Why Does Jesus Say That Peter Has Little Faith?

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Editor

To watch other Voice of the Martyrs videos, visit the Voice of the Martyrs Video Page!

 

Matthew 14:22-33

During their journey across the Sea of Galilee, the disciples find their boat at the mercy of a savage windstorm. Waves toss the boat and a wind threatens to capsize it. In the midst of the chaos, a ghastly figure emerges from the darkness: a man who is walking on water.

The disciples are terrified.

“It’s a ghost,” they whisper to one another.

“Take heart; it is I,” the figure, Jesus, says. “Do not be afraid.”

Despite the thrashing waves, Peter calls out to Jesus, saying, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” Jesus says.

So, Peter leaps out of the boat and onto the tumultuous waves. He walks across the waves to Jesus—only to notice the wind biting into his flesh. Stricken by fear, Peter begins to sink. He reaches out to Christ, who, true to his nature, saves Peter. However, Christ also has some harsh words for Peter: “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Why does Jesus rebuke Peter in this way? After all, Peter leaps out of the boat and onto the waves; many of us would be too fearful to do even that much! Shouldn’t Jesus say, “Nice try! You did much better than the other eleven disciples; they just stayed in the boat!”

Many of us have heard the following explanation from pastors, church members, and leading Christian authors: “This story is a metaphor about the Christian life: Peter began to sink when he looked away from Jesus; therefore, we must always be sure to keep our eyes on Christ regardless of the storm that rages around us.”

However, this isn’t what scripture says about this passage.

As Christians, we need to be careful of the tool we use to interpret scripture. In the free world, we have many tools available to us: churches, seminaries, best-selling Christian authors. Turning to these is fairly simple and painless. However, in many countries these tools are scarce—the very act of owning a Bible is dangerous in and of itself. These Christians may not have a church to attend, or a seminary from which to graduate. Does this mean that they are disadvantaged?

Of course not.

Scripture emphasizes that the Holy Spirit is our teacher. Through baptism we receive the Holy Spirit, along with the promise that the Spirit will open to us all of the scriptures. Through the Holy Spirit, scripture interprets itself. What does this mean? Often, it means that as we continue to read the Bible daily, throughout our lives, the Holy Spirit will bring to mind scriptures that we have read and help us to understand how they all fit together.

Take this passage of scripture, for example.

Whenever we read and turn to something other than scripture to answer our questions, there is a high likelihood that we will miss the point of the passage. Did you notice, for example, that our go-to answer for this particular passage (“Peter fell when he took his eyes off Jesus, so we must learn to keep our eyes on him in stormy circumstances”) is actually more focused on what the scripture instructs us to do rather than what the scripture reveals about Christ?
To whom should we turn, then? The Holy Spirit, of course. Allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us means that when we run across a difficult question—and no other scripture comes to mind—we content ourselves with bracketing the question for the present and continue to read. When we do this, we discover that, through the Holy Spirit, the Bible always answers its own questions. Therefore, we must learn to be patient and to trust that the Holy Spirit will eventually answer our questions.

In this particular case, the Holy Spirit answers our question in Matthew 15.

After travelling from Tyre to Sidon, Jesus and his disciples find themselves being followed by a Canaanite woman who shouts, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon!” Jesus does not respond to her plea. However, the woman continues to follow and shout. Eventually, the disciples run out of patience.

“Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us,” they beg.

So, Jesus turns to the woman and tells her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

The woman is not deterred. She kneels before him and continues to beg for help.

“It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs,” Christ says. This is no compliment. Such words would have pricked a sore place in any Gentile who chose to live among Jews. However, the woman’s response shows no trace of anger: “Yet, Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Jesus then praises the woman: “Woman, great is your faith!”
When we read these words, we should be reminded of Christ’s response to Peter: “Oh you of little faith!” We should also wonder about this: What is the difference that Jesus sees between the two? After all, Peter walked on water; all the woman did was continue to talk!

