¹⁸ “And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” ¹⁹ He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” ²⁰ Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. ²¹ So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. ²² “And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” ²³ Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” ²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” ²⁵ When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” ²⁶ Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.” (Mk. 9:14-27 NKJ)

Chronologically, this account immediately follows the coming down of Jesus with Peter, James, and John from the mountain where Jesus was transfigured before them (Mark 9:2).

The disciples other than Peter, James, and John, while not on the mountain, were not able to cast a demon out of man’s son (v18).

The father, speaking to Jesus, petitions Him saying, “…If you can do anything, have compassion and help us” (v22).

Jesus’ response to the father, “All things are possible to him who believes” (v23) has Jesus’ word as the referent.

Read what follows in the text, Mark 9:24-27!

Jesus does not say, “All things, whatever you believe, are possible.”

Jesus is saying, “All things are possible to him who believes (in) me” (review v22).

The Father is speaking to Jesus and Jesus is directly responding to the father’s request concerning his son, not “everything” or “anything” here, but that particular thing for which the Father is requesting, that Jesus help him and his son.

Even the use of those words, “everything” and “anything” have their context.

Also here.

Note especially the connection between “possible” and “believe,” not in the sense of “believing the possible,” but believing as Jesus is speaking about believing, that is, believing Him (and what He Himself says).

Thus, the father replies, “I believe. Help my unbelief” (v 24, The cry of every Christian!).

Such faith is not in a vacuum, self-derived, or founded on what is not promised, not worded, by God.

Jesus then “rebuked the unclean spirit” and the spirit “came out” (v25-26).

The father’s faith was not in just anything, not the possibility that things would be well, that his son would be okay because he so believed nebulously in faith in something.

The father’s faith was in Jesus, in His Word, in Him.

Thus, Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out.

The father’s faith was not, as the McDonald’s sticker might suggest, “faith in the possibility.”

Rather, the father’s faith was in Him who gives faith, not in a possibility of this or that, but in the certainty of Christ Jesus according to what He Himself says.

That would come to pass.

Thus, the “everything” in Mark 9 (and the “all things” of Matthew 19:26 | Mark 10:27 and the “nothing is impossible with God” of Luke 1:36-37) refers to what Jesus says here, explicitly and not just “anything,” except where there is the sure Word of the Lord. Amen.