Doubting Duplicate Toys

Suggested Reading: John 20:19-29

One year for Christmas our son received a toy as a gift that he already owned. Looking at the gift, neither my wife nor I could remember him having it. My wife took my son’s word for it, but I am notorious for not believing things unless I verify them myself. My son forgets lots of things but at a moment’s notice he can recall the smallest toy in his toy box and all of the accessories that go with it. Still, when he kept insisting that he already owned the toy and my own stubbornness refused to accept something I couldn’t remember seeing, I commented that I would like to see the one he already had. Twenty seconds later, he had retrieved the toy from his room and placed it right next to the identical toy he had received as a gift. We offered to exchange the toy for something else but he liked the idea of having two of these particular toys. He just wanted me to believe him.

Based on that story alone, you can probably guess that I would fit right in with the disciple Thomas. Once Jesus had returned from the dead, he began appearing to the disciples and while all the other disciples had somehow seen Jesus, Thomas hadn’t been with them. For Thomas, it didn’t matter that all of the other disciples had seen Jesus and talked with him and eaten with him. Thomas insisted, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:24, NIV). When Thomas finally did get to see Jesus and fell on his knees before him, Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29, NIV).

Jesus' assertion was not that people should simply believe blindly whatever they are told about him, but that trust is more rewarding than insisting on verifying everything yourself. Honestly, when ten other grown men you have learned to trust start telling you they’ve seen something with their own eyes, refusing to believe isn’t healthy skepticism but, rather, it is unbelief and arrogance. Jesus didn’t tell Thomas that he should have believed in spite of evidence to the contrary. He simply understood that faith in spite of evidence is a very different thing than faith without evidence or than faith based on the word of someone you trust.

If you belong to Christ, you have already begun to trust, but trusting God with some things is harder than trusting God with others. Believing some parts of God’s word is easier than believing others. God’s desire for us is that we trust Him based as much on His character and Spirit moving in us as on the evidence we hope to find. Finding evidence is great. Being able to believe because we trust the One speaking to us is something even greater. 

Berean Baptists and Open Mindedness

Suggested Reading: Acts 17:1-12

Growing up, one of the things my good Baptist mother drilled into my head was that I needed to be able to back up whatever I believed with scripture. She also taught me that I was to respect other people's beliefs if they could show me from scripture why they believed what they believed, even if it was different. It was one of the things I really loved about being Baptist. Then I went to a Baptist seminary and discovered that not all Baptists actually practice such open-mindedness. In fact many of the people I encountered were not open-minded at all. Oh, they were open in terms of the behaviors they accepted. But their definition of "open-minded" became very closed if your examination of the evidence led you to a different conclusion than theirs and you stood by your conclusion.

In Acts 17:11, we have a great definition of what it means to be open-minded. Luke records, "And the people of Berea were more open- minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth." (NLT). To Luke, the author of Acts, being open-minded meant that a person was willing to look at an idea and evaluate the support for that idea. Open-mindedness was not a blind acceptance of another person's opinion as valid, nor did making a firm statement of opinion negate one's open-mindedness.

Being open-minded does not mean that you have to check your own opinions at the door. Being open-minded means that you are willing to look at the evidence before you make your decision, not that you have to agree that everyone's interpretation of the evidence is valid. For example, agreeing that two plus two equals six because your friend thinks it does is not being open-minded; being willing to check his math is being open-minded. But checking his math and then adding, "but I guess you have your own valid system of addition," is just copping out.

Believe it or not, you are not closed-minded for having an opinion and believing it is right. And you are not closed-minded if you strongly disagree with someone who views the evidence differently than you do. You are closed-minded if you refuse to evaluate an opinion (yours or theirs) on the basis of the evidence. Be like the Bereans. Be willing to look at the evidence; don't just blindly accept what people say.

The Green Goblins of Willful Ignorance

Suggested Reading: Acts 4:5-18

In the Tobey Maguire Spiderman trilogy, Spiderman's best friend, Harry, was also the son of the first Spiderman villain, the Green Goblin. When the Goblin managed to kill himself in an attempt to get rid of Spiderman, Harry blamed Spiderman for the death. Even when Spidey shared the truth with his friend, Harry refused to let it affect his view of things. Not until Mary Jane, a girl both men loved, found herself in danger did Harry decide to accept the truth and fight at Spiderman's side to save Mary Jane.  One of the tragedies of the trilogy is the time that was wasted and the friendship that was ruined because one of its central characters refused to allow the truth to affect him.

In Acts chapter four we find another instance of this self-destructive human behavior. Jesus has already risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, and the disciples have begun teaching, preaching and healing in his name. As they are going into the temple one day, Peter and John heal a lame man and the entire city is thrown into a tumult. The high priests have Peter and John arrested and brought before them, in part because they are known as associates of Jesus, whom they condemned to execution. While deliberating how to handle Peter and John for healing a man in the name of the risen Jesus, they make an extraordinary statement. "What should we do with these men? We can't deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in the name of Jesus." (Acts 4:16, NLT).

The council acknowledges that a miracle has been done. In the verses preceding, they do not contradict Peter and John when they claim Jesus has risen from the dead. But the council doesn't allow the truth of the events to affect their view of things. Previously, they believed that no one could do miracles unless God was with that person, but when Jesus and his disciples came along, preaching something they didn't like, they chose to change their definition of the miraculous rather than admit they were wrong about Jesus.

We are often guilty of this same behavior. When the facts don't fit our own view of the world, we choose to ignore or reinterpret the facts in order to preserve our own opinions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the political realm. Whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or progressive, moderate or independent, it is often very easy to ignore or disbelieve the facts that don't promote our own worldview. And we don't confine our hypocrisy to politics. We play the same game when we stake our reputation on a misinformed opinion and choose to double-down rather than admit our error. We make wild accusations based on feelings or rumors and then refuse to apologize when presented with the truth. We cling to a poorly formed doctrine and claim the Bible passage which contradicts our opinion must not really mean what it says.  But as followers of the One who called himself the Way, the Truth and the Life, we must care more for abiding in the truth than for the being seen as right.

When the facts don't fit with our opinion, we must change our opinion. We can't afford to trade the truth for a lie just to save our pride.