Doubt

I think all Christians doubt. If you are a Christian and you don't doubt, I'd like to meet you and pick your brain. Despite all the evidence I've seen in my life and in other's lives, I still sometimes have the gnawing thought at the back of my head that maybe I'm wrong and there isn't more to life than being born, procreating and dying.

I have been reading through Matthew and studying it in depth, verse by verse, for the last couple of months. I found something in chapter 11 that caught my attention:
(verse 2 and 3) "And when John (the baptist) heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, 'Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?'"

Keep in mind that by this time John the Baptist had already baptised Jesus and was there to hear the voice of the Father from heaven and the whole nine yards. My first reaction upon reading this was "doesn't he remember baptising Christ?" Then I thought maybe John just wanted confirmation. I think while he was sitting in jail, the thought began to creep up on him, maybe this isn't the right guy. I mean, afterall, Jesus wasn't exactly the Messiah that anyone was expecting. John must have been a little concerned.

What really encourages me was Christ's response to John's question.
"Jesus answered and said to them, 'Go and tell the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me."

Important things:
1. Jesus' response was go and tell the things which you HEAR and SEE. Jesus didn't talk about how it makes no sense that the earth is six billion years old; he didn't start a lecture about moral law; he didn't talk about democrats or gun laws. He said look at what's going on right now and then go tell John, and that will be enough for him.

2. Jesus did not say "John, you faithless jerk! I'm going to go get rebaptized by someone who isn't a shmuck." I think Jesus understood that he was taking people by surprise in not overthrowing Jerusalem and "burning up the chaff with inquenchable fire." Jesus gave enough evidence though to compensate for the Jews' false pretenses. (which brings me to #3)

3. The last sentence there says "And blessed is he who is not offended because of me." At first, I didn't get it. Then I pulled out my handy Greek-English Interlinear Bible and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (coolest things ever) and looked up the original Greek for the word offended. The NIV says 'blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.' I think that's a little closer to the original. The word "offend" in the Greek is skandalizo, where we get our word scandal or scandalize. It means "to trip up or entice to sin, apostasy or displeasure." Jesus was saying basically, Blessed is the man who isn't tripped up because of something I didn't do (such as heal the sick, raise the dead, or preach to the poor.) He wanted to make it clear that he did everything he could do to get people to realize he was the Messiah. He did not hold back in regards to proof.

4. John learned of these things by word of mouth, just as we have learned of Jesus' miracles by word of mouth, or the written word.

Now what does that mean for us?
The Lord never meant for us to blindly follow something for which there was no proof. Jesus was very concerned with providing enough proof for his followers. However, most of us are in the position of John, having to rely on what we hear is going on in other parts of the world, or having to rely on what we've seen done in the past. Now, that said, Christ expects us to take existing proof and run with it. He didn't go to John and do some miracle to prove himself. He expected John's disciples to accurately report what was going on. In light of that, I don't think I have much room for doubt at all. For those who think they haven't seen enough, I would encourage you to talk to people who do seem firm in their faith and ask them why they are so certain. Christ is eager to provide what you need to believe in him; you just have to look for it.