Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
What is the most difficult word in John’s gospel?
For me, it’s the word “believe”. John uses it more than 80 times. What does he mean by believe?
In the Apple TV series, Ted Lasso, an American coaching an English soccer team, posted a big yellow sign, “BELIEVE” over the locker room door. In one episode the players reach up together to touch the sign. A spiritual moment. The spirit of soccer, the spirit of team, the spirit of hope.
John doesn’t post a yellow sign over his story. His sign, “BELIEVE,” is posted over the life and person of Jesus. It’s there for us to read, to touch.
As a child, the first verse I memorized with the word “believe” was John 3:16:
God loved the world so much
that he gave his only son
so that whoever believes in him
will not perish
but have eternal life (John 3:16).
The verse is full of concrete nouns and word pictures: God. His son. The world. Perish! Eternal life. And in the middle is John’s abstract word believe.
Evangelical theology sees belief as agreeing to assertions such as
I believe I am a sinner.
I believe Jesus Christ is God’s son.
I believe Jesus forgives my sin and gives me eternal life.
Gospel writer John doesn’t ask his readers to sign a doctrinal statement. No, he wants us to encounter Jesus and become life-long Jesus followers.
When we encounter Jesus, we begin to understand who he is. John the Baptist called Jesus the lamb of God, God’s chosen one (John 1:29, 34). Andrew said, “We have found the Christ” (John 1:41). Nathaniel exclaimed, “Jesus! You are the son of God, the king of Israel.” Perhaps to believe is to meet Jesus, and to recognize him as a man with a special relationship to God, to the truth, to salvation, to history.
Let’s pray.
O God, we do not believe by posting signs over the locker room door. We believe because we experience life-changing encounters with Christ.
We meet him at weddings and drink his wine. We meet him in nights of doubt where he invites us to be born again. We meet him where disciples gather–by the Jordan River, by the Sea of Galilee, in the streets of Jerusalem and in our own back yards. We meet him in the wilderness where he wanders, in our distress where we wonder.
We receive Jesus under all his names . . . the lamb of God who takes away sin . . . the rabbi who teaches . . . the miracle-worker who heals . . . the king who directs our lives.
Here is how we believe. We take our joys and sorrows to Jesus, we listen quietly for his voice, we follow him faithfully through a world of chaos and fleeting grandeur.
And though we do not see him, we worship him.
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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