<p>9:40 <i>And I begged your disciples to cast it out- </i>He &quot;besought&quot; them, he begged them, to heal the child. According to Mark, when the father of the dumb child brought him to the disciples, he tells Jesus that &ldquo;I brought unto thee my son&rdquo;, but the disciples couldn&rsquo;t cure him (Mk. 9:17 RV); he perceived Jesus as His followers, just as folk do today. The Lord had earlier given them power over &ldquo;unclean spirits&rdquo; (Mt. 10:8)- but still they couldn&rsquo;t heal him. The power given to them was therefore potential power, but it was no guarantee that they would actually do the works. Alternatively, we could conclude that that power was only given to them temporarily. Or, that there is a difference between the twelve, and the more general &ldquo;disciples&rdquo; / followers of Jesus. However it would have been strange indeed if the man had not brought his son to the group of the twelve in the hope of healing. And it is the disciples, presumably the twelve, who then come to the Lord and ask why they could not perform the cure (Mt. 17:19).</p><p><i>But they could not</i>- They had no&nbsp;<i>dunamai&nbsp;</i>(possibility); Mk. 9:18 uses a different word- according to Mark, the man said that they &ldquo;could not&rdquo; using&nbsp;<i>ischuo&nbsp;</i>(more carrying the sense of physical power). The man therefore bewailed at least twice that the disciples couldn&rsquo;t help; and he asks the Lord Jesus to help &ldquo;if You can&rdquo; (Mk. 9:22-&nbsp;<i>dunamai</i>). They did have the possibility; but they lacked the faith to actualize it (Mt. 10:8; Lk. 10:19,20 &ldquo;I give unto you power&hellip; over all the power of the enemy&hellip; the spirits are subject unto you&rdquo;). We too have been given potentials which require faith to exploit, and our failures to do so leave people with the impression that the Lord Himself is limited- for, like the disciples, we are His representatives in this world, and people coming to us are effectively coming to Him.</p>