After that he appeared in a different form to two of them
who were walking along in the countryside. When they returned, they reported it to the
others, but they didn’t believe them. Finally he appeared to the eleven while they
were eating. Jesus criticized their unbelief and stubbornness because they
didn’t believe those who saw him after he was raised up.
These additions
to Mark read like summaries of other works, which is why most scholars believe
that they are indeed summaries from other gospel accounts and the book of Acts. Today’s selection above likely is a
combination summary from multiple other sources. The editor was faithful to themes found
earlier in Mark, most notably the highlight of the disciples tendency toward
disbelief. In the Gospel of John, Thomas
is the resident skeptic, but here all of the disciples are confronted,
eventually by Jesus Himself. To the
extent that we identify with the faltering disciples, we hear the intended
message of this editor of Mark. It is
also seems likely that Mark would approve.
There have
many times in my life where it seemed easy to believe. In the wake of a miraculous healing, which I
have witnessed multiple times, it even seems silly NOT to believe in the power
and plan of God. When everything is going
my way, I feel sure that God surely is actively blessing me. When evil is defeated in dramatic fashion,
faith is a natural posture. Mountain-moving
faith is such times seems way more attainable.
Unfortunately,
such times do not represent the whole of our experience. Relationships fail and it seems God is nowhere
to be found. It’s quite difficult to see
the activity of God in earthquakes where tens of thousands of lives are lost
and many more have their entire lives torn apart for the foreseeable future. When the disappointments keep coming one
after another. . .when children precede their parents in death. . . when the
unthinkable personal tragedy strikes. . . in all these times, even a mustard
seed’s amount of faith seems like a tall order. The disciples were having one
of those moments.
Even
when they are given the news that what Jesus promised has indeed happened, they
are stuck in their fugue state of disbelief.
I have to confess that I can relate.
Part of what happens here is human tendency to want to confirm and
justify our current feelings. Psychologists
call this confirmation bias and it can be very powerful. We want to confirm that we are right to feel
the way do, even when we are confronted with evidence to the contrary. This phenomenon is the reason why conspiracy
theorists don’t let go of their false beliefs even when clear facts should
convince them to do so. This has happened
to me more times than I can count. None
of us are exempt.
The
disciples are forced out of their disbelieving bias by the resurrected Jesus in
the flesh. It would awesome if Jesus
would do the same thing for us, but at least for me, it hasn’t happened yet. So how do we snap our of it when we find ourselves
stuck in unbelief. One of the practical
suggestions from psychology to combat confirmation bias is to develop the habit
of questioning your assumptions when you are assuming you are right. The spiritual term for this is humility. Further, as followers of Jesus, we should
have a strong bias towards hope. This is
why Jesus scolds the disciples for their faithlessness. They of all people should have had at least a
healthy active bias towards belief because Jesus had never let them down before
and He promised them that He would be raised.
While
it may not seem like it sometimes, we have no less reason to have a hopeful
bias. We, the Christian church, stand in
a line of two thousand years of God’s faithfulness and kept promises. Through the severest of persecutions, through
long periods of decline and darkness, and through impossible challenges, God
keeps delivering the church and its people to new life and vitality. Empires, dynasties, and seemingly unstoppable
tyrants have come and gone, but the church keeps finding itself sustained and
renewed. God is always faithful, so our
bias should be hope in all circumstances.
More on this next time.
Question: Have you
ever been the victim of confirmation bias?
How does it interplay with your faith?
Prayer: Holy Spirit,
install a bias of hope within our souls that persists in all
circumstances. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for people who do jobs we could never see ourselves doing.
Song: The Blessing –
Angelica Bias
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