Faith or No-Faith?
Read John 20:24-29.
The older I get, the more doubt that seems to exist in my life. Not that I question God's existence or Jesus' love for me. That's far too real for me to doubt. But I have questions. The older we get, the more we seem to be able to see the difficulty, the struggle, the effects of sin in the world. The older I get, the more I believe in God and the truth of the Scripture, but the more questions I have. So I get where Thomas is coming from. I have felt like he feels. There are times it would be nice to have some proof.
But that's not what faith is about, is it? If everything were "proved" (like we seem to think it should be), there would be no room for or need for faith. And, as we know, "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). Doubts are okay; doubts are often the seed of faith. When I doubt, I begin to ask questions, and when I ask questions I have always found that all of the answers lead back to God.
I quibble with the NIV translation here, however. The word Jesus uses when he describes Thomas' state before he saw Jesus is not really "doubt." It's much stronger. Here's a brief Greek tutorial: the little letter "a" (alpha) at the beginning of a word negates the word. It's like saying "no" before whatever you're talking about. The word Jesus uses here is like that. It's apistos, and pistos means "faith." So Jesus is basically saying to Thomas, "Don't be no-faith. Have faith."
In the midst of our questions and our doubts, when we stand at a crossroads of "faith" and "no-faith," Jesus shows up to lead us in the right way, just as he did with Thomas. "Here I am. You make the choice. Faith, or No-faith?"
Thomas is the example for all who stand at the crossroads. He never gets all of his questions answered. He doesn't even touch Jesus (though the offer was made) as he thought he wanted to do. When confronted with Jesus, knowing who he is, he falls to his knees and cries out his confession of faith, "My Lord and my God!"
May you do the same, even in the midst of your questions.
The older I get, the more doubt that seems to exist in my life. Not that I question God's existence or Jesus' love for me. That's far too real for me to doubt. But I have questions. The older we get, the more we seem to be able to see the difficulty, the struggle, the effects of sin in the world. The older I get, the more I believe in God and the truth of the Scripture, but the more questions I have. So I get where Thomas is coming from. I have felt like he feels. There are times it would be nice to have some proof.
But that's not what faith is about, is it? If everything were "proved" (like we seem to think it should be), there would be no room for or need for faith. And, as we know, "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). Doubts are okay; doubts are often the seed of faith. When I doubt, I begin to ask questions, and when I ask questions I have always found that all of the answers lead back to God.
I quibble with the NIV translation here, however. The word Jesus uses when he describes Thomas' state before he saw Jesus is not really "doubt." It's much stronger. Here's a brief Greek tutorial: the little letter "a" (alpha) at the beginning of a word negates the word. It's like saying "no" before whatever you're talking about. The word Jesus uses here is like that. It's apistos, and pistos means "faith." So Jesus is basically saying to Thomas, "Don't be no-faith. Have faith."
In the midst of our questions and our doubts, when we stand at a crossroads of "faith" and "no-faith," Jesus shows up to lead us in the right way, just as he did with Thomas. "Here I am. You make the choice. Faith, or No-faith?"
Thomas is the example for all who stand at the crossroads. He never gets all of his questions answered. He doesn't even touch Jesus (though the offer was made) as he thought he wanted to do. When confronted with Jesus, knowing who he is, he falls to his knees and cries out his confession of faith, "My Lord and my God!"
May you do the same, even in the midst of your questions.
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