Following His transfiguration, Jesus with Peter, James and John re-joined the rest of the disciples - where a crowd had gathered.  Seeing Him, the people spontaneously ran towards Him.  As always, Jesus knew what had been going on. There had been a heated discussion and the matter was not resolved: it looked like a dissatisfied customer who had been fobbed off by customer relations ... and now he wanted to speak to the boss.

Jesus was clearly identified as the boss, and His appearance was a huge relief to everybody, especially the disciples. The controversy was about a child with demonically inspired fits. The father had pinned his hope on Jesus.  But, as Jesus was away, the other disciples who had previously been authorised by Jesus to expel demons (Mark 3:14-15), decided they should take action.  However, whatever they said or did was completely ineffective (Acts 19:13-16).  They may have used a formula, but it was not by the command of Jesus - and there was no Divine power to release the child from his fits.  Whatever the disciples said failed to pacify the father; he knew that the only solution lay in Jesus' hands.  No wonder the dad was glad to see the Master, who cared enough to listen to the complaint and not condemn (John 3:17).

The religious lawyers were there too.  Perhaps, drawn like vultures to a besieged animal, eager to pick apart the bones of this popularist brand of their religion, they probably argued that the trainee apostles had no power: therefore Team Jesus must be yet another counterfeit messianic movement.  It is astonishing how quickly legalistic religionists seize upon any evidence which they think will discredit Jesus (Mark 2:6-7).  It is as though their analytical skill is tuned to find fault with God, and ignore their own faults which God would forgive, if only they would submit to Him.     

Even today, when Christians can be amazingly disappointing, the Lord will still hear the cry of the desperate and act according to His mercy.  Often the greatest relief is simply knowing that we are heard, knowing that God is listening, and that He really wants to hear what we have to say.  Alas, lost in the frenzy of religious activity (which traps far too many eager-hearted Christians), there are people who have a simple request for Jesus: "Please help me!".  Could it be that they are not heard, as believers obsessively manicure their church activities, programmes and courses - all in the cause of Christ, but without His authority?  Jesus said, "Come to me" (Matthew 11:28)!  Let's bring them to Him!