The focus of this blog is on Jesus’ prophetic question whether He would be able to find faith when He returns (Luke 18: 8b). In other words, how easy or difficult is it to find (true) faith in the contemporary world overshadowed by pseudo god-persons and corporate churches rule.
God-man is actually a term used to characterise Jesus Christ. We can see this term used to describe the incarnation of God the logos (John 1:1&14) in the writings of Origen (3rd century). Sadly, this concept has lately been hijacked by ‘ordinary people making extraordinary claims’ (Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, second President of India) with the primary objective of profiteering. As a result, lately, there is a parallel claim for divinity, obviously prompted by Satan, to distract the innocent from true faith. Jesus said, ‘for false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect’ (Matthew 24:24). The Bible suggests that the distractors and deceivers have always been there since the beginning of the gospel. For instance Romans 16:18 states ‘for such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the heart of simple minded’. St Paul described such people as destined to destruction as their god is their stomach (Philippians 3:19).
The question ‘And yet when the son of Man come, will he find faith on earth’ could be read as a conclusion of the parable of the widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). Jesus contrasts God’s quick justice to the unjust judge’s delayed justice. As the legal maxim goes ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. A person dealing with justice (judge) is in an extremely responsible position and hence is expected to be zero tolerant to injustice. It is the person’s institutional and societal role and obligation to impart justice with prudence. Unfortunately, in this case the judge describes the self as having ‘no fear of God and no respect for anyone’ (Luke 18:4) albeit, he decides to grant justice to the widow so as to avoid getting worn out (Luke 18:5).
On the contrary, our eternal judge, God almighty, is ever keen to impart justice to His chosen ones without any delay (Luke 18:7-8). Even then, He is not expecting faith to be found on the second coming. In other words, faith would become extinct by that time. Prior to exploring the possible reason behind this obsoleteness, it is important to understand what exactly faith means.
According to Hebrews 11:1, ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’. When we cry out to Jesus, we do it in the backdrop of faith as defined in the above verse. Prayer in faith is the perceived realisation of future in spirit. Jesus said, ‘whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24). There are other similar verses on faith, said by Jesus Christ. (For instance, see Matthew 17:6 & 21:22). Besides, please be aware that faith is a gift of Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9). Therefore, when we pray in faith we simultaneously believe in the fulfilment of a futuristic subject (of our prayer).
The spiritual visualisation of this futuristic dimension is well articulated in Hebrews 11:4-12:2 where the faith of so many of God’s children starting from Abel to many Israelites is listed. It is so spiritually inspiring to note Hebrews 11:39-40 where it states that despite such strong faith, they did not receive what was promised, ‘since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect’. It is indeed amazing to discern that their faith was not affected due to non-realisation of hope in their earthly life.
God is just (2 Thessalonians 1:6); He loves justice (Isaiah 61:8), and executes justice for the orphans and the widows (Deuteronomy 10:18). He continues to be the same and never changes, for according to Hebrews 13:8, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’. But unfortunately, we human beings do change. Even after receiving answers to our prayers and getting justice executed, we often fall back. St Peter quotes Proverbs 26:11 in his epistle (2 Peter 2:22) to describe this fall as ‘a dog’s return to its vomit’.
This fall could be better discerned by understanding the way the enemy (Satan) works, as detailed in the parable of weeds among the wheat, in which the enemy sowed weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24). The enemy sowed weeds when the sower (of wheat) was not alert. In the same way, our faith gets corrupted due to the lack of being alert to Satan’s designs. Consequently, we now see around a diminished faith where weeds have outgrown wheat, or rather material visualisation has outgrown spiritual realisation, leading to the growth of a ‘wicked and adulterous generation seeking signs’ (Matthew 12:39). This has lately paved the opportunity for many pseudo-god-persons to sprout and burgeon. Having said, the commitment of many individual evangelists and missionaries cannot be negated either.
It has lately become a fashion to stage spirituality by way of ‘miracle performances’ as if they are the only way to make people believe in the power of God. This has further extended to the commercialisation of spirituality with advertisements and other publicity stunts using the social media. It has now boiled to a state that many or most people are unable to believe in Jesus and His power without seeing such demonstrations. ‘Seeing to believe’ is a commercial slogan rather than a spiritual one. Jesus said to St Thomas, ‘blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe’ (John 20:29). Instant spirituality is less based on faith (in Jesus) and more on immediate material realisation, ‘today and now’. Such attitude prompts an ‘eat, drink and be merry’ (Luke 12:19) approach which is detrimental to spiritual life.
The poisonous mushrooming of pseudo-divine individual entities has eventually led to corporate churches confined to ‘five star or even seven star’ gatherings in ultra luxurious settings as opposed to Jesus’ call for ‘carrying the cross to follow Him’ (Mark 8:34) by entering through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:14). Apparently, as if imitating the corporate leviathan, the humble masses are forced to carry heavy loads and the so called god-persons not even moving their little finger (see Luke 11:46).
Our aim and focus must not be ‘this worldly’ but heavenly, rooted in a faith which is futuristic and realistic. In order to achieve what we aim, we need to follow the ‘pioneer and perfecter of faith’ (Hebrews 12:2), Jesus Christ. We are expected to follow Him by ‘denying all the ungodliness of the present age, and living sensibly, righteously and godly’ (Titus 2:12). In this way, we wait for the ‘appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ’ (Titus 2:13). If we do so, then Jesus, in His second coming would be able to find faith somewhere in the corner of this world. Let us prepare ourselves not to disappoint Jesus at His second coming.
Lord please be kind and have mercy on us. Amen.
Fr Dr Saji K Mathew 