To understand this, we must first understand what the word “faith” means. In a Biblical sense, faith is confidence that God will always act according to his character as revealed in Scripture—action that we welcome in our lives. Faith is not only believing in God or trusting that he has forgiven us our sins, but being confident that Christ’s own character is fully operative in the world and in our own life.

Believing in God is only the smallest part of what it means to have faith. In fact, you can “believe in God” without having faith in him. You can even admit that Jesus Christ is the son of God, without having faith. Having faith requires (1) knowing God’s character, and (2) trusting—and welcoming—that he will continue to act, in the world and in our own lives, according to his character revealed in scripture.

One of the clearest glimpses we receive of this in the Bible is the Psalms. In the Psalms, children of God are constantly confessing their struggles and the great power of God in one breath. They have confidence that God is who he says he is—all powerful, all knowing, all-benevolent—and are therefore confused by the suffering that they experience. God has honored their faith by counting their prayers among his holy revelation.

You could spend all your days in church and all your days in prayer without having faith in God. In fact, our prayers can become a practice of losing faith if we pray to God for things that are contrary to his character. Like the martyrs, we should cry out, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who live on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10), rather than, “What did I do that you wish for me to suffer?”

What does all this have to do with the difference between Peter and the Canaanite woman? Quite a lot.

The more faith we have, the more certain we are that the character of God (which is revealed to us in scripture through the Holy Spirit) will always be his character, and the more we welcome his acting according to that character in our lives. Furthermore, we will learn to hold God to this character—just like the Canaanite woman.

Despite possibly never having read the scriptures (due her status as an “outsider” or “foreigner”), this woman knew something about Jesus. She had heard things about who he was and of what he was capable (otherwise, she would not be quite as persistent in begging him for help). Despite being ignored and rebuffed by Christ, this woman continues to believe the little she has heard about him and his character. The woman trusts—despite all evidence to the contrary—that (1) he is capable of healing her daughter and that (2) he would be willing to heal her daughter.

And it turns out that the little this woman knows about Christ is right. Jesus not only listens to her and heals her daughter—he praises her faith. Despite knowing nothing about the Bible, this woman has faith.

Peter, on the other hand, has spent years with Jesus. He has listened to his Lord speak, watched him heal the incurable, and calm storms. Peter knows the scriptures well and has been taught God’s character. Yet when the time comes, Peter ultimately trusts the fierce wind and doubts Jesus’ character to protect him in the midst of it.

This is the difference between the two.

God is not impressed by moments of great trust or extreme risk in your life. He is not even impressed by how much you trusted him in the past. Instead, he is interested in whether you will trust him—and what the scripture has told you about his character—in the next moment.

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What is an Apostle and Why Does It Matter?

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Editor

To watch other Voice of the Martyrs videos, visit the Voice of the Martyrs Video Page!

 

Luke 9:28-36

Have you ever tried to bargain with God?
Bargaining with God sounds a little bit like this: “God, if you reveal yourself to me by helping me get this promotion, I will know that you’re real and I’ll believe in you.”

Or: “God, if you’re real, then make her fall in love with me—then I’ll believe in you.”

Or even: “God, get me to work on time today, and I’ll believe in you.”

We have all tried to bargain with God at some point. What happened when you tried to do this? Probably one of two things: God was incredibly gracious and either (1) did what you asked (but you likely attributed this to luck or natural happenstance), or (2) chose not to give you what you asked for (and you were likely left to wonder if he actually existed).

Nevertheless, there is no reason for us to wonder whether he exists.
Scripture tells us that God has chosen to build his church on the eyewitness testimony of his apostles—not on the direct verification of his existence to bargaining human beings. This means that as we hear the testimony of the apostles—which, in written form, compose the New Testament—and this testimony is confirmed by the Holy Spirit that lives within us, we come to believe in the Triune God.

We might balk at this. “If God actually appeared to me or answered my specific prayer,” we might argue, “I would actually know that he was real—Holy Spirit or no Holy Spirit.”

If we think about this for a moment, however, we will find that this isn’t quite true. After all, Jesus appeared to some of the most religious, well educated, and well-meaning people, and was misunderstood (and mistreated) by all. Why should we think our response would be any different?

