Day 45: Spiral of Doubt

John 7:25-30

New International Version (NIV)

Division Over Who Jesus Is

 ²⁵ At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶ Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” ²⁸ Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, ²⁹ but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
 ³⁰ At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

I have to say that I'm slogging through all this discussion of the Festival of Tabernacles... mostly because I can't honestly say that I've ever studied it before. Here's what hit me about these verses. All these people are just standing around, quasi-casually chatting about whether or no this man is the Messiah. THE MESSIAH. The person they've been waiting for for, oh, say, hundreds of years.

Today I went with about twenty other girls and ladies to a Girls Day in Nashville. In the ladies' class, the speaker (a university professor) discussed the "spiral of doubt" that tends to occur in college groups when the students haven't been prepared to defend their faith. It goes something like this: "I've been thinking about blah. I'm not sure I believe that anymore." "You know, I thought about that once too. Maybe you're right... maybe we shouldn't believe blah." Add a lot of getting worked up and a bunch of kids who don't want to go against the flow of discord, and pretty soon a whole dorm full of kids are doubting this particular idea. Now, questioning is a good thing, and please don't hear me saying that they have no right to question. They do. But questioning without knowledge leads to icky things. Now, repeat the scenario above with just one kid who pulls out his Bible and says, "Well, let's take a look. Right here it says..." You still have questioning, but you also help to prevent the "spiral of doubt" by giving that doubt a floor to land on... namely, the foundation of the Word.

That may not seem like it fits with this passage, but in my mind somehow it does. These guys are talking about this Messiah, and instead of digging in for themselves and determining whether the prophecies made about him are coming to pass in the form of Jesus Christ, they say, "Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah?"

Seems to me like one of two things should be happening here (both of which require personal action). A. They figure out that this IS the Messiah. If you are expecting someone to come save your entire people, and they come, and you hear someone plotting to kill them, wouldn't it make sense to try and DO something about it? B. They figure out that this is NOT the Messiah. If he's an imposter, then wouldn't it make sense to turn him in to the authorities?

Instead, they sit on the fence and chat about the whole scene like they're watching a football game. Sad to say, I'm afraid we deal with most things this way too... in a disconnected, hypothetical sort of way. Christianity is, by definition, hands-on. It's not a spectator sport. You've got to dig in, get your hands dirty, and go further in your faith than you ever thought you could. We can't let the masses make our decisions for us, or wait to hear what they decided. At the end of the day, I'm responsible for my own soul, and "somebody said so" won't be good enough.