What Does It Take to Believe?
What Does it Take to Believe? by Rev. L. John Gable
March 13, 2022
Faith is an interesting and enigmatic part of our lives. It seems there are some who, regardless of what happens, will always believe; and others who, regardless of what happens, will seemingly never believe. And then there are those who go through life never quite sure whether they believe or not. Admittedly, faith comes more easily to some of us than to others, so I believe each of us is somewhere on that dynamic, never static, continuum. No doubt about it, faith is an interesting and enigmatic part of our lives.
What does it take to believe? The question is addressed to each of us because each of us, individually, must answer it for ourselves. Faith is not something we can give to anyone else. We may be able to share our faith with others, but we can never make them believe it. As we make our way through John’s Gospel we will eventually hear him tell his readers his reason for writing, “These words are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31). That is his desire for each and every one of us, but a genuine faith relationship with Jesus Christ must at some point be an individual decision. Faith must be personal and private before it can become public and pronounced. So the question posed to us this morning is, “What does it take for us, for you, for me, to believe?”
Our lesson this morning is surely one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture. Each time I read it I find myself caught up in the drama of the dialogue and laugh to myself at how beautifully John characterizes human nature. It is a mini-drama played out in six separate scenes, beginning with Jesus’ miraculous healing of a man who had been blind from birth, the demonstration of His famous pronouncement, “I AM the light of the world.”
This is a story in which each of us can find ourselves, if we look carefully and honestly enough. It is a story in which the blind receive sight and the seeing are shown to be blind. It is the story of a man whose eyes are opened for the very first time by the miraculous, healing touch of Jesus, and whose life is radically transformed as he has a personal encounter with “the light of the world.” His was a faith that could not be moved or refuted, despite the arguments put to him. “One thing I know,” he answers his accusers, “though I was blind, now I can see.” It is hard to argue with that kind of logic; as the saying goes, “against a fact there is no argument”.
Perhaps there are those among us here who can identify with this man; those of us whose lives have been touched and radically changed by an experience with the living Lord, such that nothing and no one could ever shake their faith. There are many who can proclaim in the bold honesty of faith, “I once was lost and now am found; I was blind but now I see.” This story speaks of their experience with Christ.
There are others of us though who have experienced barriers to our coming to faith. The neighbors in our story had trouble believing this really was the “once blind man” because they knew his past and this radical change in him didn’t seem possible. They didn’t know what had happened or how it happened, so they found it a little too hard to believe that it really had happened. Many of us have a past, a before we met Jesus as well, which may be something of a barrier for others, or perhaps even for us ourselves, to believe that the change He has made in us is really real and lasting. It is almost too good to believe it is really true.
The Pharisees in this story faced a different kind of barrier to belief ironically called religion or tradition. They knew the Law, all of the rules and regulations, but what they saw happen to this blind man didn’t fit into their carefully defined boxes of what God could or would do. They seemed more concerned with legalism than with new life. Perhaps we, particularly those of us who have grown up in the Church as we’ve known it, the so called “frozen chosen”, may have to confess a little “Pharisee-ism” in ourselves as well when we become suspicious about how God is at work in other people’s lives in ways we don’t fully understand.
When the parents were brought in to the story they too encountered a barrier to faith we might call intimidation. They knew it was their son and that he could now see for the very first time, which must have thrilled them, but to confess the Healer Jesus as the Promised Messiah would have meant they would be banned from the synagogue, rejected by their family and friends, threatened with social and economic ostracism and isolation. They were intimidated by the very real cost of discipleship which for them would have been great, and many today face that same barrier to faith, real or imagined, as they consider the response and reactions of their parents, their friends, their associates at work or school should they suddenly announce that they had become a follower of Jesus. Societal pressures and intimidation are as much a barrier to faith in the 21st century as it was in the first.
So, do you find yourself somewhere in this story? Perhaps in one character, perhaps in many, at different times, in different situations? How do you and I answer the question, “What does it take to believe?” Each of these individuals witnessed the same miracle, the same body of evidence, but each came to a different conclusion. Why is that? What does it take for our eyes of faith to be opened?
It is interesting to me that many people who don’t believe, for whatever reason, can’t imagine how they ever could believe with any sense of honesty and integrity; and, at the same time, there are others who do believe who can’t imagine how they could ever not believe. And then there is that vast body of the “undecideds” who struggle with the ultimate questions of life, yet who are so caught up in the temporal that they can never quite focus on the eternal; so consumed by the things of this world that they never consider the things of God. So we wonder, what does it take to believe? What needs to happen for someone to come to faith?
Is faith something we do, or is it something God does for us? Is it a free gift given to us by God, or is it something we must discover for ourselves? Is faith gift or is it grasp?
