REASONS TO BELIEVE

What causes people to follow Christ, or to believe in other religions? Is it on the basis of evidence we have come to believe as compelling? What causes us to continue to believe when there is contrary evidence? What would we have done if Jesus had come to us and invited us to follow him? How would we have responded to him or to any other spiritual leader who invited us to believe in him?

We see this happening at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Philip decided to throw in his lot with Jesus. Why? We have a clue from his remarks to Nathanael. “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

Apparently Philip and others were convinced, on the evidence they had gathered, that Jesus was the promised Messiah (the one prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures), who had come (as John the Baptist said), to ‘take away the sin of the world.’ John had been preparing the way for the Messiah to come by preaching the necessity of undergoing a baptism to signify repentance for sins. Jesus fulfilled his description and John pointed to him as the Lamb of God, the one who has surpassed him, the one who might be revealed to Israel. John the Baptist testified that Jesus was the Son of God upon whom he had seen the Spirit come down and remain.

Philip was therefore accepting the testimony of one whose authority he respected: John the Baptist. He had also heard Jesus speak, and he may have seen him heal the sick. As a result of this personal exposure to Jesus, the testimony he received from John the Baptist was verified enough for him to agree to follow Jesus.

This was not good enough for Nathanael, who cynically responded to Philip’s enthusiasm, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it, “You’ve got to be kidding.”

What is enough reason to believe, for one person, may not be enough for someone else. I used to think that faith simply equaled commitment on the evidence. I thought that if you just laid out the evidence for the identity of Christ, people would have to believe. In other words, I thought that people could be persuaded to believe only on the basis of rational argument. While argument and persuasion can be part of evangelism, it is not the reason most people come to believe.

The rational side of our minds is only one way we see reality. Reason is not the only way we get to truth. We can find reasons to interpret evidence one way or another. All evidence requires interpretation. Much evidence in matters of belief is circumstantial. Would we have found belief in Christ easier if we had been with Philip or Nathanael? I don’t think so. There were many others who saw the same evidence in the person and ministry of Christ who did not follow him. The reasoning process is morally and practically neutral, which can be used for good or ill. Daniel Taylor, in The Myth of Certainty, writes,

“There is no more spurious use of reason than to suggest that reason demonstrates that faith in God is irrational. It simply is not so, and anyone who argues such does not understand the nature of reason or faith. They are also wrong, however, who claim that reason and evidence prove the existence of God. God is not reducible to proof and only our weakness makes us wish it were so….In fact, reason recedes in importance in most of the truly critical areas of the human experience, largely because there are forces at work with which reason is not adequate to deal…. Reason is not usually the crucial component of one’s love for another (over-analysis may actually weaken the love by turning the beloved into an object), or of one’s response to a work of art (unless one has to explain – rationalize – the response), or of what one ultimately values in life. Neither should it be the primary tool by which one evaluates a relationship with God…reason is simply inadequate for the task.”

Why then do we believe what we believe? Our belief is the way we make sense of our existence. It meets our inner needs for love, security or fulfillment. Most people unconsciously accept the belief of those around them, without thinking about it. Others search for their understanding of life and for their personal fulfillment. They seek an explanation of life. We accept or reject evidence presented to us based upon our beliefs. Philip accepted the evidence presented to him by John the Baptist, his reading and interpretation of the Scriptures, and his personal experience of Jesus. Nathanael was not ready to do that. He was cautious about trusting the recommendations of others. He was not prepared to give his allegiance to someone he had not yet personally evaluated. Jesus’ credentials were not impressive to Nathanael. Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding! How could a guy from a back-water like Nazareth be qualified to deal with the knotty problems of the world like the existence of so much evil and suffering, and the competing claims of so many religions?

