Week 2 – TEACHING:
Are You Thirsty?
– Todd Thicksten
I just saw the movie Silence, based on the book by Shusaku Endo. I read the book a long time ago and forgot a lot of the dialogue. Currently serving in Japan as a missionary, I knew this was an important movie to see, but I was rather unsure as to how hopeful it might leave me feeling.
There was one particular scene that hit me at several levels. So as not to give anything away, let’s just say that the priest, Sebastian Rodrigues, one of the last remaining missionaries, is being persuaded to accept a belief that Japan is somehow different than the rest of the world. He is told, “Christianity just can’t take root and flourish here.” I think these words of doubt might resonate with people who have tried to share the Gospel with little or no success, either at home or abroad. After centuries of work by missionaries, the number of professing Japanese Christians today continues to hover at less than one percent of Japan’s population. That data clearly points to some apparent resistance to the Gospel message. Discouragement abounds. But, is their hope?
When Adam and Wendy came to visit us a few years ago, they brought us tremendous encouragement. They could see that we were becoming overly focused on the various barriers to receiving the Gospel. They reminded us that we weren’t up against unbreakable ground that couldn’t produce the fruit of faith. While obviously spiritually parched, the ground here was also filled with hearts that were very thirsty. Thirsty for the truth. I remember their words so clearly: “Don’t underestimate the spiritual thirst of the people.”
It’s strange how easily we downplay the power of Christ to truly gratify our deepest longing. Christ made the simple invitation to all who would bank their hope on Him alone: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me…” (John 7:37).
This scene in Silence also highlighted a far too common mindset that puts limitations on God’s power. Priest Rodrigues was being persuaded to accept that some things are just out of God’s reach. However, Christ assures us that God is sovereign: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me… My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-30).
Christ promises that the process of quenching our thirst and making our hearts grow in greater affection for him is the sovereign activity of God’s Spirit working in and through us. Paul says it most emphatically: “It’s not important who does the planting or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow” (1 Corinthians 3:7).
The familiar voice of discouragement says that the mountain is too big. that hearts are too hard, that your faith is too small. But Christ would gently remind us that it isn’t the circumstances, the zip code or even the size of our faith that matters, as much as who is the object of our faith.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)