Why Do You Doubt?

[Resurrection Station #4 – Luke 24 and John 20]

Why do doubts rise in your minds?

Today’s question is not actually from the Thomas story as recorded in John. It’s from the first time Jesus appears to the other disciples in Luke 24, which I talked about last week.

And you know, that’s kind of interesting.

We give Thomas all sorts of crap for being THE Doubter. Doubting Thomas. THE one – the only one -- who doubted that Jesus could have come back from the dead. But he wasn’t the only one. Apparently, they all were doubting it the week before . . . and doubting the evidence of their own eyes, his risen body standing in from of them inviting them to touch his flesh and be convinced. Interesting that we gloss over that.

Interesting that the next week, Jesus doesn’t chide Thomas at all for his doubts. He just puts out his wrists to be handled for evidence and tells him it’s time to stop doubting now.

Interesting also that John doesn’t tell us that Thomas actually handled the bodily evidence before proclaiming Jesus as “My Lord and my God!” He just saw him, and he believed, apparently.

Interesting, really, that Thomas gets such a bad rap, bless his heart. And that we Christians give doubt such a bad rap.

I’m a huge fan of C.S. Lewis and particularly of the Narnia series. When my children were little, we watched the BBC versions of many of the books, and a particular scene from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe spoke to me pointedly at the time.

Aslan has just come to life again after being killed on the stone table in the place of Edmund, the traitor.  He is explaining to the girls who witnessed his sacrifice about the deeper magic that the White Witch didn't know which causes the laws of death to be reversed when an innocent voluntarily dies for a traitor.

The BBC then inserts a couple lines that are not C.S. Lewis'.  Lucy says something to the effect of, "So, you knew!  You knew you'd be alive again -- and you just let us suffer in our sorrow."

Aslan replies, "Well, I knew about the old, deep magic . . . but it had never been tested."

Two important things I get from this.  One, faith requires action.  Faith that is "sure of what we hope for and certain of what we don't see" is only activated and legitimized when it is acted on.

Second, Jesus needed faith.  Jesus may have even doubted. Now, I'm sure I have some Christian friends who will squirm at this idea and have plenty of arguments to make against it.  And that's fine -- they may be right.  It's not clear scriptural dogma.  But I don't think it's inconsistent with scriptural teaching, either.

In Hebrews, it tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way we are but never sinned.  If that's so, then the most significant temptation I face in life is not money, or power, or food, or sex . . . it is unbelief.  I'm tempted to look at what God says in his word and say, "Yeah, that's sounds nice, but it just can't be.  It's a pretty story, but it's not reality."  And if I'm tempted to walk away from the most difficult words of God, and if Jesus was tempted in every way that I am . . . well, it makes sense that this atoning sacrifice business would be where that would kick in.

Yes, Jesus was God, but he was also fully human.  And being human means doubting.  Doubting is not sin.  Doubting is a temptation to disbelief, a temptation that Jesus received in its greatest power and overcame.  He wrestled over it to the point of sweating blood, but he believed God. 

Why do doubts rise in my mind? Because I’m human. What do I need to do about my doubts? Look at the evidence of Jesus before me . . . everything I reveled in during the first week of Eastertide . . . then “stop doubting and believe.”

My task for this week of Eastertide: deal with my disbelief. Pick one doubt from my mental catalog and do the wrestling I need to do with God over that. Embrace the wrestling, knowing that God still embraces me in my wrestling. Thank you, Lord, for your never-failing embrace.

 

[Did you miss R-Station #3? Read it here.]

[Ready for the next one? Here’s R-Station #5.]

[Wanna start from the top? Here’s #1.]

[“What’s a Resurrection Station?” you ask. Glad you did. Click here.]