Most of us tend to think of faith as something which we do. Either we believe or we don’t, and it is up to us. We figure that at some point, for some reason which we may or may not remember, we sought after God in one way or another, and found Him, and that’s why we believe. So we assume the reason that those who do not believe is because they have not sought or tried to believe, and if they ever really did try to believe, they would. There may be something to that, but when we hold this view we need to cautious of assuming a prideful or judgmental attitude, which is wholly inconsistent with the life of faith.
If it is the case that faith is something we do for ourselves, it begs still other questions. Where does that desire to seek God come from? Is it something we initiate within ourselves? Is it passed to us by our parents or the environment we grow up in? Or, could it be that God Himself instills it within us? Lest we get prideful or judgmental, Paul writes to the Ephesians, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God” (2:8). Paul says faith is, first and last, a gift from God. If we are totally honest we must admit that our faith really isn’t anything we have done for ourselves at all. Like the blind man in our story, we may have recognized our need, but it is Jesus who reaches out and touches us. In that case, our only appropriate response is humble gratitude.
If then faith is a gift from God, it begs the question, why don’t all people believe, as we do? Is the gift only given to some and not to others? It comes back to our question of gift or grasp; perhaps it is a gift offered but still it must be received.
There is a wonderful story about a pronounced atheist who was standing in a city park one day harshly denouncing the Christian faith. He finally gave his gathered audience a challenge. “If anyone can prove that I am wrong, I invite them to come up to the platform right now.” After an embarrassing silence an elderly man walked on to the stage. “Show me your proof”, said the antagonist. Without a word, the old fellow reached into his pocket and took out an orange. He slowly peeled it and ate it.
Impatiently the critic asked, “Well, what is your proof?” The old man turned to him and asked, “How did that orange taste?”
“How would I know,” came the reply. “I didn’t eat it!”
“Exactly,” said the old man. “And I just showed you what I discovered about the Christian faith. I tasted it and it was good.”
Doesn’t that sound like the confrontation between the blind man and his antagonists in our story? There are so many arguments to confound and confuse the truth of the Christian faith, but all of them become meaningless when once we experience the presence of Jesus Christ in our own lives. There are many reasons which people give as to why they don’t believe, and many criticisms posed to those of us who do, but there is one sure answer we can give which no one can dispute, “I tasted it and it was good.” “I was blind but now I see.” As renowned preacher, Harry Emerson Fosdick, writes, “The most important truths cannot be reached by speculation or induction alone; they must be experienced if they are to be known.”
So, in answer to our question, “Is faith gift or grasp?” we realize it is both. It is both something which we must do and something which only God can and must do for us. Faith is a gift of grace freely given by God which is offered to all people, but it is a gift which must be accepted and incorporated into our lives if it is to become real and meaningful.
As finite human beings we would be overwhelmed, and utterly lost, if we were given the task of having to find our way to an infinite and almighty God. But that task becomes infinitely less overwhelming when we realize that God is seeking us as well. Professor Rufus Jones has coined a wonderful phrase for this. He calls it a “double search”. By this he means that faith is not merely our random search for God, nor it is only God’s search for us. It is a combination of both. Like a child accidentally separated from his parents in an amusement park who, suddenly realizing he is lost, begins searching for them; at the same time, they begin frantically searching for him. When they finally come together, who can we say has found whom? It has been a double search, for both have sought and found the other. So it is in faith, even while we are seeking God, thinking it is all up to us to find Him, it is also God Who is actively seeking us.
At the conclusion of our story, Jesus reappears and re-approaches the once blind man and asks him, “Do you believe?” The man, not recognizing Jesus, remember the last time he was with Him he was blind, answers in effect, “Now that I can see, show me who it is I should believe in.” Jesus tells him, “It is I!”, or perhaps better yet, “I AM He!”
A beautiful thing happens at this point in the story. The man’s eyes are opened a second time; the first time physically, the second time, spiritually. So he confesses his faith and falls down at Jesus’ feet and worships Him. The double search is complete: Jesus has sought out the man and healed him; the man has responded in faith and praise.
What a wonderful story: the blind seeing, the seeing shown to be blind. What does it take to believe? Perhaps, most simply, we can say: it takes our being ready and willing to admit our need and accept the gift which God is ever ready to give us: the gift of Himself. For it is at that point that we experience the living presence of Jesus Christ in our own lives. A presence which transforms us and opens our eyes of faith to the light of the world. It is then, and only then, that this story becomes our story, and we can say, in the full confidence and humility of faith, “All I know is this: I once was lost, but now am found. I was blind, but now I see.” Thanks be to God.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN