The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, December 16th: Isaiah 35:1-6, 10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11: 2-11)

A LITTLE DOUBT CAN HELP BUILD FAITH

In this week’s gospel reading, John the Baptist was in prison and he sent his followers to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”

Whenever I read this passage from Scripture, it just floors me. Holy mackerel! John the Baptist—THE John the Baptist—was unsure of Jesus’ identity. The same John the Baptist featured in last week’s gospel reading and discussed in all four Gospels as a great and holy messenger of God, actually had doubts about Jesus.

How can that be? John was filled with God’s Spirit and given the job of preparing the way for Jesus’ coming. He baptized Jesus in the River Jordan and saw the Spirit descend on Him in the form of a dove. At that time he knew enough about Jesus to exclaim, “I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals,” and, “I baptize with water, but he will baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire!”

What happened? How could John possibly be confused about Jesus’ identity after all he had experienced?

I think there are a couple of lessons here for us. First, it is normal to have doubts. The one thing God wants from us more than all else is faith. But sometimes faith is hard. It should not be surprising when the opposite of faith, doubt, occasionally creeps in.

If someone with John’s background—blessed by God before his birth and filled with the Spirit—can have doubts, well, then it’s not the end of the world if we occasionally have doubt, too.

As we learned earlier this year, even Mother Teresa had doubts. Some of her harshest critics gloated at the news. “Ha! This proves she was a fraud!” No, Mr. Hitchens, this proves faith is difficult.

Even though John the Baptist had doubts, he (like Mother Teresa) did something about it. He didn’t just sit and mope and lament, “Oh, I’m so confused. I don’t know what to believe!” Or even worse, what many people say today: “Hey, no one knows for sure,” and then they continue to ignore the whole topic of God while pressing on with their frantic materialistic lives, as if big-screen TVs, Botox, and BMWs can provide eternal life and joy.

Instead, John sent his followers to get some answers. We can be sure that if he was not locked up in prison he would have gone straight to Jesus himself and said, “Okay, I’m a little confused. Let’s review. Gimme the straight scoop from the beginning again so I can clear this up in my mind.”

When we have doubts, we too should go straight to the source. A little time on our knees humbly seeking the Lord can do wonders for clearing up confusion and doubt.

We should note that Jesus did not rebuke or criticize John for his doubt. In this week’s reading Jesus gave some fabulous compliments to John: “Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist.”

Likewise for us, Jesus will never turn away from us if we doubt. He’s always ready to embrace us when we seek Him, even if our faith is a little shaky at the moment.

The other important lesson from this week’s reading is the response Jesus gave to John’s inquiry. He said, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.”

Jesus did not present absolute proof of His identity. Instead He presented strong evidence.

Jesus could have proven to John beyond a doubt who He was. He could have performed some incredible supernatural feat—dissolving the walls of the prison with a wave of His hand and carrying John up into the air to view all of Jerusalem. John would have no other choice but to believe.

But Jesus didn’t do that. He simply reminded John of what had been happening in the region since Jesus’ arrival. He gave evidence, not proof. This is important because as the book of Hebrews tells us, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

It’s kind of like a Catch-22. If Jesus’ identity is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, then it’s really not faith and our free will is not a factor. God wants us to make the decision to turn to Him of our own free will. If He beats us over the head and drags us before His throne, there’s no free will decision on our part. It would not be based on faith; it would be based on force.

God doesn’t work that way. He gives us the freedom to come to Him or not. To ensure that it is our free will decision, it must be based on faith, which means there must always be a little doubt.

But God certainly offers plenty of compelling evidence to help us make our decision. If we take the time to consider all this evidence, then the verdict becomes obvious about Jesus’ identity: He is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and our one true source of eternal life and joy.

And if certain people spent a little time studying this compelling evidence, then maybe they would not make fools of themselves writing nasty-grams about a saintly deceased woman (are you listening, Mr. Hitchens?).  

©2007