Doubt
Doubt is a part of life. We believe in a God who is all powerful and magnificent and yet we have never seen Him. Without doubt there could be no faith for all we would have would be certainty. Sometimes we think of doubt as the opposite of faith. That is not the case. Unbelief is the opposite of faith. Inaction is the opposite of faith. Doubt is simply an uncertainty that stems from not having all the answers in life. Doubt is not a sin. Doubt is a tool. It can be used to drive us away from God or to motive us to ask questions that draw us closer understanding of Him.
We all have crisis of faith. We all have times which we doubt. When life gets hard, when we experience personal tragedy, when things go horribly wrong in our life we start to wonder if God is there if He really cares. We all start off with these ideas about who God is and what He should do. When God does not fit with our preconceptions about Him we will naturally start to have doubts. We are not the only ones. Look at Luke 7:18. After Jesus preaches one of the greatest sermons in history, the sermon on the mount He returns to Capernaum. While He was there He heals a centurion’s servant from a distance. Then Jesus made His way to the town of Nain which was about twenty-five miles southeast of Capernaum. In Nain Jesus raises a window’s son from the dead. Well as word about Jesus spreads it reaches the ears of John the Baptist.
Lk 7:18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them,
Lk 7:19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Lk 7:20 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?’ ”
Let me tell you a little bit about who John is. His father Zechariah was a priest but unlike our priests today priests at this time they were allowed to marry. When working in the temple Zechariah was visited by an angel and was told he would have a son. This was pretty unlikely since his wife Elizabeth was an old woman and she was barren. John is a barren birth while Jesus is a virgin birth but both are pretty miraculous. So John is a preacher’s kid. He would have grown up studying the Word of God and learning how to preach.
John is an amazing man. He became an extremely popular teacher. Crowds of people are coming from all over to hear John speak and his ministry is very effective. They are baptizing people and doing good work. John’s job is to prepare the way for Jesus. But as a popular preacher people started to wonder if maybe John was the Christ. He had the means and opportunity to seize power for himself but he didn’t. John just pointed people to Jesus. Even as a popular and successful preacher John was humble. He did not even consider himself worthy to touch the lowliest part of Jesus, His feet. Now Jesus is John’s younger cousin. If anyone should have struggled with Jesus being the messiah it should have been John. But when John sees Jesus he declares that Jesus is the lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. He says: I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God. John knew who Jesus was and even had a vision of a dove descending on Jesus to confirm that knowledge. So when he asks Jesus if He really is the one they have been waiting for it seems a little odd.
Well John’s situation has changed. After Jesus baptism John was preaching the good news. In the course of his preaching he butted heads with Herod and publicly rebuked him for having an adulterous and incestuous relationship with his sister-in-law Herodias. Now for some reason Herodias took offense to that and urged Herod to have John locked up. Herod did. See not only was John criticizing a powerful religious leader but Herod’s fame was dwindling and John’s popularity had been rising. Seeing John as a threat for revolt Herod imprisoned him to prevent any kind of uprising. At this point John has been in prison for about 10 months.
While he testified that Jesus was the Son of God he has recently had a lot of time to reflect. Sitting in his cell with nothing but his thoughts John started to wonder. John was behind Jesus from the beginning but now he is having some doubts. Keep in mind John would have been well educated in the Old Testament. He had some expectations about who messiah be and more importantly what messiah would be like. Then he starts hearing stories. Jesus touches lepers, He eats with sinners, He even invited a tax collector to be disciple. Jesus does not seem to observe Sabbath law or really to behave like one might expect a religious leader to behave. When he heard all these stories about the kind of people Jesus hung out with, the things Jesus said and did he starts to wonder if maybe he got it wrong. John may have known who Jesus was but that does not mean he correctly understood Jesus. John was probably expecting Jesus to be a political leader just like the Pharisees were and Jesus isn’t fitting in the box.
So he is in prison and John is likely aware he will die soon and is starting to evaluate his life choices. He gave up everything for Jesus. He used his fame to promote Jesus. He sent a number of his disciples including Peter, Andrew, James, and John to follow Jesus. He prepared the way for Jesus. He was willing to devote his life to Jesus and now he just wants to know if it was all a waste or if Jesus really is the messiah.
Lk 7:21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. Lk 7:22 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. Lk 7:23 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
So John’s sends two of his disciples to go and to ask Jesus if He really is the messiah. When they arrive Jesus is performing all sorts of miracles. Jesus is fulfilling many of the prophesies about messiah right in front of their eyes. Isaiah tells us a lot about the things the Messiah will do. When John’s disciples show up they get to see Jesus doing the things Isaiah promised would happen when God came among men. So Jesus tells them, go back and tell John what you have seen.
