The day after the transfiguration, Jesus and the three apostles who were with him on the mount—Peter, James, and John— returned to join the remaining nine.
A multitude had gathered around the disciples and, according to Mark, the scribes who were among the crowd were questioning them (see 9:14). At Jesus' approach the attention of the multitude at once turned to him, and in response to his query "What question ye with them?" a man whose only son was in dire need of healing appealed to him. Whether or not the malady was epilepsy, as modern translators view it (Matthew's word "lunatick" means simply that it was supposed to be a disease influenced by the moon), the boy had been troubled since childhood.
When the Master had commissioned the twelve, as Matthew records (10:1), "he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease" (cf. Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1). Yet here was apparent failure.
