Introduction
As
some of you know, both my daughters are in college pursuing careers in medicine
in one form or another. The process of pursuing their respective fields began
first and foremost on their knees as they sought God’s guidance for their
lives. I am so proud that they were intentional about the process—their final
decision had nothing to do with money or prestige. In the end, they decided on
their respective fields because they believed it was the direction God was
leading them and placed a passion within them to do so—they believe they have
been “called” to their respective fields. However, as you might imagine, the
actual process of being faithful to that calling has been far from easy. I have
received tearful calls from both of them with my youngest daughter being the
latest questioning whether or not they heard God’s calling correctly because
the road is very difficult. Having gone through this sort of thing myself
(sometimes daily) I knew that I just needed to get her past the moment of doubt
to get back to the point where she was again certain about her calling.
I’ve
often talked to my girls about what the life of faith looks like and that God’s
calling does not necessarily mean that if we are faithful to that calling, life
will be easy and smooth. Yet I too have struggled in the past and continue to
struggle on occasion with whether or not I heard God’s calling correctly for my
life of ministry. After my discussion with my daughter about her doubts I began
to think that perhaps there are many others who struggle with this same issue
in their lives. I realized that there was a very prominent biblical figure who
experienced the exact same thing so I wanted to look at his story this week and
perhaps come to a more biblical understanding about the dynamic that is behind
our doubt.
Subject
Text
Luke 7:18-23
[11 Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his
disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being
carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd
from the town was with her. 13 When
the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” 14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him
on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him
back to his mother. 16 They
were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among
us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” 17 This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the
surrounding country.]
18 John’s
disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to
the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone
else?” 20 When the
men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you
the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” 21 At that very time Jesus cured
many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who
were blind. 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 cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 23 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Context
I’ve
included the bracketed text because it gives some point-of-contact context for
our subject text and includes the description of some events that make the
comments made by John in our subject text all the more perplexing. But first, since
there are so many people named “John” in the Bible, I want to make sure we’re
all on the same page with respect to which “John” we’re talking about here. The
“John” in our subject text is “John the Baptist.” Some of you might be
wondering why this John wasn’t with Jesus during Jesus’ ministry. Well there
are a couple of reasons for this: 1) After Jesus was baptized by John the
Baptist and people began following Jesus, some of John’s disciples came to him
and asked him about it and John said at that time that Jesus must become
greater and he must become less (Jn 3:30); and 2) John was beheaded a year
before Jesus was crucified and was in prison for 12-18 months before that so it
was not really possible for them to be together during Jesus’ short, three year
ministry. Our subject text, takes place during the time when John the Baptist
was in prison so we must naturally ask, why was John in prison? Well the short
answer is that John was put in prison for doing exactly what he was called to
do—to encourage the people to repent of their sins and point the way to Jesus. In
keeping with his calling, John confronted King Herod about his sinful conduct.
Herod took his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, and married her which was unlawful.
Consequently, Herod had John arrested and put in prison (Mk 6:17-18).
In
the bracketed text above which immediately precedes our subject text, we find
Jesus in the small town of Nain where he encounters the funeral procession of a
young man who has died followed by the mourning crowd of family and friends.
Jesus is moved by the grief of the mother who is already a widow and has now
lost her only son. The procession stopped as Jesus approached and touched the
coffin. Jesus commands the young man to rise and the crowd is astounded as the
man comes to life and is reunited with his mother. The crowd gives praise and
proclaims that “God has come to help his people” (cf. Mt 1:23b). And wasn’t this precisely John’s calling—to announce
the coming of the Messiah? John’s father, Zechariah, prophesied that John
would, in fact, be the prophet of the “Most High” and would prepare the way for
the coming Messiah (Lk 1:76). John fulfilled this prophecy in part when he
called people to repent of their sins and be baptized but ultimately when he
baptized and announced the arrival of Jesus as the One they had all been
waiting for—the One he had been waiting for. This then brings us to our subject
text and John’s battle with doubt When
The Going Gets Tough.
Text
Analysis
Given
the context of the previous verses, vv. 18-19 present us with an interesting
paradox: John’s foremost calling was the announcement of the coming Messiah.
John fulfilled that calling and more, he was the one to baptize Jesus and
witnessed, firsthand, as the Father and the Holy Spirit confirm that Jesus is
the One they had been waiting for—hoping for—longing for. Now, sitting in a
prison cell, John sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the One or if they
should be looking for someone else. The text is pointedly relevant to our own
lives. “The question intimates the inadequacy of the popular perception of
Jesus. Popular perceptions are often wrong. In the case of Jesus, they are also
short of the mark…The question John asks shocks some students of the
Scriptures, who cannot accept the fact that John doubts Jesus…Even the best of
God’s servants need reassurance from time to time.”[1]
What was really at the root of John’s question do you suppose? I believe that
John is not so different than any other person enduring a significant hardship
in their lives. Where there was once certainty, there is now creeping doubt
because there is a certain expectation of outcome and when that outcome is not
realized, certainty is replaced by doubt. Instead, what should be considered is
the possibility that our expectations were incorrect. John expected Jesus to
fulfill the well known prophesies of the conquering Messiah and while Jesus fulfilled
those expectations from an eschatological perspective, John expected them to be
fulfilled primarily from a temporal perspective. It is unlikely that John
expected to be in prison when the Messiah was introduced. However, in prison is
precisely where he finds himself and doubts begin to creep into his mind so he
now wants some reassurance from Jesus.
