Seeing Is Not Believing

I am originally from Missouri, the "Show Me State."  While talk is cheap, our motto suggests that actions speak louder and more reliably.  And, in Missouri, while hearing leaves room for doubt, seeing is believing.  Only, it's not.

Actually, seeing is quite the opposite of believing.  The very insistance of seeing before accepting is based on the fact that one does not believe - it is the antithesis of faith.  "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Heb 11:1).  The essential element of hope in belief does not allow a faith based on sightt for "hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what they already have?" (Rom 8:24).

It was the unbelievers in Jesus day who demanded of him, "What sign can you show to prove your authority to do all this?" (Jn 2:18).  They were not interested in faith or believing in the words of the Lord, they wanted proof, they wanted to see.

Not even the disciples were immune to this weakness of faith.  Doubting Thomas (who was not from Missouri but lived in a show me state of mind) replied to those who said the Lord had risen, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingerr where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" (Jn 20:25).  He wouldn't believe then either, he would know.

By the way, Thomas wasn't the only one who struggled with believing: "Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen" (Mk 16:14).

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assert that this stubborn refusal to believe in the risen Christ hasn't entirely been erased in the Christian Community even to this day.  While we may talk a good game about our faith in him, how many of us truly live fearless lives, fully confident in the victory that is already our in Christ?  Do you recall our Lord's words, "In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33).

Here's the deal: We don't have to see what the future holds in order to have confidence in the outcome.  We have to have faith in the One who holds our future, for "We live by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor 5:7).  For again, "faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Heb 11:1).  Jus' Say'n.