Lately I’ve been thinking about unbelievers. You know, the people in the Bible who didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah. Not the people in the angry mob calling for crucifixion, but the quiet ones. The professional, respectable ones who, even after seeing miracles happen in front of them and listening to Jesus’ sermons in real time, still would not accept the Savior as presented.
The thought that immediately entered my mind was: we’re too hard on those who didn’t believe.
Most of us read the Bible with the confirmation bias of two thousand years of hindsight; shaking our heads at the ones who walked past miracles and still asked for proof, the ones who stood at the foot of something holy and still called it something else. We find it laughable. Even foolish.
But it’s easy to believe when you already know how it ends.
So I started to wonder what was behind their unbelief. Why did they reject the answer to their prayers and prophesies?
In Luke 24, two disciples, Cleopas and a friend, are walking the road to Emmaus, grieving, when a stranger begins walking beside them. When asked, they tell the stranger about the crucifixion saying, "we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel and set our nation free." Their disappointment was palpable. Their long-awaited Messiah had ended up a crucified criminal instead of a conquering hero.
This was hard to reconcile. And exactly what kept so many in unbelief. Most first-century Jews were waiting for a political liberator. Someone to overthrow Rome, liberate Israel, and sit on an actual throne to rule and make life better. To make things fair. And just.
Meanwhile, Jesus showed up preaching suffering, spiritual redemption, and about a kingdom that was not of this world. Of course it confused people looking for deliverance of a nation. Jesus didn't meet their expectations as a savior, as a man, or as the hero the scriptures promised. He seemed to be an answer to an entirely different question than the one they were asking.
The way I see it, their unbelief came down to three things: 1) Unmet expectations, or the gap between what you prayed for and what showed up instead, 2) the desire for historical offenses to be acknowledged and avenged; in other words wanting the wrong done to you named and paid, and 3) a desire for absolute control of one’s circumstances, or at least an explanation for what could not be controlled.
Those all seem pretty practical to me. In fact, those might be the most natural, human impulses I can name. Test it. I bet at least one of those three issues is at the bottom of your most recent relationship conflict.
It's kind of like when you're dating and waiting to meet The One. I no longer believe the person I called "the one who got away" was actually The One, but I spent fifteen years of my life believing I had gone left when I should have gone right (with him), all the while watching the path I didn't take flourish.
Those years taught me that the character of a man is the most consistent outward expression of his capacity to love. They taught me that sometimes you don't get a second chance. And most importantly, they taught me that what's meant for me won't miss me.
The key was to hold the prayer, not the imagined answer.
Thing is, The One seldom looks like “the one.” In fact, you may not even know they’re the one until you look around and your whole life has changed for the better. Again, hindsight.
The next time an answer to prayer doesn't look like what you’ve been believing for, consider this: maybe it’s not unanswered. Maybe the answer is unrecognized. Look a little closer. He might be answering a question you haven't asked yet.
I wonder…
- What question are you actually asking God?
- What question(s) does God seem to be answering in your life?
- Could His answer be aimed at something deeper than your request? What is that something deeper?
I love you.
Coi Marie
Affirmation
My doubt does not disqualify me. It makes me human. God is more than able to hold my questions.
If you know someone who may appreciate this perspective, please share this link with them. See you on Sunday.
