“I do believe; help me in my unbelief.” Mark 9:24
In Bible study yesterday someone pointed out this verse was, well, challenging. To provide context, the speaker is the father of the son who has, “from childhood” been afflicted with what we would generally think of today a seizures. The father has brought the son to Jesus for healing as Jesus is passing through town. Jesus tells the man: “Everything is possible for him who believes.” The father replies: “I do believe; help me in my unbelief.”
One can, I suppose, look at this cynically, and think that the father is willing to say anything to have his son healed, so saying “I do believe” seems a small price to pay, even if it is a “white lie.” That said, an alternative consideration here is to think that perhaps the father believes about like I do, and is simply, just like I should, owning up to his doubt.
In my on-line dictionary, “belief” is defined as “an acceptance that a statement is true,” and alternatively as “trust, faith, confidence in something.” It occurs to me that “belief” and “faith” necessarily involve some doubt or uncertainty, otherwise they would be, well certainty. If I put a 2×4 on the floor I am certain (assuming sobriety) I can step onto it, walk the length of it, and step off it, all without falling. If however, that 2×4 is suspended, firmly fixed, 20 feet in the air, then I would likely say that I “believe” or “have faith” that I can walk across it — not to say I would do it, because I have my doubts and fears, and the stakes in being wrong seem fairly high
Sometimes when I am called on to have faith, the 2×4 is on solid, level ground. No brainer. But sometimes it is suspended up in the air, at a few inches, a few feet, and sometimes at what seems to me to be a mile high. Which brings me full circle to the father, and to me — “I do believe; help me overcome my disbelief.”.
It occurs to me... 