"... Jesus could not do many miracles there, because of their unbelief."
(Mt. 13:58)
The scene in Nazareth at the synagogue (where Jesus read Isaiah 61 and said "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" - and then the people started saying, "What? this is just Joseph's son!!" and then the statement that Jesus couldn't do many miracles there because of their unbelief) has always plagued me as holding more than just the lesson, "If you don't believe, you won't receive." And of course, "He came to His own and His own received Him not..."
We think we know what belief looks like. To some, it's the mental assent or acceptance one gives to a philosophy or a doctrine. To others, it's a system, a code of conduct. But for me and for thousands like me, it's throwing one's whole life's weight onto something - or someone. Building one's whole life on it.
But what exactly is UNbelief? After looking at the Matthew passage and studying some of the other more well-known texts concerning faith and doubt, belief and unbelief, and drawing upon what I know from experience, I think I might have stumbled on something.
First let me say that the unbelief referred to in the story of the man with a son who threw himself in the fire from demonic possession, is not the kind of unbelief I am talking about here. The man (in saying, "I believe, help my unbelief!") referred to a certain element of doubt, which (if we're truly honest about it) we all have to some degree or another. It's my contention that it doesn't matter how much or how little faith we have. The important thing is where we place it. I'll get back to that thought in a bit.
To try to figure out what unbelief is (the kind that blocks what God wants to do in a life) I had to go back to an incident that happened during the wanderings of Israel in the desert during that 40 years. Oversimplification : the people had been bad. To teach them a lesson, God sent poisonous snakes into the camp to bite them - people started dying. Some cried out to Moses. Moses asked God what to do. God told him to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole and lift it up so that the people could see it if they looked. All they had to do was look at the serpent and they would live. Many did, and were cured. But there were those who didn't. And they died.
These people showed the same kind of attitude as the folks in Nazareth did that day. It's not that they didn't have the faith to believe. EVERYONE has faith. Everyone! It's that they WOULDN'T believe. They chose to believe what their eyes told them - that the snakes were there, the tooth-holes were there, the poison streaks were creeping up their skin. They refused to believe (call it an overt act of UN-belief or ANTI-belief) that just looking at a bronze snake on a pole would make that situation better. It's just the same as the people in Nazareth. They saw this guy that had grown up in their community, they knew him, they knew he was "Joe's boy." They knew his brothers and sisters, cousins and classmates. They had seen him working in the carpenter shop beside his dad. So they said, "Yeah. Right." They refused to put their belief in this person's claims that he was the Chosen One.
And they missed out. Big time.
They had faith up the wazoo. They did! They firmly believed that Messiah would come. They KNEW He would come. They just didn't - refused to - believe that Jesus was the Messiah. That this was their time. That history was being made before their eyes.
Contrast that with the man to whom I referred earlier. He didn't have a whole lot of faith. His faith had been eroded, year after year, prayer after prayer, faith-healer after faith-healer. Nothing had worked. His son was still sick. Not even Jesus' disciples could do anything for him. He was ready to pack it all in. And then Jesus shows up. Desperate, he asks for help. Again. In spite of his doubt.
"Believe," he heard. That re-opened a very old wound. He'd been told nearly all of his son's life that the child wasn't delivered of his demons because the father didn't believe enough. (Isn't that still the message believing people still get when they face this or that incurable illness and it doesn't go away?) Honestly, making himself vulnerable to the same accusation, he confesses, "I do believe! help my unbelief!!" And I find it intriguing that instead of berating the father for his lack of faith, Jesus saw that the man was putting whatever faith he had left ... in HIM. That was all it took. All his faith from before had been placed in the faith-healers, in the doctors, even in the disciples. And now - his faith had found a resting-place.
And his boy was delivered. Just ... like ... that.
(Mt. 13:58)
The scene in Nazareth at the synagogue (where Jesus read Isaiah 61 and said "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" - and then the people started saying, "What? this is just Joseph's son!!" and then the statement that Jesus couldn't do many miracles there because of their unbelief) has always plagued me as holding more than just the lesson, "If you don't believe, you won't receive." And of course, "He came to His own and His own received Him not..."
But what exactly is UNbelief? After looking at the Matthew passage and studying some of the other more well-known texts concerning faith and doubt, belief and unbelief, and drawing upon what I know from experience, I think I might have stumbled on something.
First let me say that the unbelief referred to in the story of the man with a son who threw himself in the fire from demonic possession, is not the kind of unbelief I am talking about here. The man (in saying, "I believe, help my unbelief!") referred to a certain element of doubt, which (if we're truly honest about it) we all have to some degree or another. It's my contention that it doesn't matter how much or how little faith we have. The important thing is where we place it. I'll get back to that thought in a bit.
To try to figure out what unbelief is (the kind that blocks what God wants to do in a life) I had to go back to an incident that happened during the wanderings of Israel in the desert during that 40 years. Oversimplification : the people had been bad. To teach them a lesson, God sent poisonous snakes into the camp to bite them - people started dying. Some cried out to Moses. Moses asked God what to do. God told him to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole and lift it up so that the people could see it if they looked. All they had to do was look at the serpent and they would live. Many did, and were cured. But there were those who didn't. And they died.
These people showed the same kind of attitude as the folks in Nazareth did that day. It's not that they didn't have the faith to believe. EVERYONE has faith. Everyone! It's that they WOULDN'T believe. They chose to believe what their eyes told them - that the snakes were there, the tooth-holes were there, the poison streaks were creeping up their skin. They refused to believe (call it an overt act of UN-belief or ANTI-belief) that just looking at a bronze snake on a pole would make that situation better. It's just the same as the people in Nazareth. They saw this guy that had grown up in their community, they knew him, they knew he was "Joe's boy." They knew his brothers and sisters, cousins and classmates. They had seen him working in the carpenter shop beside his dad. So they said, "Yeah. Right." They refused to put their belief in this person's claims that he was the Chosen One.
And they missed out. Big time.
They had faith up the wazoo. They did! They firmly believed that Messiah would come. They KNEW He would come. They just didn't - refused to - believe that Jesus was the Messiah. That this was their time. That history was being made before their eyes.
Contrast that with the man to whom I referred earlier. He didn't have a whole lot of faith. His faith had been eroded, year after year, prayer after prayer, faith-healer after faith-healer. Nothing had worked. His son was still sick. Not even Jesus' disciples could do anything for him. He was ready to pack it all in. And then Jesus shows up. Desperate, he asks for help. Again. In spite of his doubt.
"Believe," he heard. That re-opened a very old wound. He'd been told nearly all of his son's life that the child wasn't delivered of his demons because the father didn't believe enough. (Isn't that still the message believing people still get when they face this or that incurable illness and it doesn't go away?) Honestly, making himself vulnerable to the same accusation, he confesses, "I do believe! help my unbelief!!" And I find it intriguing that instead of berating the father for his lack of faith, Jesus saw that the man was putting whatever faith he had left ... in HIM. That was all it took. All his faith from before had been placed in the faith-healers, in the doctors, even in the disciples. And now - his faith had found a resting-place.
And his boy was delivered. Just ... like ... that.
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