Luke 1: More on Certainty, Uncertainty, and Faith

Whereas the gospel of Mark ends with uncertainty, Luke begins with certainty: "...since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught." (The NASB translates certainty as exact truth.)

That, of course, is the certainty of the narrator, the certainty of hindsight, the certainty of investigative gospel writing. But the characters in Luke's narrative seem less certain—at least initially. Zechariah, for example.

Zechariah and Elizabeth's story echoes the barren matriarch tradition, a tradition which carries within it a lack of certainty as a condition of faith in the face of a seemingly impossible promise. Remember Sarah's laughter? Zechariah's "How can I be sure of this?" reflects his uncertainty, which is all the more remarkable because as a priest he certainly knows the story of Sarah and Abraham. (But these are just stories of the olden days. Things like that don't happen to us nowadays. Maybe that's how Zechariah thought.) His question, however, is answered not with any certainty but with another dubious sign: he's muted, "because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time."

Mute Zechariah then, reduced to communicating by signs, manages to persuade barren Elizabeth to lie with him, by faith. She becomes pregnant as promised.

Having learned his lesson about men, Gabriel next goes directly to a young woman. Mary, perplexed or greatly troubled by Gabriel's greeting, wonders what's going on. She's uncertain. After Gabriel tells her what being favored by God means, she's still uncertain. "How can this be?" When Gabriel explains—which is no explanation at all, for how do you explain this impossibility?—Mary's response is faithful obedience which incorporates her uncertainty. She trusts God beyond her uncertain knowledge.

Faith is only faith in the presence of uncertainty. Faith is trusting an apparently impossible promise made by a trustworthy messenger sent from a trustworthy God, and acting in the present on that future promise as if it were certain—even if we are uncertain and all our experience mitigates against the possibility of the promise being fulfilled.

Now, for a little immaculate conception humor:

I think the 99.99% needs a few more significant digits. Ha!