Tie on Your Sneakers and Just Do It
This reading is a cause for great joy—for so many reasons. The eleven disciples went to the mountain where Jesus had ordered them to go. The reading says, “when they saw Him, they worshipped, but they doubted.” I take great heart in that line. These men had been with Jesus for three years in His ministry, personally witnessed His death and had seen Him several times after the resurrection. Yet they doubted. One would think there would not have been a question in their minds about the power of Jesus and who He was. But doubt remained. I take heart in this because there have been times in my life (especially the hard times) when doubt took a foothold, and it was all I could do to dislodge it from my soul.
While that was my first thought, further reflection made me wonder who they doubted. It is not clear in the reading. Did they doubt Jesus and who he was, or did they doubt themselves and their ability to carry out His mission? Was their doubt founded in feelings of unworthiness? We have to believe that these Disciples knew themselves well after spending all this time with Jesus. They knew their weaknesses, fears, and shortcomings. Was their doubt born out of a belief in their unfitness for the task that Jesus was giving them?
Doubt is the work of Satan. Doubt that anything as excellent and unusual, as our loving, forgiving, embracing, and personal God is easy pickings for Satan. So much of life speaks against it. Doubt of ourselves and our ability to be a witness of the Lord is equally the work of Satan.
Jesus knew their doubts, and standing on that mountain, he did not waiver. He missioned them. “Go, and make disciples of all nations…” He did not give in to or even acknowledge their doubts about Him or themselves. He seemed to be saying, “Pick yourself up, with all your uncertainty, doubt, feelings of weakness, and tie on your sandals and just go do it.” And they did.
The final line is the promise that has echoed through the centuries. The Disciples heard it that day, and we listen to it today with the same power and the same depth of love. Jesus’ last words on earth to his disciples are the same as His words to us. ” I will be with you always even to the end of the age.”
No doubt, no fear, no weakness, or uncertainty is more potent than Jesus’ promise. None of Satan’s niggling at our sense of worth and his casting of doubt on the workings of God in our lives is more reliable than the promise of Jesus. We need only cast out the devil and much like the disciples, pick ourselves up, with all of our uncertainty, doubt, and feelings of weakness and tie on our sneakers, and then just go do it. Go out and be Jesus for our world. That is His command then and now.
In God’s Unending Love,
Gwen
