Sermon 43
Don’t Doubt
John 20:27
March 30,
2008
Sisters and
brothers in Christ, grace and peace to you, in the name of God the
Father, Son (X)
and Holy Spirit. Amen.
These are great days – the seven weeks of Easter. They’re even better than Christmas – and longer too. That’s because it takes seven full weeks to sing all our Easter Alleluias. And that’s because we’re celebrating the victory over sin and death – which is great indeed. So don’t start planning for Mother’s Day and Memorial Day just yet. We still have lots of Alleluias to sing!
Learning
from Doubt
Why then do we take today to remember the doubting Thomas? Every year we do this on the second Sunday of Easter. Why is that? Doesn’t dwelling on doubt dampen our celebration – and rain on our parade? Why then do we give him so much attention? Shouldn’t we be devoting today to singing more Easter Alleluias instead? Well, not really. And the reason for this is that there’s so much to learn from the doubting Thomas and his skeptical ways. And so we give him more time than one would expect.
Controlling Doubt
Now the first thing we learn from him is the very anatomy of doubt. This is important because by understanding its structure, we can better avoid the pitfalls of doubt. And that’s a good thing, because Jesus said – “Don’t doubt, but believe” (John 20:27). Don’t doubt like Thomas did. How much clearer could this be? So those who would celebrate doubt, as what makes us religiously mature (see Val Webb, In Defense of Doubt – An Invitation to Adventure, 1995), or who imagine that faith and doubt actually go together – saying that “serious doubt is confirmation of faith” [Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (1957) p. 22] – well, they have it all wrong. We shouldn’t be open “to new ideas – to truth wherever it is,” and trust in that process of discovery [contra John B. Cobb, Jr., Doubting Thomas (1990) pp. 83, 33]. That’s because our Lord Jesus said – “Don’t doubt, but believe.” He wouldn’t have said that if doubt was truly grand and glorious. He wouldn’t have said that if what he really wanted for the church was the “tentative” attitude of the scientist [Bertrand Russell, The Will to Doubt (1958) p. 22].
No, Jesus wasn’t some sort of skeptic, who along with the father of modern philosophy, René Descartes (1596-1650), peddled doubt to make us mature and secure. Unlike Jesus, Descartes’ philosophy was founded on the dictum – dubito ergo sum, “I doubt therefore I am” [The Philosophical Works of Descartes, trans. Haldane & Ross (1931) 1:219, 324]. Jesus rather said, “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am,” or tunc... ego sum, in the old Latin Bible (John 8:28). So a life of doubt and hesitation, would be a disaster for Christianity. It would send us on a wild goose chase – for as the philosopher Peter Strawson puts it, in the swimming pool of philosophy “there’s no shallow end” [Analysis and Metaphysics (1992) p. vii]! For once doubt sets in, we are forever paddling just to keep our heads above water. That’s because doubt cuts our legs out from under us – gleefully throwing our daily lives into question [Robert Fogelin, Walking the Tightrope of Reason (2003) p. 67]. No wonder, then, that “plain showing off is... a feature of the philosophical life” [Colin McGinn, The Making of a Philosopher (2002) p. 63].
But in our life with God, there’s no place for all this caution. Before him we are instead to trust, obey and follow – not hesitate, look back (Luke 9:62) or doubt! If we were to do that, we would look like crazy beggars – as Martin Luther put it long ago [Luther’s House Postils, ed. E. Klug (1996) 2:423]. And that’s worth pondering since he’s our “most eminent teacher” [The Book of Concord (1580) ed. T. Tappert (1959) p. 507]. His words then are:
Our Lord God can give a wavering heart nothing, even though he would dearly love to do so.... We stand there like crazy beggars. We hold out our hat, hoping God will put something into it, but we keep moving it around, refusing to hold it still.
That’s what doubt does to us – it keeps us from holding our hats still. And as long as we keep pushing them out and pulling them back, moving them from side to side, over and over again, we’ll fumble all the blessings God sends our way! And this is the height of recklessness. No wonder Luther went on to say that doubt is a horrifying and “dangerous plague” (Luther’s Works 26:377).
But even so, doubt has a place when it comes to building good bridges and performing life-saving surgeries. Then we want our engineers and physicians to test materials and plans with a careful and critical eye in order to make sure no mistakes are being made. But when it comes to God, we have to shift gears and simply “hear the word and keep it” (Luke 11:28, 8:21)! To allow doubt to spill over into our religious lives, only destroys faith. For “doubt.... is by far the gravest of all the sins which condemn the world and the unbelievers” (LW 4:147). So the “effrontery to teach... that one should doubt,” is nothing more than the devil’s work (LW 8:312).
