Luke Skywalker and why seeing isn’t believing.

Posted 23 Feb 2015

Yoda stands on the banks of a swampy pool & uses the Force to lift Luke Skywalker’s X-wing fighter spaceship out of the muddy waters & gently lowers it to the ground.
“I don’t believe it!” says a breathless Luke.
“That is why you fail.” Yoda sadly replies.

I don’t know if you’ve seen that scene from the Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back”. I was just thinking about faith & belief & that scene sprang up in my imagination.

A lot of people say they would believe in God if they saw him; if He visibly stood before them. Or else if He performed a miracle for them, whilst standing (visibly) in front of them.
Jesus did all that: physically stood before people; performed miracles right before their eyes, & STILL people didn’t believe in him.

Matthew 19:24-26 [1] mentions what is possible & impossible. There are many miraculous events in the life of Jesus, & in the Bible. But already the unbelieving readers among you will be saying “Yes, but that’s in the Bible. I need to see it all for myself!”

For people who have faith in God, they don’t need to see Him in order to believe in Him.
For people who do not believe in God, I suspect that EVEN seeing Him wouldn’t persuade them to believe in Him. That was what Jesus encountered all the time. Despite performing miracles right before their eyes, many people refused to believe in Him. Even his own brothers didn’t believe in Him (initially) John 7:5 [2] tells us that. As verse 7 points out, it was Jesus’ denouncement of people’s evil practices which often caused them to reject & hate Him.

It’s an unexpected, upside-down kingdom, the kingdom of God. We are given faith, so that we believe before we see anything of the nature of God. Faith actually comes (as a gift from God) first, before anything else. So from a non-Christian perspective, it isn’t any good saying “I’ll believe in God when He shows Himself to me” (meaning a literal, physical manifestation) because we come into His presence not visually, but by faith.

So, if you want to see your X-wing fighter spaceship (or whatever is stuck in the mud in your life!) mysteriously lifted out of the muddy waters, you will need to respond with something other than Luke Skywalker’s “I don’t believe it!”

You’re going to need faith.

Bible References.

[1]
Matthew 19:24-26 (AMP)
24 [Jesus said] “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go into the kingdom of heaven.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were utterly puzzled (astonished, bewildered), saying, “Who then can be saved [from eternal death]?”
26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men this is impossible, but all things are possible with God.”

[2]
John 7:1-7 Amplified Bible (AMP)
1 After this, Jesus went from place to place in Galilee, for He would not travel in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.
2 Now the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was drawing near.
3 So His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that [a]Your disciples [there] may also see the works that You do. [This is no place for You.]
4 For no one does anything in secret when he wishes to be conspicuous and secure publicity. If You [must] do these things [if You must act like this], show Yourself openly and make Yourself known to the world!”
5 For [even] His brothers did not believe in or adhere to or trust in or rely on Him either.
6 Whereupon Jesus said to them, “My time (opportunity) has not come yet; but any time is suitable for you and your opportunity is ready any time [is always here].
7 The world cannot [be expected to] hate you, but it does hate Me because I denounce it for its wicked works and reveal that its doings are evil.”

Comments

Comments are turned off for this article