Furthermore, as many scholars have pointed out, one must understand the character of God before examining his existence. If you are going to argue for the existence of something, you must first understand what that something is. Without understanding that a unicorn is a horse with a horn, you cannot disprove (or prove) its existence.

Thankfully, the Bible overflows with descriptions of God’s character. In fact, God’s very choice to build his church on the testimony of the apostles says something about his character. To understand why this matters, however, we must first understand what an apostle is.

First, the word “apostle” is one of the most abused words in the contemporary Christian’s vocabulary.

“He’s a modern-day apostle,” we often say when referring to people whom we believe to have unique insights about the Christian life. The Bible, however, has a very different definition of “apostle”, which we can read in Acts 1:12-26.

During the time of his earthly ministry, Jesus called and commissioned twelve apostles. One of these apostles, as foretold by scripture, betrayed him and then committed suicide. So, also according to the scriptures, the remaining eleven apostles recognized that a new apostle needed to be appointed. Here are the criteria they list for the qualification of an apostle:

  • An apostle must be “one of the men who have accompanied [the apostles] during all the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among [them], beginning with the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from [them]” and they must also be “a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22).
  • An apostle must be chosen by Christ himself (hence the reason why the apostles pray for God to select this apostle in Acts 1:24-26).

Apart from these twelve, two other individuals are commonly referred to as apostles. The first is James, Jesus’ brother. During Jesus’ time on earth, James was not a believer. Though he was an eyewitness to all that Christ did, he, like the rest of his family, believed that Jesus must have been crazy (Mark 3:21). After Christ’s death, however, James became a firm believer, and apostle, of Christ.

Paul is also a unique case because it is doubtful that he had contact with Jesus during his time on earth. However, Paul is referred to as an apostle because Christ revealed himself to Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9). In Acts 9 we find that God has chosen Paul to be a vessel that will “bear [God’s] name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.” We also learn that God will “show [Paul] how many things he must suffer for [God’s] name’s sake” (Acts 9:15-16). So Paul, too, fits the bill of an apostle.

Through the Nicene Creed, we learn that “we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” This means that the length, breadth, height, and depth of our beliefs as Christians are circumscribed completely by the testimony of the apostles. We cannot add or subtract one thing from this testimony. If we do, our beliefs will no longer be Christian.

If you even hear a pastor, a teacher, a church, or any Christian authority claim that God has given them a special doctrinal teaching unique only to them, you should run. As the Christian church is an apostolic church, it means that everything that needs to be known about God has already been witnessed by the apostles, whose witness, in turn, has been recorded as the New Testament. Groups who claim to possess knowledge that no one else in the church knows are not Christian; they are a cult.

Peter testifies to this in 2 Peter 1:13-21, where he explains that the apostles do not “follow cleverly devised myths” but instead “were made eyewitnesses of his majesty.” In 2 Peter 1:20 he emphasizes that “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.” There is no such thing as secret teaching or post-biblical revelation when it comes to Christian doctrine.

This is because the apostles witnessed every aspect of Christ’s ministry. Peter, John, and James even traveled up the mountain with Christ in Luke 9:28-36. Here, they witnessed many things: Christ’s face was changed, and his clothes became dazzling white (it is interesting to note that the word used here for “dazzling” is the same word used of lightning). A cloud descended upon them, and they saw Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus.

When we hear “Moses” and “cloud,” our minds should immediately think back to Exodus. During the Exodus, God led the Israelites through the desert—in the shape of a cloud. When we read that Moses appeared and the cloud descended on the apostles on the mountain, we know that the God of Israel was present.

Elijah, one of the first great prophets, was also present. During his lifetime, Elijah was led by the Spirit of God. Elijah’s appearance, then, indicated that the God of the prophets was present.

Most importantly, however, the apostles witnessed that Christ himself made the decision to go to Jerusalem, knowing that he would offer himself as a sacrifice. Through this experience, we learn that Jesus was not the victim of violence or circumstance; Jerusalem’s response to his presence does not take him by surprise. The crucifixion occurred by his own volition.

