Read: Luke 24:36-45
Why do doubts rise in your minds? (v. 38 NIV)
We are revisiting this story because it contains a question that must be answered if we are to deal honestly and helpfully with doubt: “Why do doubts rise in your minds?”
I think it is a disappointed question. For centuries the people of God had wrestled with the absence, the silence, the inactivity of God. These questions recur again and again in the Old Testament. “Why?” they cried. “How long, O Lord? Where are you? When will you come?” Now God has come in the flesh, and these disciples had confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.
Of course, when he died, their faith had been badly damaged, maybe even killed. But now the risen Christ stood before them, living proof that Jesus was God, that God cares, and that God had acted in Jesus to save his people. This was a time for faith as solid as a rock. Instead, the risen Christ encounters rising doubt. So he asks, “Why?”
He doesn’t ask because he doesn’t know, but because he wants his doubting disciples to confront their own doubt, to think about their doubt, to doubt their doubt. Let’s join them for a few days. Why do doubts rise in our minds? Our answer will help us decide what to do about our doubt.
Over the years, people have answered Jesus’s why question with three words: God, Satan, and you. Doubts arise from an encounter with God, from the machinations of the devil, and from our own selves.
As you pray, ask God to diagnose your doubt and heal it.
About the Author
Stan Mast
Rev. Stan Mast is a retired pastor, who served four churches in the West and Midwest regions of the United States. He finished his career with three years of teaching at Calvin Seminary. He is happily married to Sharon, and they have two sons and four grandchildren.
