Mark narrates, deliberately and provocatively, two episodes in the same chapter. 

In the first scene a man comes to Jesus and says, “Master, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit, deaf and mute. Whenever the spirit seizes him, it throws him down and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes stiff all over. I asked your disciples to drive the spirit out, but they could not” (Mark 9:18). 

In the first part of today’s gospel, an announcement of the passion is introduced: “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him; but three days after he has been killed, he will rise” (Mark 9:31).