When we read the Bible, we find that the Old Testament is filled with prophesies about the coming Messiah, and that the New Testament is filled with the eyewitness testimonies of his followers. This is how the two connect and this is why in 2 Peter 1:19, Peter tells us, “The message of the prophets has been confirmed beyond a doubt.”

This is why we should not ask God to reveal himself to us in the way we want, confirming his existence through his willingness to submit to our selfish negotiations. This request limits our understanding of God to the idea of him that we like best, rather than allowing him to express his true character.

Does this mean that we should not ask God to reveal himself? Not at all! Even John the Baptist came to Jesus with his doubts (Matthew 11:2-6). The key is to respect God by accepting the way he has chosen to reveal himself. Instead of praying for the signs we want, we should pray to understand the signs he has given.
We should pray that God will reveal the truth of the apostles’ testimony to us—and we should continue to pray until he does. In fact, in 2 Peter 1:19, Peter refers to this testimony (and the testimony of the prophets) as “a lamp shining in dark places” and suggests that we would “do well to pay attention to [it].”

In other words, even if the truth of the testimony has not yet been confirmed to our hearts, we should believe it; it is a light in a dark world. We should believe this truth before the Holy Spirit verifies it. Then we should believe this truth because the Holy Spirit has verified it. Like Jesus told Thomas in John 20:29, those who believe without seeing (or without receiving verification from the Holy Spirit) are most blessed.

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Why Doesn’t God Fix the World?

Posted on September 23, 2017 by Editor

To watch other Voice of the Martyrs videos, visit the Voice of the Martyrs Video Page!

As humans, we find it difficult to reconcile the existence of an omnipotent (he is all-powerful), omniscient (he knows everything), omnipresent (he is present everywhere) and omnibenevolent (he only does things that are good) God with the existence of evil. On any given day, someone is shot down by a criminal, someone is (accidentally) maimed by a drunk driver, and someone is killed in a terrorist attack. Evil runs rampant in our world—but why?

Jesus addresses this question through this week’s parable.

Often, we try to simplify this parable into seven words: “the devil is responsible for all evil.” Not only does this conclusion attribute too much power to the devil, but also it keeps us from understanding the deeper meaning of this parable!

When you read the scripture today, focus first on the character of God. What does the sower see? What does the sower do? How does the sower react? Don’t let yourself be distracted by the workers or the enemy: focus on the character of the sower.

Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

There are many interesting things going on in this parable—were you able to focus on the sower?

In this parable, the character of God is portrayed through a man who sows good seed (wheat seed) in his field. However, while his workers sleep, an enemy comes and sows weed amongst the good seeds. For a while, the workers are unable to tell the difference between this good seed and the weeds—why?

It turns out that the word Jesus uses for weed (in Greek, ζιζάνια) refers to darnel, a weed that looks exactly like wheat in the early stages of development. Even darnel seeds look identical to wheat seeds!

Today, we have developed machines that are able to distinguish the two. However, in Jesus’ time the only way to differentiate the two was to wait until harvest time. As wheat develops, it turns brown and its top folds over. However, darnel turns black and its tip stands straight up. As wheat and darnel develop, it becomes easier to tell the two apart.

Unlike crabgrass or dandelions, darnel is actually toxic to human beings. The word “darnel” actually comes from the French word for “drunkenness.” This is because poisoned individuals exhibit symptoms akin to drunkenness—they struggle to speak, walk, and think. They often throw up.

Unlike wheat, which sustains life, darnel has the potential to destroy life.

This is why the workers are so concerned.

“Didn’t you sow good seed in this field?” They ask their master.

Unlike the workers, however, the master knows exactly what happened.

“An enemy did this,” He tells the workers.

“Ah,” The workers say. They understand this situation and they think they know the next step. “So we’ll just pull the weeds, then.”

The sower stops them.

“Wait until harvest,” He orders.

Why?

