What we see and what we believe are not always the same
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Recently I sold a photograph of the Loch Ness Monster! I live in hope of selling a photo of a haggis too.
When I say I have photographs of these things, what I have, in the case of Nessie is a photograph of Urquhart Castle with a digitally-created image of the popular representation of Nessie (though now known to be a hoax) inserted into the loch behind the castle. The creation of a haggis was a bit more complicated! I didn’t think I had the stomach for it, but I managed to cook something up in Photoshop.
We all, of course, know that there is no such creature as a haggis. It’s all a bit of fun with the punchline of acting in a deadly serious manner, while convincing gullible visitors to the Highlands that such a creature exists.
The Loch Ness monster, however, is a different kettle of fish. People actively search for the Loch Ness Monster, but no one is out looking for a haggis (except perhaps in the local Co-op!).
I can empathise with Prime Minister Boris Johnston who said that when he was a child, and even today, part of him “yearns to believe” in the Loch Ness Monster. Mr Johnston made this comment on a visit to Scotland last year just after New Zealand scientists, who tried to catalogue all living species in Loch Ness by extracting DNA from water samples, had announced that it was unlikely Nessie is the last surviving prehistoric reptile.
Personally, leaving aside monstrous digital artwork and a yearning to believe, I am essentially a Doubting Thomas when it comes to belief in the Loch Ness Monster.
The title Doubting Thomas comes down to us from one of Jesus’ 12 disciples who, initially, did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.
But Thomas’ doubts were removed when the risen Jesus appeared to him and said: “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” On seeing Jesus’ crucifixion wounds, Thomas exclaimed: “My Lord and my God!”
This is astonishing because here we have a Jew confessing a man to be God and a man accepting worship as God. Both knew the first two commandments of having no other gods but God! The resurrection, thereby, is the final proof of the incarnation: a special entrance into this world and an extraordinary exit out of it by the incarnated Son of God.
I could be sincere in my yearning to believe that Nessie exists, but this would place the emphasis upon my sincerity of belief rather than in any evidence for the object of my belief. The claims of Christianity (which stand or fall on the doctrine of the resurrection) are based, among other things, on verifiable history and reliable documentation of witness testimony (necessary even if there was a photograph of the risen Jesus). Faith in the resurrection of Jesus is based on a justified belief rather than on an unsubstantiated claim.
But now that Jesus has ascended to heaven we cannot have Thomas’ privilege of literally seeing the risen Saviour. Yet, Jesus further said to Thomas: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Seeing is not believing, but believing is seeing!
