What Kind of Faith

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

WHAT KIND OF FAITH

John 11:17-27

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." 23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."  24 Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"  27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."

NIV

Did you hear what Martha just said? She actually believes Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the one how has come into the world. She also believes that God will give him anything he asks for, but she has not asked him to raise her brother from the dead, even though Jesus had just told her that Lazarus would rise again. What is it about Martha which makes her believe but not believe? Certainly she has spent many hours in the presence of Jesus. He clearly has a personal relationship with her, as well as her sister and brother and must have told them many things about himself and his relationship with the Father. Yet Martha was having a difficult time with the fact that Jesus had not come to heal her brother, but let him die, and now she thought there was nothing he could do about.  Although we could see this in light of her acknowledging the sovereignty of Jesus, that whatever he wants is fine with her, that she is alright with God deciding that her brother should die at this time, that does not seem to be the tenner of her response. It is more likely about her faith. Could her faith in Jesus only have been based on her human understanding of life? Is it possible she could not see with spiritual eyes, but only with her physical ones? This could be a lesson for us as well. We believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the one sent into the world as we believe God will give him anything he asks for, but still we may be in the same position as Martha, not really believing for things that we cannot see with our human eyes or understanding. When we face a difficult situation in our life, do we look for a human way to solve it, or even for God to solve it in some human way, or do we look to Jesus for a supernatural response? Yes we could spend many thoughts about the words of Jesus here. We could recount all his other words about if we believe we will never die. We could spend countless words exploring the facts around eternal life if we believe in Jesus, that he is the resurrection. Martha believed all that as we do, but the point here is not about Jesus and the resurrection, although it is that too, but it is about her faith. She could only believe as much as she could understand. She could not believe for what she could not understand. We must not be trapped into that kind of faith, that is crippling, that is a wounded faith, a weak faith, but we must have complete unwavering faith in Jesus, beyond any human comprehension. When things in life seem there darkest, we have Jesus. We may not be able to see a way out, but Jesus does, and he said if we ask the Father anything in his name he will give it to us. If Martha had that kind of faith, she would have asked Jesus to bring her brother back from the dead. Perhaps that sort of raising from the dead will not happen today, but maybe it could if we asked with the required faith, that is unwavering, without a shred of doubt kind of faith. Yet there are many other difficult situations in life we content with that perhaps we should not, if we actually believed, if we had the faith that can move mountains. Is there a difference between faith and complete faith?