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Believing yet not seeing
Over 2000 years on we are not privileged to have been among those who met and travelled with Jesus during those last three years of His life. And yet, even the people who did see Jesus and hear his teaching, and come to know Him personally, doubted in the end. If their faith wasn’t strong enough; is there any hope for us? So much in the Gospels comes back to belief. Jesus often healed or didn’t heal based on people’s belief. Nearly all His healing and His teaching kept coming back to belief.
If you have been watching the Pilgrimage series on BBC TV you will have watched many of the pilgrims struggle with faith and what to believe. One pilgrim says of St Winefride, whose shrine they visited in North Wales, that now he knows she was real he can believe what is said about her.
It’s not so different in our lives when all we hear is talk of evidence or proof. God wants to work in our lives, but He still does that work according to our belief or unbelief. Does it make you wonder if far too often, God doesn’t do something in our lives simply because we fail in this area of believing?
As we celebrate Easter, it is a good time to reflect on what Jesus did for us. Let’s choose not to be like the disciples who missed what was in front of them. When Jesus finally shows himself to the disciples after His resurrection, he rebukes them for their unbelief. Not only does He call it unbelief, He calls it stubborn unbelief.
Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
Mark 16:14 (NIVUK)
Let us take Jesus’ words to heart this Easter:
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
Mark 9 v 23 (NIVUK)
Steve Beynon
