Christian thinker and author, Os Guinness, once wrote that ‘If faith does not resolve doubt, doubt will dissolve faith’. Doubt is part of Christian experience in a fallen world. Christian belief and faith is complex, and doubt can be every bit as complex. It can have many different causes. Some doubt is driven by intellectual questions. Many Christians read just enough to discover questions asked of their faith, but not enough to discover the answers! Other doubt can be the result of suffering. In a fallen world things happen to us that simply overwhelm our faith. Still others find themselves doubting because of lifestyle decisions that undermine their faith. In some cases, we are emotionally overwhelmed. Sometimes we simply haven’t given our faith enough to feed on, we haven’t nurtured it. Or it can be the result of wrong thinking about God, or our relationship with Him: assumptions we have made that simply aren’t justified by the Bible’s teaching. We are holistic beings, and doubt can be triggered by exhaustion, loneliness, stress, illness; accident; jealousy; discouragement, failure...
Whether doubt is a positive or negative thing (or indeed whether different kinds of doubt could be either) is something I’ll leave you to reflect on in your discussion. But Jesus doesn’t define John by his doubt. He doesn’t demote John, or call into question his mission or spiritual credibility because of this display of doubt. He publically re-affirms John’s status as a prophet, indeed the greatest ‘among those born of women’. It would appear that nothing about doubt demeans us in the sight of Christ. Arguably what we do with our doubt is more important than the fact of its existence. John doesn’t sit in his cell wrapped in self-pity and existential angst. He goes to Jesus (albeit through his disciples!). And Jesus deals with John’s doubt by turning John to the Scriptures.
It’s telling that Jesus doesn’t give John a direct answer. Rather he gives John the tools necessary to resolve his doubt through confronting Scripture. Or rather, He gives the Spirit to resolve John’s doubt through the Scripture. By pointing out the immediate effects of His ministry, and presenting those effects as He does, Jesus is evoking Isaiah 35. Interestingly, he expects John to be sufficiently familiar with the writings of Isaiah to recognise his allusion and to understand its significance.
My own hunch is that by addressing John’s question in this way Jesus is not just resolving his doubt, but strengthening his faith. John’s greatest battle still lies ahead, and in His wisdom and mercy, Jesus is equipping him for it.
Questions:
How do you deal with doubt in your own experience of Christian discipleship?
What is it that triggers John’s doubt? What is it about John and his situation, and what is it about Jesus?
How can someone whose life (even from before birth) has been so wrapped up in his experience of the Lord now be unsure about whether He is, in fact, the One to come? What does John’s designating of Jesus in these terms reveal about what he believes and understands about Jesus?
Why might we be tempted to stumble on account of Jesus (v.23)?
What does Jesus mean by a ‘reed swayed by the wind’ (v.24)? Why would it be a problem for John to be like this? Do you know anyone who is like this?
Does Jesus have a problem with ‘expensive clothes’ (v.25)? ... or with indulging in luxury? ...or with palaces?
What is it about John that makes him so ‘great’ in Jesus’ eyes (v.28)? Why is the least in the kingdom of God actually greater than John? How does Jesus ‘grade’ people?
How is Christian baptism similar to John’s baptism (vv.29-30)? ...and how is it different? And why can being baptised reveal our acceptance or rejection of God’s purposes? Can people be Christians without being baptised (Acts 2:38)?
Why are people critical of John and Jesus (v.32-34)? How can we learn from them how to handle such criticism?
What is a ‘child’ of wisdom? ...and how does it prove wisdom’s rightness (v.35)?