The Show Me State
Now why was
Thomas so skeptical? And why do any of us doubt, for that matter
(Matthew 14:31)? Well, it’s because we’re from
Now Jesus surprisingly goes along with Thomas on this matter. He
shows up again and invites him to take a look and to take a touch – or
two. But in the process this turns out to actually be a test for him and
for all of us, instead of a verification of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. For no sooner than Thomas comes to faith at the wonder of seeing
the risen Christ before him, Jesus nails him by saying, “Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29). Note that it
doesn’t say that they are “more blessed” than those who do see. That
would imply that those who see in order to believe, would also be
blessed – just not as much as those who don’t see and yet believe. But
that isn’t it at all.
No, what we
have instead is a blessing reserved just for those who don’t see. And
that’s radical, for it demeans eye witnesses from then on. So what
begins with eye witnesses and empirical evidence, ends differently (1
John 1:1-5). That’s because there is a little noticed weakness in
empirical evidence. Luther elaborates this point [Sermons
of Martin Luther, ed. J. Lenker (1988) 2:373]:
[Jesus]
offers us peace.... in the Gospel as certainly and clearly as it was...
shown to the disciples bodily.... And it is much better that it is done
through the Gospel than if he now entered here by the door; for you
would not know him, even if you saw him standing before you, even much
less than the Jews recognized him.
Here Luther
builds on the fact – which is quite contrary to popular opinion – that
not everyone who witnessed the miracles of Jesus believed in him because
they saw them (John 12:37). This shows that empirical evidence isn’t all
that it’s cracked up to be. So in our life with God, being from
Reason and
human nature... never go beyond what they perceive, and where there is
no perception, they immediately deny God.... The natural light of man
and the light of grace cannot be friends. Human nature wants perception
and certitude as a condition for faith. Grace wants faith prior to
perception.... Grace happily steps out into the darkness and follows
nothing but the word and the Scriptures (LW
52:196).
So believing
is seeing – and not the reverse, as Thomas, the philosophers and those
from
Fighting Doubt
So doubt is
neither to be celebrated nor endured. This is because a “Christian
should... not doubt,” or “be content with anything” other than a firm
faith, which is the confidence by which we “gain the victory” (SML
6:229, 247, 260). When doubt creeps in, as it did with Thomas, we
shouldn’t settle for that thinning out of our faith. We shouldn’t “float
and bob in uncertainty” (SML
2:401). No, we should instead “engage in a continual struggle against
doubt” (LW 6:10). We have to
fight against that “devil’s yeast,” as Luther called it (LW
7:233), which persistently clings to our hearts – perniciously holding
us back from a rich and robust faith in our Savior, Christ Jesus. Our
goal should be to “strive for certainty,” and “believe with complete
certainty” (LW 26:379). So
just because we doubt, doesn’t mean we should continue to (Mark 9:24).
How then should we go about fighting against doubt? Søren
Kierkegaard (1813-1546), that great admirer of Martin Luther, warned
against the wrong way to wage this war against doubt:
Some...
sought to refute doubt with reasons..... [So they] first of all... tried
to demonstrate the truth of Christianity with reasons.... And these
reasons fostered doubt.... [For] these reasons... are already a kind of
doubt – and thus doubt arose and lived on reasons.... [For] offering
doubt reasons in order to kill it is just like offering the tasty food
it likes best of all to a hungry monster one wishes to eliminate. No,
one must not offer reasons to doubt – at least not if one’s intention is
to kill it – but one must do as Luther did, order it to shut its mouth,
and to that end keep quiet and offer no reasons (Kierkegaard’s
Writings 21:68).
The point is
that if reasons are given not to doubt, those reasons will be twisted to
defend doubt all the more. Why is this? Why don’t reasons against doubt,
put an end to doubt?
It’s because these reasons keep the matter on an intellectual
plain where doubting can go on forever. This plain leaves “everything in
abeyance” – it “cannot fasten down anything” or “tie the knot at the
end” (KW 21:196). The
immensely popular American horror story writer, Stephen King, has
written that writing is a strange “act of telepathy” [On
Writing (2000) p. 106] – whereby the writer tries for a meeting of
the minds across time and space. Many think conversations try to do the
same. So if just the right words are said, we think a breakthrough will
come and end doubt.
But that’s
too intellectual of a solution. No, the only way to stop doubt is by
suffering for the sake of righteousness (Matthew 5:10; 1 Peter 3:14).
Kierkegaard explains this tough idea this way:
So it always
is with need in a human being; out of the eater comes something to eat
[Judges 14:14]; where there is need, it itself produces, as it were,
that which it needs.... But someone who sits in idleness and ease
through good days or is busily astir in busyness from morning to night
but has never suffered anything for the sake of truth actually has no
need.... [So if] you doubt,.... say to yourself: No sense making a fuss
over that kind of doubt; I know very well its source and nature –
namely, that I have... too easy a life, spare myself the dangers bound
up with witnessing for truth against untruth. Just do that! But above
all do not become self-important by doubting (KW
21:69).
