Believing without Seeing
A constant skeptical refrain that I hear in the world of apologetics is “If God would just open up the heavens and show Himself to me in some spectacular way I would then believe?” But, I do not think that is the real problem. I believe God has given us enough evidence of His existence so that we can know Him and enter into a relationship with Him. The flip side of the coin is that the immortal invisible divinity can remain hidden from the faithless who exchange the truth for the lie. An element of biblical faith is placing trust in things unseen. I find a great example of this is the centurion who called upon Christ to heal his servant.
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that “Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented’ ” (Matt. 8:5-6). But, it is clear that the centurion never met face to face with Jesus; rather, they communicated through a mediating envoy. The Gospel of Luke indicates a centurion’s slave was sick, and since the slave was “highly regarded,” the centurion, upon hearing the news about Jesus, “sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave” (Luke 7:2-3). When Jesus was approaching the centurion’s home, the centurion sent another group asking for the Lord to perform the miracle without entering into the home (Luke 7:6). Matthew condenses the account of Jesus’ healing of the centurion’s servant whereas Luke gives the finer details. [1]
The centurion’s emissaries represented and spoke on their master’s behalf to Jesus Christ, which is very similar to the White House press secretary speaking on behalf of the President [2].
What blows me away is that Jesus never really comes into contact with the centurion nor the servant; rather, the Lord miraculously heals from a distance. The centurion reasoned that just as he never has to be physically present to send an order to the troops with full expectation they will be carried out, in the same way Jesus can use His supernatural powers to heal someone without actually being present.
Christ was impressed by the faith of that Gentile, which surpassed the faith of many of those in His own Jewish community. “Truly I say to you,” says Christ, “I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:11-12). The centurion had enough faith that he trusted Christ to perform something great, while at the same time, neither of them met physically face to face. The irony is that those who possessed a great and tangible spiritual pedigree—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—they lacked faith, and that would be to their ruin.
The invisible and immortal God does indeed exist, and He has given to us enough evidence to know He is here and He is not silent. Even though we cannot physically see God, we can be certain, just as the centurion, that He is there, and He will come to save the day.
~ WGN
__________________
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that “Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented’ ” (Matt. 8:5-6). But, it is clear that the centurion never met face to face with Jesus; rather, they communicated through a mediating envoy. The Gospel of Luke indicates a centurion’s slave was sick, and since the slave was “highly regarded,” the centurion, upon hearing the news about Jesus, “sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave” (Luke 7:2-3). When Jesus was approaching the centurion’s home, the centurion sent another group asking for the Lord to perform the miracle without entering into the home (Luke 7:6). Matthew condenses the account of Jesus’ healing of the centurion’s servant whereas Luke gives the finer details. [1]
The centurion’s emissaries represented and spoke on their master’s behalf to Jesus Christ, which is very similar to the White House press secretary speaking on behalf of the President [2].
What blows me away is that Jesus never really comes into contact with the centurion nor the servant; rather, the Lord miraculously heals from a distance. The centurion reasoned that just as he never has to be physically present to send an order to the troops with full expectation they will be carried out, in the same way Jesus can use His supernatural powers to heal someone without actually being present.
Christ was impressed by the faith of that Gentile, which surpassed the faith of many of those in His own Jewish community. “Truly I say to you,” says Christ, “I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness, in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:11-12). The centurion had enough faith that he trusted Christ to perform something great, while at the same time, neither of them met physically face to face. The irony is that those who possessed a great and tangible spiritual pedigree—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—they lacked faith, and that would be to their ruin.
The invisible and immortal God does indeed exist, and He has given to us enough evidence to know He is here and He is not silent. Even though we cannot physically see God, we can be certain, just as the centurion, that He is there, and He will come to save the day.
~ WGN
__________________
- The Gospels often recount the same event in Jesus’ life in a different way, but these nuances are really a testimonial to the authenticity of the eyewitness sources used by their respective authors. In The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel observes, “Ironically…if the gospels had been identical to each other, word for word, this would have raised charges that the authors had conspired among themselves to coordinate their stories in advance, and that would have cast doubt on them,” to which New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg replies, “That’s right…if the gospels were too consistent, that in itself would invalidate them as independent witnesses. People would then say we really only have one testimony that everybody else is just parroting” (Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidences for Jesus [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998], 45.)
- Darrell L. Bock, Jesus According to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 158
Comments
Post a Comment