Although it isn’t visible from the surface, the roots of the darnel become entwined with the roots of the wheat. The sower knows that if his workers pull out the darnel, they may uproot the wheat along with it. And the sower isn’t willing to take this risk.

So he instructs his workers to care for and harvest both the darnel and the wheat.

However, the sower does not plan to treat the darnel and wheat indiscriminately after the harvest.

“When harvest comes, gather the weeds, bind them, and burn them,” he instructs the workers.

What does this tell us about the character of God?

As we already know, Jesus has faced a great deal of rejection in the chapters before this passage. He was rejected by the religious leaders, by his hometown, and by his family. Even John found himself doubting Jesus.

Why did the people doubt?

People expected certain things of their Messiah. The prophets and the scriptures had taught that when the Messiah came, he would destroy the wicked and break the yoke of the oppressor. John even claimed that the coming Messiah would “baptize [people] with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11)!

However, when Jesus came, sinners continued to sin and oppressors continued to oppress. What’s more, Jesus didn’t strike down these sinners and oppressors—he spoke with them and ate at their houses! What kind of Messiah was this?

Like the workers in this parable, the Jewish people assumed that the Messiah would come and “de-weed” the fields. He would remove the noxious darnel and nourish only the life-giving wheat. However, Jesus seemed to be doing no such thing! In fact, according to the religious leaders, Jesus couldn’t even tell sinners apart from saints (Luke 7:39)!

Through this parable, then, Jesus is explaining to contemporary audiences (as well as to audiences throughout history) why it is that even after he—the all-knowing, all-powerful, and benevolent God—became manifest in human form, people continued to murder, perform acts of hedonistic negligence, and terrorize innocent human beings.

The first thing that Jesus makes clear in his parable is that God is much more aware of evil than we are. Although the servants are unaware that weed has been sown in their fields, the sower is fully aware. When the servants come to him, the sower not only knows that there is weed; he knows why the weed is there. Likewise, we might be completely unaware of the darkness that lies in the heart of another. When this darkness reveals itself, then, we may feel startled and betrayed. God, however, is neither; he knew that the darkness was there all along.

God knows the difference between the wheat and the weeds.

Why, then, doesn’t God step in and destroy the weeds? Why does he instead choose to treat the weeds like wheat (and instruct his workers to do the same)?

God knows that if the weeds are uprooted, the wheat will be damaged in the process. Of course, some wheat will be not be affected by the uprooting of the weeds. However, we know from Luke 15:3-7 and Luke 15:8-10 that God will not allow even one shaft of wheat to be lost. He loves his children. As Jesus says in John 6:39, “I shall lose none of those whom he has given me.”

For the sake of the wheat, then, God cares for the weed.

It is important to remember that we are not the sower. We don’t know whether a person is wheat or weed—and God does not invite us to make this judgement. Instead, we are commanded to follow Jesus’ example in showing God’s love to everyone—even to those whom we believe are weeds.

If our brothers and sisters throughout church history have taught us anything, it is that we will almost always judge others incorrectly. Sometimes those who we think are weeds actually turn out to be wheat and those whom we think are wheat are actually weeds. There have been accomplices to murder who, upon receiving Christ, became giants in the faith (Paul, for example.) In addition, there have been well respected Christians who have scandalized the world by using the faith to cover (or even advance) their own heinous desires.

“But if the weeds continue to grow among the wheat, then won’t the wheat suffer?” We may ask.

“Of course,” Jesus may then respond. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

We spend all our time demanding that God pull out the weeds so that we may flourish—but if God were to pull out these weeds, we might find ourselves uprooted! Instead, we should give thanks in the midst of suffering, since we know that he allows this short period of suffering for the sake of our eternal flourishing.

One day, everything will be harvested and the weeds will be separated from the wheat. The Nicene Creed tells us that on this day, Jesus will return to earth and judge both the living and the dead. On this day, the weeds will be tossed into a fiery furnace filled with weeping and gashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42)—and the wheat will shine like the sun (Matthew 13:43).

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