In v.
20 we see that John’s disciples find Jesus and ask him John’s question about
whether he is the One. V. 21 tells us that while John’s disciples are
questioning him, Jesus is curing those sick and diseased that were coming to
him or were brought to him. Similarly, he was casting out evil spirits and
giving sight back to those who were blind. We can almost picture the scene as
Jesus turns to John’s disciples and then back to the throngs of people who must
certainly be celebrating their newfound wholeness. We picture John’s disciples
looking past Jesus as perhaps a man once lame now casts aside his crutches and
dances with his wife again, or perhaps a blind mother sees her beautiful child
for the first time, or a small child doomed to a short life in bed because of
some disease now runs and plays with all the other kids. Did John’s disciples
need to see or hear more? Nevertheless, Jesus gives them an answer in v. 22
that they will immediately recognize as the words of the prophet Isaiah (Isa
29:18, 19; 35:5, 6; 61:1, 2). “First, Luke notes that Jesus ‘gave’ sight, using
an unexpected verb associated with benefaction. This, combined with the
narrators identification of Jesus as ‘Lord’ in v. 19, underscores for Luke’s
reader that Jesus’ identity is secure even if someone as credentialed within
the narrative as John has questions…Jesus is the beneficent Lord who gives
graciously especially to those on the margins of society. Second, ‘blindness’
has a metaphorical sense that is not far from the surface here, even though we
may presume that physical healing is primarily in view. Jesus’ ensuing
instructions to John’s disciples to tell John what they have seen and heard
suggests his designation of these persons as witnesses who will enlighten John
regarding this transformation of the connotations of messiahship.”[2]
Jesus
leaves John’s disciples with some parting words in v. 23 intended as
encouragement and warning not only to those listening at the time but that
transcend time and space to reach out to us in the trials, tribulations, pain
and suffering of our daily lives today. Jesus is saying that continuing to
trust him even in the most difficult times will be worth it even if doing so
appears to the contrary. “The key to this beatitude is its personal focus on
Jesus. He is the issue, and those who deal with what God is doing must deal
with him. Those who doubt are called to trust in him.”[3]
Application
We
must make a distinction between “doubt” and “unbelief.” Whereas “unbelief” is
the absence of belief, “doubt” is the absence or lack of understanding and/or
perspective. John believed who Jesus was if for no other reason than his
witness at Jesus’ baptism. Yet he doubted because he had a perspective and
understanding of what the Messiah was supposed to look like and Jesus did not
seem to align with that Messianic perspective. And this is precisely the struggle
we have today when we face difficulty and hardship. When you think about it,
what is the most common factor associated with believers (and sometimes
unbelievers) when they experience hardships? They desperately reach out to God
for answers and comfort. Now what is the common factor associated with some
believers (and most unbelievers) when things are running smoothly? They rarely
reach out to God. I’m not insisting that God’s only or even primary purpose for
allowing hardship in our lives is so that we turn to him, but it is definitely
a resulting consequence. When my daughter called me last week in tears because
of how hard her classes are, she kept telling me that she was wondering if she
heard God’s calling for her life correctly and that she had been pleading with
Him to reassure her that she was, in fact, being obedient to Him. She was
beginning to doubt not because she stopped believing what she once was
convinced was God’s calling, she began to doubt because her perspective led her
to believe that if God was calling her to something, it couldn’t possibly be so
hard to get there. To be honest, I know those tears, I too have shed those
tears after my third year of graduate school, after my seventh year of graduate
school and then after finishing graduate school in ten years with no
traditional pastoral ministry in sight. My doubt wasn’t because I didn’t
believe that God called me to ministry, my doubt was the result of a
perspective that told me that God’s calling had to look the way I thought it
should look. When it didn’t, I constantly sought God’s direction and guidance.
I desperately wanted to be obedient to what He was calling me to do but it
looked so different in my mind than the way it was playing out in my life. What
has been the result of this process for me? A daily focus on seeking God! And
this is perhaps the primary point that God is trying to make when we are struggling
with trials and hardships—are we focused on the calling we were once certain
about—the good life we thought God would provide or are we focused on God? For
my daughter, her moment of doubt has passed for now as she prepares with
confidence in her calling for her first medical mission trip next week. You see,
God drew her closer to Himself through her struggle so she could pursue her
calling more dependent and focused on Him.
“Sometimes
God is doing something powerful, but we miss it because of our expectations of
what he should do and how. John anticipated Jesus would take an instant road to
glory. When he did not, John had questions. How often do we fall into the same
trap? We sometimes expect God to do something a certain way, and when he does
not, we think that he has failed. Such expectations may cover a variety of
things—from God’s helping to make a certain business situation successful, to
God’s promising to heal us from a debilitating condition, to our expectation
that the Christian life will be free of hardship. Any of the preconditions for
how God must work may work against us when he chooses to build character by
taking us down a harder road.”[4] This
is a trap we do not have to fall into when we encounter difficulties,
hardships, pain and suffering because When
The Going Gets Tough…the tough humbly seek and trust God.
[1] Darrell
L. Bock, Luke, The NIV Application
Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), p. 210.
[2] Joel B.
Green, NICNT, The Gospel of Luke,
(Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), pp. 296-297.
[3] Darrell
L. Bock, ECNT, Luke, (Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Books, 1994), p. 669.
[4] Bock, NIV, Luke, pp. 213-214.
No comments:
Post a Comment