Mostly Brave

“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”- Matthew 19:26

I have been watching The Chosen on Prime. When our friends first told us about the show I was skeptical. Christian movies are getting a lot better now but in the 1970’s and 1980’s not so much. So, this is what I was expecting.

 Bryan and I have now finished season four and I have to tell you that the characters of the show really have made the New Testament come to life for me.  If I were going to try to describe what kind of man I would want Jesus to be, then Jonathon Roumie’s depiction of him would be spot on. Jesus in The Chosen is tender, funny, and compassionate.

I say all of this to tell you thoughts I was having last night watching the scene where Jesus saves Lazarus by raising him from the dead. I have been a Christian for 38 years and I have heard the stories in the New Testament time and time again. While watching the episode where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead it created doubt in me that I have never really experienced before.

I believe that God created the earth and created man in His own image. I believe in the Holy Trinity and I believe that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. So, if I believe that God is the creator of everything and I believe that He rose from the dead, than why do I let doubt creep in when it comes to Him turning water into wine, sending manna from Heaven, or raising Lazarus from the dead?

I like the C.S. Lewis quote, “You must make a choice: either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.”

I think it is normal to doubt miracles because our brains try to understand the supernatural and are not equipped to fully comprehend anything outside of the realm in which we exist. I read once that we want to understand the limits of the unlimited. This is true. Why would I be able to fully understand Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead?  I’ve never seen it happen but I have also never seen the Heavens and earth be created, a baby being formed in its mother’s womb, the sky being created in which we see the stars, the moon, or the rising and the setting of the sun.

So, I accept that my mind is so very small compared to God’s wonders and if I believe that all the other things are real, then I also believe that God could breathe life back into anyone that has died if He wants to. Thankfully, I don’t have to fully understand a miracle, I just have to fully understand the deep love that God has for me.