Daily Devotions
John
John 20:1-10 "STRUGGLES WITH FAITH"
Day 330 – John 20
STRUGGLES WITH FAITH
When John planned the writing of his Gospel, he must have decided that he would be very candid. He wrote with very clear goals in mind. One of them was to help people find faith in Christ. He never took it for granted that faith was easily found. Or that once found, it would be easy to cultivate it.
1. Struggles with faith among the multitude
John knew that despite the fact that there were thousands of people who flocked to Jesus, they had struggles with having faith in Christ. Thus in John 6, he recorded a sad fact. The multitude must have considered themselves “disciples” of the Lord when they followed Him. However, the real truth was that they were hanging on the peripheral! When Jesus asked the multitude to believe that He was the Bread of Life sent from God, the people balked at what they heard. John made an important observation,
“Therefore many of His disciples, when they
heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who
can understand it?’ When Jesus knew in
Himself that His disciples complained about
this, He said to them, ‘Does this offend you?
What then if you should see the Son of Man
ascend where He was before?But there are some of you who do not believe.’
For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were
who did not believe, and who would betray Him.From that time many of His disciples went back
And walked with Him no more.”
John 6:60-62, 64, 66
The multitudes struggled with having faith in Christ! At the crucial moment, they chose to desert Jesus because they could not make headway in the cultivation of their faith!
2. Struggles with faith among the religious leaders
The religious leaders, consisting of the Pharisees, the chief priests and the scribes had many struggles with reference to faith in Jesus! Generally speaking, they rejected and opposed Jesus. They could not come to faith in Him.
There were however some exceptions. Two of them were specifically mentioned. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were singled out as outstanding examples of the religious leaders who finally came to full faith in Jesus!
3. Struggles with faith among the Disciples
John was most candid when it came to the question of faith in the ranks of the close Disciples of Jesus! Did they have problems with their faith? The answer is obvious even though it may be embarrassing! They all struggled with sustaining their faith in Jesus, even though all of them had shown such promise at the outset.
All of them gave up their jobs to follow Jesus! They wanted to learn all they could and since following Jesus as His Disciples demanded daily attendance, they gave up everything to follow Him. However, that did not mean that they found it easy to believe all that Jesus had taught them!
One of the most difficult things to have faith in was the subject of the resurrection of Jesus! This doctrine was so profound, that all the Disciples had problems with believing what Jesus said about His resurrection.
A MAJOR CLUE AS TO WHY THERE ARE STRUGGLES WITH THE GROWING OF FAITH
There are, or course, many reasons why people struggle with having faith in Jesus. John gives us a major clue as to why the Disciples had struggles with reference to the question of the resurrection of Jesus! He wrote insightfully,
“For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that
He must rise again from the dead.”
John 20:9
Mary had brought Peter and John to the tomb of Jesus! Mary was devastated to discover the empty tomb of Jesus! She just had to run back to see Peter and John.
The two men came to the garden tomb and things were as Mary had said. The other women Disciples had already left the scene. The angels’ announcement had thrilled their hearts. They were told to return and to share with the other Disciples this glorious news- “He is Risen”! Their beloved Teacher had been raised back to life!
Peter and John had gone into the tomb of Jesus. John wrote and testified that he himself “believed” (John 20:8). But he could not but note that the other Disciples had problems with faith. Even in the present company of Mary and Peter, John could not comment that they shared the same faith at that point of time.
Mary had to struggle with her faith, and she was close to the Lord! Peter also had struggles with his faith, even though he was the acknowledged leader of the band of Disciples. What about the other Disciples? They too would have difficulties with their faith!
John suggested one of the reasons why there was this deep struggle with their faith! The bald-faced truth was that “they did not know the Scripture”! The Disciples were taught the Scriptures by Jesus. However, “to be taught” is not the same as having “knowledge”.
To truly know the Scripture was to have faith in it. Reading the Scriptures without the appropriate response of corresponding growth of faith would have detrimental results! The Disciples had learned this truth the hard way. Do we not experience the same problem? Has our faith grown as it should? How well do we know the Scriptures?