ONE DAY WHILE JESUS, Peter, James, and John were on retreat on a mountain, the nine disciples left behind got into a hot fight with the scribes over ministry techniques. It seems the disciples botched an exorcism on a vicious, intractable demon that had possessed a boy for many years; the demon often cast the boy into fire and water.

The scribes observed the tragedy like a holiday and with perverse joy seized the opportunity to attack the disciples and, by inference, the entire mission of Jesus. The scribes questioned the integrity of the exorcisms the disciples claimed to perform up to that point. They splashed the Law—like acid—into the disciples' faces, citing Jesus' lax attitude toward the Law as the reason the devil withstood their ministry. This forced the nine into a two-front war.

Outwardly the disciples defended their ministry while inwardly they questioned why their exorcism techniques failed. If they were at all like many pastors today, the disciples probably took a lot of the ...