Campus CrossWalk Magazine: 2005 Fall Issue -- Unbelievable: Jesus Face to Face With Unbelievers

A father faces the immanent death of his 12 year old daughter, desperately secures the aid of Jesus who finds his way home blocked by a woman who is slowly wasting away herself. Then the father receives news that the delay has cost him the life of his daughter (Mark 5:21ff). The man is for all practical purposes an unbeliever. How does Jesus respond?

Jesus faced unbelief in a variety of settings and from an array of different people. In this instance, Jesus comes face to face with a father who lacks faith due to unbearable life circumstances. Jesus’ response was to encourage the father (“Don’t be afraid, just believe!”) and then use his power to meet the man’s need. This is just one example of Jesus face to face with an unbeliever.

There were others . . .

Like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, who lacked belief because Jesus didn’t match their expectations. Their unbelief developed into jealously, which in turn prompted Jesus to have very little to do with them. Jesus understood that such entrenched unbelief was primarily fueled by a desire to be right rather than be like God.
Like Jesus’ own family, who struggled with belief (Mark 3:20-35). Mark gives us few clues as to what prompted this unbelief, but he does share Jesus’ response to it. Rather than chide his family for their lack of faith, Jesus simply reminds them that access to God has nothing to do with genealogy and everything to do with obedience.
Like his closest followers who amazingly spent large portions of their three-year-walk with Jesus in unbelief. At one point in Mark, Jesus characterizes his followers as “timid” and having “no faith” (Mark 4:40). However, unlike with the religious leaders, Jesus exhibits tremendous patience with this small group. Even after they abandon him to his God-ordained death, and he scolds them for their “unbelief and hardness of heart” (Mark 16:14), Jesus then turns around and sends them into the world as his ambassadors!
Like those who knew Jesus too well. In one last example, Jesus faces the unfortunate situation of living among religious people who lacked faith in part because their own familiarity with Jesus inoculated them from truly knowing him (Mark 6:1ff). This is one of those rare interactions where lack of faith truly amazed Jesus (Mark 6:6). His response? Jesus ministered to those who would receive him, but the others would have to wait until their faith allowed them to respond.

Now, we must admit that Jesus had the advantage of knowing people’s hearts and intentions when he interacted with them. In his omniscience he knew whether an individual or entire group of people would ever respond to him. So we must watch these interactions with this bit of qualification; we are not like Jesus in this respect. However, two things stand out as worthy of mention when we think about how we can interact positively with unbelievers.

First, Jesus addressed each unbeliever where they were and dealt with them at that place. There were no pat answers for him, and he followed no step-by-step manual to guide his interaction. Each person was unique and demanded a uniquely crafted response. This realization keeps us for lumping all “unbelievers” into one generic category so that we can fashion a once-for-all response to them. It also reveals our need to actually know the people with whom we interact. They are not an “unbeliever.” They are a leader, a mother, a brother, a friend, a daughter . . . real people.

Second, Jesus’ interactions are a good reminder that there are a variety of reasons people choose to disbelieve. Ultimately, all unbelief is rooted in a disobedient heart refusing to hear the call of its Maker. However, there are many other reasons people actually give for not believing.

Some will echo the response of religious leaders living at the time of Jesus – “You don’t act like a Messiah should act!”
Some hearts are scarred shut by the suffering they’ve endured because of immense loss.
Others grow their unbelief in the soil of a religious tradition that seeks “righteousness” rather than relationship with a savior.
Still more stumble terribly with their faith because they simply need time and patience.

Rarely is it the case that an unbeliever has completely studied the Christian faith, sincerely sought to find God through Christ, and then concluded that it is all simply a myth. And yet, we often enter conversation with unbelievers tenuously because we think most of them fit this last category of unbelief!

Ultimately, what we see from the example of Jesus is that he completely entered the lives of those who refused to believe him. He wrapped himself in their culture. He draped himself in their clothes. He shared their language and swallowed their food. He expended his life so fully on their behalf that his life was in turn extinguished. Perhaps Jesus is asking us to do the same for unbelievers around us -- enter their world, share their life, serve their needs, and cultivate the soil of their hearts so that those small seeds of faith we plant will eventually break the surface and find full bloom.

Craig Altrock, D.Min. My wife and I worked for four years with the campus ministry in Memphis, TN during graduate school, and currently serve with The Let’s Start Talking Ministry which mobilizes (and sends!) hundreds of colleges students every year to share their faith and their lives in mission settings around the world. I live in Fort Worth, TX with my wife Leslee and our three boys Joshua (8), Matthew (5), and Andrew (2).