DON'T BE A SKEPTIC.
BELIEVE!
Introduction: An article in the
Washington Post is titled "I'm an atheist. So why can't I shake God?"
and it suggests that it's "hard to believe in nothing when your psyche is
wired for faith." The author Elizabeth King tells how she abandoned her
childhood Christian faith for atheism. "Until my mid-teens, I was a 'born
again' Christian who loved God with all her heart. These days, though, I'm an
atheist with nothing to prove.
"The story of my departure from
the church resembles those of many others who have abandoned the flock. When I
was about 16, I started asking questions during services that my youth pastors
couldn't or didn't want to answer: Why is it a sin to be gay? Why is it okay to
spank children? Where does the Bible say we can't have premarital sex?"
Still, despite her atheism, King
states, "somehow God has found a way to stick around in my mind." She
thinks that "God's lingering presence" could be attributed to
"the inner-workings of the human mind" against which the atheist
battles hard. She claims, "If I could … banish this figure from my psyche,
I would." In the end, she has to admit, "I have no choice but to
accept that I'm an atheist with a sense for God."[1] No matter what you do you cannot
shake off God.
Sadly, many Christians, including
born-again Christians like Elizabeth King, turn away from their Christian faith.
We live in a time of wild conspiracy theories, from Pizzagate to QAnon, to the
notion that Covid is a hoax and the vaccine an instrument of Government control.
Unfortunately, many believing
Christians believe in them. Amid such weird ideas, we Christians must hold on
to the tenants of our Christian Faith. One of them is the resurrection of
Christ. On the day of the resurrection of Jesus, His disciples, who were very
close to Him, had a hard time believing that he had indeed risen. Let's see how
Jesus confronted their skepticism.
I
THE DISCIPLES STRUGGLE TO BELIEVE
Early on Sunday morning, Jesus made
his first appearance to Mary Magdalene, from whom he drove out seven demons.
She is the first eyewitness to see (and hear and touch) the resurrected Jesus.
Jesus told her to "go" find my brothers and tell them, I am ascending
to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary became the first
messenger.
When Mary told the disciples that
Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn't believe her. (Mk 16:11). That
Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they
were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly Jesus was standing there among
them! How could that be possible? Well,
the grave couldn't hold him. How about these flimsy closed doors to the
resurrected Lord? The power of the resurrected Lord is such that nothing could
stop Him anymore to accomplish His purposes, no closed doors, and no closed
hearts.
Jesus gave convincing proof to His
skeptic disciples by showing them the wounds in his hands and sides to let them
know that He was not a ghost but their Lord who once was with them. The
disciples were overjoyed by seeing the risen Lord. He commissioned them,
saying, "as the father has sent me, so I am sending you." Then He
breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit as they would need His
power to carry the message of the resurrection to the world.
II
A SKEPTIC BECOMES A BELIEVER
While the disciples were witnessing
Jesus' resurrection for the first time, their fellow disciple named Thomas, who
is commonly known as "Doubting Thomas," was not with them. I wonder
where he must have gone? Probably out there gathering evidence as to what
happened. When the disciples told
him, "we have seen the Lord." He replied like a true skeptic. A
skeptic is a person who doesn't believe something is true unless they see the
evidence. Skeptics are doubters —they need to see proof before they will accept.
That's what Thomas wanted.
Thomas said, "I won't believe
it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and
place my hand into the wound in his side." In other words, he was saying,
unless I examine Jesus, I won't believe your story of His resurrection. He must
have struggled with that idea and couldn't have shaken that thought of Jesus'
bodily resurrection for eight days.
Eight days later, the disciples were
together again, and this time our skeptic Thomas was with them. The same
powerful account has happened again. Jesus walked right through the locked doors,
went straight for doubting Thomas, and put Himself to personal scrutiny.
He invited Thomas to come close and
put his finger in his hands and his hand in the wound on His side. Then He said
to Thomas, "Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!" In other words,
"Don't Be a Skeptic. Believe! Those words were powerful and convicting.
Thomas was no longer a skeptic but became a firm believer. He exclaimed,
"My Lord and my God."
With that firm conviction, later on,
Thomas became an apostle to India. He preached the gospel in India and many
Hindus have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. According to Syrian Christian
tradition, Saint Thomas was allegedly martyred at St. Thomas Mount in Chennai
on 3 July in AD 72, and his body was interred in Mylapore. I saw the place
where he was martyred.
What does this all mean to us on
this resurrection Sunday morning? This particular message is not only for
skeptics but also for the followers of Christ. Like the close disciples of
Christ, we too struggle with skepticism and unbelief, not necessarily regarding
His resurrection but on other matters of faith. We often let the world's
philosophy cloud our theology.
The truth is! We can rely on Jesus
entirely, for He is trustworthy, but we must come to Him with child-like faith.
Children are not skeptics, but grown-up adults can be. We have a hard time
trusting the Lord for who He says He is and what He can do. If the risen Lord
shows up this morning at this lakeside, His message for us would be, “Don't be
a Skeptic. Believe!” Amen.
[1] Source:
Elizabeth King, "I'm an atheist. So why can't I shake God? Turns out it's
pretty hard to believe in nothing when your psyche is wired for faith,"
Washington Post (2-4-16)