John had doubts but they did not hold him back, he had already given everything to Jesus but his doubts led him to seek more understanding. He started asking questions. John knows a lot of things about the Bible but he still has questions about Jesus. John is not rejecting Jesus he is just having some doubts because he doesn’t totally understand who Jesus is. We think asking questions is a sign of weakness, it isn’t. We think that asking questions is an admission we are not as mature or knowledgeable as we should be, it isn’t. Pride prevents us from asking important questions that will give us understanding. What do we do when we have questions about Jesus? Jesus is a bit mysterious and He is like that for a reason, He wants us to follow Him and so He made doing that exciting. Jesus remains a mystery so our curiosity will lead us to ask questions and chase after Him. If you really want to know Jesus you have to be willing to admit that you don’t fully understand Him. It doesn’t matter how long you have been a Christian when you get to the point where you stop having question about Jesus you have stopped growing. John is not afraid to ask.
Because he asks the question John gets a great answer. He gets to hear all the things that Jesus was doing. Even John had misconceptions. Jesus is unpredictable. He does not do what we expect Him to and no matter what box we try to put Him in Jesus never seems to fit. A lot of times we want to force Jesus to fit into our preconceived ideas so we accept only what we agree with about Him. Jesus point is this: His miracles prove He is the messiah, now it is time to accept Him for who He is instead of trying to change Him into who we think He should be. Jesus is a radical. He goes against the flow of our culture: turn the other cheek, sell your possessions, carry your cross, don’t judge others, forgive people; these are not easy ideas. Jesus says either accept me for who I am or not at all, just don’t try to change me.
Jesus says: look around you at what is happening. Sickness, pain, disease, and death are ultimately a result of the sin that exists in the world. Prior to Jesus coming we lived with these conditions with little hope of change. Jesus arrival begins the transition from the world of sin to the coming of the kingdom of God. What we see Him doing is undermining the effect of sin. Sin makes us dirty, Jesus makes us clean. Sin makes us blind, Jesus gives us sight. Sin makes us lame and broken, Jesus makes us walk. Sin makes us deaf, Jesus lets us hear. Sin is a curse, Jesus is a blessing. Jesus comes to remove the empire of sin from the world and to establish a new world order. He comes to bring a kingdom not ruled by wickedness and evil but ruled by a loving God. What He does is a sample, a taste of what the kingdom He ushers in will be like. Blind see, lame walk, and dead rise. When Jesus comes then God is among us and glimpses of the kingdom He will one day fully establish are being revealed. Jesus says: look around, God’s work is being done because now that I am here, God is among you.
Lk 7:24 After John’s messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Lk 7:25 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. Lk 7:26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. Lk 7:27 This is the one about whom it is written: “ ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Lk 7:28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Lk 7:29 (All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John.
Jesus says that John is the greatest man ever born of woman. What makes Him so great? John had the honor of paving the road for Jesus. He got to set the stage and point people to Jesus and John did that masterfully. Greatness in the kingdom of God comes not from how well you succeed in your own life but how well you point people to Jesus. John did great. John’s heart made him great. In reference to Jesus John said: He must increase but I must decrease. John did not focus on his own glory, reputation, or popularity. He gave everything he had to lead people to Jesus. Sure he has doubts from time to time but that did not stop John from radically dedicating his life to cause of Christ. In the end he knew who Jesus and he gave up everything to say: I have seen and I testify that Jesus is the Son of God.
God has come into the world. His work is being done, His kingdom is being established and we get to be the harbingers of His grace. We get to be the one’s who cry out: behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John gave up his own fame and glory to make Jesus famous to the world.
You are not great, but Jesus can make you great. If you do not have Him in your life then you need invite Him in. Ask God for the gift of His Holy Spirit that God may lead and guide your life as He did John’s. We become great when we realize that He must increase and we must decrease.
We get to announce the coming of the kingdom of God where blind see, where deaf hear, where there is no disease, no pain, no suffering, no disappointment, where death has no power and we will never be separated from the ones we love. Jesus came to undo the pain caused by sin. We get to be the ones who tell the world about it. Jesus says John is great because greatness in the kingdom of God comes from patterning your life after Jesus. If you want to be great in the eyes of God then learn to live and to love like Jesus did.