Doubt
therefore comes to an end through self-denial. Anything else only
furthers doubt. So in combating doubt, it’s easy to go down the wrong
road. Kierkegaard explains this further:
When one,
entirely innocent, suffers, then it... seems as if the struggle were
about justifying God, something only the conceit of fools and conceited
wisdom can regard as the easiest – because for a human being that is
really presumptuousness.... It wants to reverse the relation, wants to
sit quiet and safe,... it wants to make God the defendant, to make him
the one from whom something is required.... Right here is faith’s
struggle: to believe without being able to understand. And when this
struggle of faith begins,... then the consciousness of guilt comes to
the rescue.... One would suppose it to be a hostile power, but no, it
specifically wants to help... the believer by teaching him not to doubt
God but himself. Instead of the mendacity about thinking through the
doubt, which is patently doubt’s most dangerous invention, the
consciousness of guilt thunders it’s “Halt” (KW
15:273).
So we are to
fight against ourselves and not against God. Our best attack on doubt
comes from attacking “our own feeling,... purpose, and will [which] we
love... more passionately than [anything else, and which] hinders faith
in Christ, [so that] unbelief follows” (LW
29:154, 44:376, 7:104-106; SML
7:229). “For our own will is the... most deep-rooted evil in us” (LW
42:48). So a Christian “is a man of will who no longer wills his own
will but with the passion of his crushed will,... wills” what God wants
[Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals &
Papers, ed. Howard & Edna Hong, §6966]. By crushing our sure will,
we keep it from being “pernicious” (KW
17:211).
A Divinely Planned Sacrifice
So hold onto
the word of God which tells of his “definite plan” to send his son to
die for us (Acts 2:23; 1 John 4:10). Do not long for some cosmic
Christic principle that floats free of the written word – following the
peculiar contours of our private experiences (Matthew Fox,
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ,
1988). Do not long for an experience of the risen Christ, appearing in
your bedroom to confirm what the word already tells you (Reynolds Price,
A Whole New Life, 1982). No
sooner than these exotic moments come and go, you’re hungering for more
and are never satisfied.
No, instead
know this – that Christ is all tied up with the words of the Bible
itself. Know that you’ll find him no other way (Hans W. Frei,
The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative,
1974; Jacques Ellul, The
Humiliation of the Word, 1985). Know that all other ways lead to
doubt and error (Acts 4:12, 14:15). Know that “God.... has circumscribed
Himself with a certain... Word” (LW
12:352). So dwell on that word, that it may “dwell in you richly”
(Colossians 3:16). In this way you can put your faith above your
feelings (SML 7:244). For it
is “the glory of faith” to take “everything captive – perception and
understanding, strength and will” and to follow “the bare voice of God
and to be led and driven rather than to drive” (LW
29:238). In this way you become “a knight and a hero who... vanquishes
all,” disdaining all that “the world possesses, both its good and its
evil,... everything with which the devil can lure and entice or
intimidate and threaten” (LW
24:21, 44:77). So, for instance, we should neither be amazed at nor
upset with, the word “God” showing up on an alligator’s side in
This will
put an end to us cursing God in heaven for every little “pain in the
leg” we feel (LW 14:49)! And
this is because Christ is our “Priest over against God,.... who
sacrificed Himself on the cross,” that we might “find mercy before God”
(LW 23:195). Without that
sacrifice of Christ, we are lost (LW
23:55). Without faith in Christ, God’s wrath rests upon us (John 3:36;
Romans 2:5, 5:9). But when we believe in Christ, our burdens are lifted
(Matthew 11:30) and we have hope – both for the life to come in heaven,
and in this life now (Luke 18:30; 1 Timothy 4:8).
Pray Rightly
And we who
bask in this victory of Easter are also expected “to walk in newness of
life” (Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 2:24). So we are to obey God to conquer the
world (1 John 5:3-4). Therefore we must
follow
neither the customs of the world nor our own reason or plausible
theories. We must constantly... control our wills... Always we are to
conduct ourselves in a manner unlike the way of the world (SML
7:16).
There’s no
better way to do that than to pray in the name of Jesus and according to
his will (John 15:16; 1 John 5:14). This means our prayers won’t be
bundles of grab-bag requests nor dashes off to bargain sales – elbowing
our way in. No, instead we’ll pray with confidence, “which is the soul
of prayer,” asking for what is “expedient according to the will of God,”
without fixing “the manner and the time” of the answer, and waiting
“patiently and diligently.” For as
Do not
despise... prayer.... Be sure either that what you have asked for will
be granted... or that what has been asked for has not been beneficial (LW
30:322-323).
This is hard
to stomach – especially when we pray for the sick. But it is God’s good
will. For he knows that being sick can often be better for us, than
being well and forgetting him (Hosea 13:6). So pray knowing that having
our names “written in heaven” (Luke 10:20), matters more than succeeding
in this life. That’ll take some of the pressure off us, so we can pray
as we should – having rejoiced in the salvation Good Friday and Easter
bring, and having taken up the good of faith (1 Timothy 6:12) against
doubt. Amen.
(printed as preached but with
some changes)