Day #38
Larry Trotter
Words
of Love
18 John’s
disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to
ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
30 But
the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves,
because they had not been baptized by John.)
Luke 7: 18, 19, 30 NIV
Overcoming the Barrier
Let’s shift our
focus from death to doubt for our last three devotions. Admittedly, the verses
above don’t seem to make much sense as a set, but let me explain. John the
Baptist is in prison at this point and, though he recognized Jesus as God’s
chosen and baptized him, he may be struggling with why his life is falling
apart with the Messiah so near. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were not
baptized by John because they rejected his premise of preparing for the coming
Messiah, Jesus. What is revealed is how doubt can infiltrate believers as well
those who don’t believe. When I took my first church I was still working full
time at a radio station. Some of my coworkers were believers and asked me if I
would lead a Bible study once a week during lunch. An interesting dynamic began
to unfold. One of the members of the Bible study was dealing with significant
disappointment in his personal and professional life. He seemed to think that
God had turned his back on him due to a couple of bad choices. He doubted
whether God still cared about him and his faith was waning. Also, we had an
employee who was a militant, self-avowed atheist. She assumed that the thrust
of our time together each week was to rake all the non-Christians over the
coals in judgment and condemnation. She would grill me each week after Bible
study with one of the stock let’s-trip-up-the-Christian questions like, “are
all the monks in Tibet going to hell because they’re not Christian?” or
“wouldn’t three days after the crucifixion be Monday?” I loved the questions
because it gave me a chance to offer grace with my answers or simply say that
I’m not sure about the answer but God is and I’ll just trust him for now. Though
she doubted the very existence of God, she talked about him more than I did. The
believer doubted because the circumstances of his life seemed contrary to what
he expected as a Christian. The atheist doubted because she had grown up in a
household that didn’t believe but what she was learning about Christians
created more questions than answers so she just kept asking.
In the case of John
the Baptist and the Pharisees both seemed to be dealing with doubt. In John’s
case, he believed, but the circumstances of his life were such that it created
enough doubt for him to point blank ask if Jesus were the Messiah. As for the
Pharisees, they didn’t want to believe because their religious traditions
didn’t support the reality of who Jesus was based upon his ministry. My guess
is John was satisfied with the answer he received and died knowing he had seen
the Messiah. We can’t say with certainty how things turned out for the
Pharisees, except for one in particular named Nicodemus whose evening visit
with Jesus is recorded in the third chapter of John. He came with questions and
wound up defending Jesus in front of his colleagues and helped place his body
in the tomb. As for my coworkers, the doubting believer never lost his faith
and actually grew from his wilderness experience. I learned some time ago that
my atheist friend tried a couple of churches, accepted Christ, and is raising
her children in the church. The point is simple. Doubt is part and parcel of
the human experience and that includes our faith experience. However, it doesn’t
mean that doubt is always an enemy of faith. Sometimes doubt, when embraced and
explored, can lead to deeper faith because of what we learn from the questions
doubt inspires. Remember, Thomas wasn’t the only doubting disciple who went on
to lead the early church.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, please meet me in my doubts and
be patient with me. I have questions that aren’t meant to disrespect you but
instead to get to know you better. In your name, amen.
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