Having the faith to trust God through Jesus
Arguably, Christmas celebrates the greatest gift God has ever given to mankind — His son, Jesus, who had to set aside immense power in order to infiltrate humanity. Easter recognizes the greatest gift that Jesus gave to each of us — everlasting life in heaven if we will simply accept his guidance on how to get there. Without Christmas, there would be no Easter; without Easter, there would be no future for anyone. Christianity turns on those two historical events.
The other day, I was visiting with another chaplain and he pointed out how one of the law enforcement community who is not a believer always invites him to pray when there is a difficult situation. It made me remember a young lady sitting beside the bed of her dying grandmother in the hospital who very pointedly told me that she was an unbeliever. Ironically, she also made a significant point of informing me that she was convinced that her grandmother was going to heaven because she was a believer. If I had the ability to evaluate the people in our country right now, I suspect that I would find that the majority of our current generation falls somewhere among unbelievers.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I begin to explore my own perspective on these things, I suddenly discover that I am also an unbeliever. Granted that I was not present when these miraculous things occurred, but given my present understanding of my environment, I don’t believe in people walking on the water, eyesight being restored by rubbing some mud on a person’s eyes, and lame people having their limbs restored just because someone said, “Pick up your cot and get out of here.” I’m not so sure about the forgiveness of sins, but it certainly is difficult to believe that people could beat Jesus two or three times, make him carry his own crucifixion cross up a hill, nail him to a cross and watch him die a horrible death, and then not doubt when he suddenly shows up in good health. I’ve always identified with Thomas on this one. Yes, I guess I also am an unbeliever. Miracles generally are outside the realm of science and observation.
During the past few years, I’ve had discussions with different people about how to prove the existence of God. Silly people. How can you prove the existence of something or Someone you don’t even have the ability to see, to know, or understand? It’s far easier to make the case that nothing known about humanity or the universe is possible without some kind of divine input, which, by the way, is the power Jesus must have laid aside in order to come to earth as a human being. Positing the existence of God in order to understand creation is a lot easier than hypothesizing about what might or might not have happened. Surely, astute minds have to admit that the so-called “Big Bang Theory” only pushes creation back one step; it never answers the question of where the stuff in the “Big Bang” came from.
Let me extrapolate a little more about being an unbeliever. Being an unbeliever does not mean a person does not believe
in God, Jesus, and the generations of human witnesses claiming things not really provable. It’s a little like the father in Mark 9:17-29 who had a son with an evil spirit that was constantly trying to either hurt or kill him. When Jesus asked how long this had been going on, the father replied, “Since childhood … But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” To which Jesus replied, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” In desperation with tears, the father cried out, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” Jesus then compelled the evil spirit to leave the boy and restored him to health.
I would like to suggest that the Christian story is not really about proving or not proving the existence of God, not about whether you believe or not believe; but rather about having the faith to trust God through Jesus for “the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).” Our belief must be in Jesus as the son of God, who taught us the pathway to God, and how to discover the full meaning of Easter. Again, I stand with Thomas who demanded to see the signs of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus said to him, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe! (John 20:26-29).”
Christians celebrate an empty tomb on Easter, and they go to church to find the risen Savior. This is the start of their belief journey.
••• Robert Box has been a law enforcement chaplain for 29 years. He is a master-level chaplain with the International Conference of Police Chaplains and is an endorsed chaplain with the American Baptist Churches USA. He also currently serves as a deputy sheriff chaplain for the Benton County Sheriff ’s Office. Opinions expressed in the article are the opinions of the author and not the agencies he serves.