There is no such thing as a “risk-free faith”. We mortals want one, of course. So did those who walked with Jesus when He was literally walking the physical places He frequented with His friends. We, as they, want to have the advantages of faith without having to make a fool of ourselves by buying into something we can’t actually prove.
Those who walked with Jesus were privy to some amazing happenings. They saw the 5,000 fed with a kid’s lunch. They saw the man so crazed by demon spirits that he had to be chained in the cemetery to keep him from destroying himself or attacking others, freed at Jesus’s command to become a peaceful citizen, clothed and in his right mind. They saw lepers healed, the deaf made to hear, the blind given sight, and the lame healed to walk.
Yet, after three years of walking by His side, these followers bombarded Him with questions that were basically asking for Jesus to reduce the risk factor of belief. One of them asked why He didn’t reveal Himself to the world at large so that proving He was the Son of God would be easier, less risky. Jesus’s answer was simple, yet anything but fool-proof. He said that they had to risk loving Him first before His certain identity would be revealed to them. “I will only reveal myself to those who love and obey me. The Father will love them too, and we will come to them and live with them.” (John 14:22 LB)
In other words: love and obey first; only then will confirming certainty begin to settle into your souls. Still today are we asking for a faith we can turn on and off like a faucet when we are in trouble or when we’re in a situation that “faith” is an asset? But risk-free faith is no faith at all.
I love the story of the man who was blind from birth. Everybody knew he was blind and had seen him grow up without sight. Instead of showing compassion, we see the disciples wanting explanations. They asked Jesus whether this blindness was caused by the sin of his parents or his own. Jesus said the darkness was to show the light. Obviously, Jesus was implying more than the physical darkness a blind man sees, but the darkness of missing the message that Jesus is the light for all kinds of darkness. Jesus put spit-and-dirt mud on the man’s eyes, then told him to go wash it off in the pool of Siloam.
Instead of rejoicing with the now sighted man, the religious circle around him continued the interrogation about the validity of the method, the timing, the history, and the motivation for Jesus’s miracle. Finally, in exasperation, the once-blind man said “I don’t know! I don’t know whether he’s good or bad. All I know is, I was blind but now I see!”
The only test tube for proving what faith is or does is to risk loving and see the result in the lives of those who “were blind but now can see.” Risk-free faith is an oxymoron. In real life there is no such thing. If we want a proof for faith, go ask the blind man. Fall in love with the Master and questions will be superfluous.
