Faith Beyond What We See

38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39"Take away the stone," he said.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."
40Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Why do we grow into physically mature people with spiritually immature vision? What is it that causes us to doubt our faith? When we have seen the hope of our faith proven over and over we still wonder that God can accomplish great things. Is it simply that we are surrounded by finite things? Or is it the finite eyes that we have?

Jesus had told Martha that she could see great things if she believed. All is fine with that until Martha is actually tested with a real life problem – her brother has died. Then she instinctively questions Christ’s instruction to her when he asks her to remove the stone covering the tomb of her brother. He’s been dead for four days. He is the water at the wedding. Martha protests that it is just water. These are just five loaves and fishes! He is blind! He is lame! She is an adulteress! Is it really you, Lord? All of the questions that describe human doubt over spiritual faith.

The gentle reminder from Jesus is a heavenly “I told you so.” And then he performs the miracle and the water becomes wine, the loaves and fishes feed five thousand, the blind and lame are healed, the adulteress forgiven, Thomas sees the proof, and Lazarus is brought back from the dead.

Doubt often precedes faith. It is the human-ness, the frail, mortal, finite vision that sees no further than what is in front of it at the moment; the eyesight that cannot see around corners or over the horizon of time. It is when faith overcomes doubt that God says, “I told you so.”