Faith Venture

Jesus did many other signs in our presence, John told him.

But I can’t believe that those things could really happen. Was it just a magic trick? Some sort of sleight of hand? Something we can explain away?

I understand that it’s difficult. That’s why I wrote about so many of them. I was even honest about it. Even when Jesus fed all the people on the side of the hill by the shores of the lake, we couldn’t figure it out. Then he was walking on water. We still couldn’t figure it out.

You see, none of us started out as believers. We knew he was a powerful man with new teaching the likes of which we had never heard. Not even from John the Baptizer.

You mean you were with him, saw those signs, and you still didn’t believe?

Yep.

We just couldn’t figure it all out. Even in the garden when he was arrested in the evening. Even during his trial. We kept expecting him to stare down Pilate and do something to strike down the Jewish ruling council. Yet he did nothing.

Even when we stared into the open and empty tomb it took a bit before our understanding began to open.

Then we met him–risen. Alive, not dead. And it all came together. We just didn’t know what to do next. It took a few weeks for us to put all the story together and discover our lives’ mission–to go out and tell people about what we experienced.

And in so doing helping others believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the provider of true life.

So, what is this life?

That you may know the one true God, now, and Jesus his Son.

You see my child, none of us started out as believers. We grew in understanding and belief. And we found true life. He changed our lives, and he’ll change yours.

I am finishing a long reading of the Gospel of John. The conversation came to me about people not just jumping into belief. Don’t criticize them. Understanding takes time, but eternal life begins now.

Here’s a man who has always lived outside society. Although we are talking about 2,000 years ago, in today’s terms he’s like a homeless man who hangs out on a downtown street with a cup or bowl asking for money.

Maybe he picked up some training and education as a young person just listening in on conversations.

Oh, he’s blind. Never has seen anything in his entire life.

Then one day someone comes by and heals his sight. (And his soul, but he didn’t know that then.)

So there are these men in town. They don’t have any obvious job, but they think they are important. And…they do wield some political influence. They could cause people to be killed.

These men have spent their entire lives studying the Scripture. They have post-Docs from the University of Shammai (a famous teacher). They think they know everything that matters.

(Know anyone like that? Likeable people, aren’t they?)

So they bring the homeless guy before them to question how he was healed. And they talk about the man who did the healing and about how he couldn’t possibly be from God. And they get all theological.

And the healed man says, “I do not know if the man is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

To the man, there is no theology. He was blind, and then he could see.

Instead of rejoicing over a remarkable event, the leaders bound up tightly in their traditions and thinking couldn’t comprehend it.

Later the homeless man meets Jesus and his response is similarly simple yet profound, “I believe.”

We have to believe that from that day the man’s life was completely changed. He lived differently.

In the growth of the early church as recorded in the book of Acts of the Apostles, Luke reported that people joined in large numbers because of how the Christ-followers lived. It was different from everyone else.

The question John (I am telling stories from the Gospel of John chapter 9) leaves us with is do we simply believe–or, do we overthink things and let our theology and tradition get in the way (blind us, if you will) of belief?