Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Jesus
deals with doubt
Luke 7:18-23
Luke 7:18-23
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 was to come, or should we expect
someone else?” 20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the
Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we
expect someone else?’” 21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had
diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22
So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The
blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 23
Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
It’s
surprising to see John the Baptist dealing with doubt in his life. This is the
man that baptized Jesus. The man that introduced him as “the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world.” One would think that John the Baptist would
never doubt Jesus. So this is pretty unexpected from John the Baptist.
It’s
also pretty encouraging as well. If John could find himself doubting, then I
shouldn’t be too hard on myself for my doubts.
There are times when we struggle with doubts in our Christian
experience. Is the Bible really true? What if there isn’t a heaven or hell?
What if I am wrong about who Jesus says he is?
John
the Baptist teaches us what we are supposed to do if we are having doubts – go directly
to Jesus. Tell him about it. Apparently, Jesus can handle our doubts and he
does so with reassurance and grace. Do
you have some doubts today? Are you going to Jesus with your questions?
What
caused John the Baptist to doubt? Perhaps it was being stuck in a prison. Perhaps it was thinking that his ministerial
life would turn out differently. Perhaps it was not seeing the miracle working
power of Jesus. All of these things can
lead us to doubt as well. Sometimes we get stuck in a place that we never
thought we would be. We envisioned our lives turning out different. Sometimes we think because we are following
Jesus our lives are going to go smoothly. No troubles. No problems. And when it
doesn’t turn out that way we begin to doubt.
The
good news of this story is that Jesus comes to us in our doubts and reassures
us. Jesus tells John’s messengers to
report to him the miracles that Jesus was doing. He quotes from Isaiah 61:1-2. In other words, Jesus was letting John know
that he was doing the things that the Old Testament said the Messiah would
do. Sometimes we doubt because we don’t
have the right information. Scripture
will always keep us on the right track.
Don’t
you love the grace of Jesus in this story? He doesn’t reprove John. He doesn’t
say, “Shame on John for doubting. Or, I’m disappointed in you.” Jesus answers John’s doubts with grace –
people are receiving sight, people are being healed, people are being freed and
hearing the good news. That’s what John needed to know.
The
last sentence from Jesus is the best. He wants John to know beatitude. Vance
Havner called it “the forgotten beatitude”.
Jesus says, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
In other words, how blessed is the person who doesn’t allow their
doubts, their circumstances to keep them away from Jesus. Even if our lives don’t
turn out the way we thought they should, we will keep trusting Jesus anyway. That
person is blessed.
If
you’re struggling with doubts today tell Jesus about it and keep trusting him. He will reassure with his grace.
Comments:
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Yep! Sometimes life causes me to wonder. Then I say to myself, who has been more faithful to me than Jesus? Then I ask myself, is there anyone I could trust more then Jesus? The answer to both always comes up no. So then I say to myself, well just keep on trusting Him.
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