Whether we agree with the faith of others or not, we live in a world in which there are many different truth claims. What do we do with them? Pluralism is the world view that allows for many different interpretations of the evidence, except the interpretation that there is only one way. Taylor writes,

“The pluralist expects to find many different perspectives in the world and does so, thereby confirming his or her outlook. He or she is likely to feel offended, or even threatened, however, by the person who claims there is only a single correct explanation of reality or a single right answer to a social problem….Each is immune to the arguments of the other, finding in them only further confirmation of their own position. We fend off competing world views because by threatening our present understanding of reality, they threaten our essential security…. Flannery O’Connor realized this when she wrote, ‘my communications… sound as if they came from a besieged defender of the faith. I know well enough that it is not a defense of the faith, which don’t need it, but a defense of myself who does.’ When people defend their world view, they are not defending reason or God, or an abstract system; they are defending their own fragile sense of security and self-respect. It is as instinctive as defending one’s body from attack.”

How do you remain faithful to your own belief and yet respect the beliefs of others? We do believe in the freedom of religion, and the freedom of speech, in this country. Such a belief requires the tolerance of a marketplace of ideas even when we disagree. Taylor quotes Kierkegaard, who counseled the greatest sensitivity for those who seek to lead someone from error into truth:

“First and foremost, no impatience… A direct attack only strengthens a person in his illusion, and at the same time embitters him. There is nothing that requires such gentle handling as an illusion, if one wishes to dispel it. If anything prompts the prospective captive to set his will in opposition, all is lost. The indirect method, loving and serving the truth, arranges everything, and then shyly withdraws (for love is always shy), so as not to witness the admission which he makes to himself alone before God – that he has lived hitherto in an illusion.”

This is how Philip handles Nathanael. Philip invites him to “come and see” Jesus for himself. When he does, Jesus greets him with the words, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” He acknowledged that Nathanael didn’t have ‘a false bone in his body’. (Peterson) Nathanael, said Jesus, was a man of integrity, a man who was open to the truth. Jesus showed respect for this seeker after truth.

Nathanael was taken aback. “How do you know me?” he asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” This must have penetrated to the core of Nathanael’s being because he responded with a declaration of faith. Something profound must have happened under the fig tree when he was in prayer or communion with God. Perhaps it was some crisis in his life, some deep desire for truth which he was seeking at the time. Whatever it was, it convinced Nathanael that this was no ordinary man, no charlatan, but someone who knew him in the essence of his being, and loved him. Jesus knew him – knew all about him, knew all about his dreams, and his hurts, his frustrations and his weaknesses, his secrets and his sins, yet he valued him, was interested in him, wanted to be associated with him, wanted him to be on his team, and this was supposed to be the revelation of who God was? His response was immediate, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.” The cynic is transformed into the convinced follower. What before was an interesting introduction to another teacher turned into a close, personal friendship. A personal experience of communion with God in Christ made all the difference.

Faith has its reasons to believe. We all need some evidence to believe. If we have experienced a personal relationship with Jesus, like Nathanael, an ‘Ahaa’ encounter with God, it is possible to continue to believe even when other evidence seems to count against our belief. In fact Jesus warned us that, “false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect.” There will be times when personal tragedies, and counter-claims by other spiritual leaders, will try our faith. Such times, when there is room to doubt, will challenge us to deepen our trust in the one whom, we believe, knows us best and loves us most. We do not abandon our faith in Jesus just because other evidence would give us reason to jump onto another bandwagon. Because of our personal relationship with God as revealed in Jesus, we prefer to trust in him, despite contrary evidence. C.S. Lewis put it this way: “To love involves trusting the beloved beyond the evidence, even against much evidence…You are no longer faced with an argument which demands your assent, but with a Person who demands your confidence.” (On Obstinacy in Belief)

Nathanael said of Jesus, “How do you know me?” Jesus says to you and me, “I know you, I see you in your deepest need. I know your longings, your fears, your hopes, your pain, your struggles. I love you. Come, follow me, walk with me in this journey called life, and I will lead you in the way everlasting.”