Curious Bible Verse

Most Christians are acquainted with the last three verses of Matthew 28. However, verse seventeen is a curious verse. Right before Jesus ascended back to heaven and said those words that we call the great commission, the verse says, “and when they saw him they worshiped him: but some doubted.”

Keep in mind that these are the eleven disciples. They were not strangers to Jesus. They were not casual followers. These were the disciples that saw him perform magnificent miracles. They saw him heal people of diseases, blindness, deafness, and even raised people from the dead. Earlier in Jesus’ ministry they were instructed to God in his name so that they could also perform miracles. Still yet, everything was done by the power of Jesus.

We might ask how is this possible that they were the eyewitnesses of the ministry of Christ for over three years. On top of it all, they even had  a meal with the resurrected Christ. After his resurrection he stayed with them and other people for at least forty days hearing him preach and teach. Let me ask a rhetorical question again. How could these disciples still doubt?

1. We must keep in mind that not all of them had the experience that Peter James and John had on the Mount of Transfiguration. We must keep in mind also that only Peter offered the great confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah.
2. Most of the disciples were eyewitnesses to the ministry of Christ. The few that did not go to the Mount of Transfiguration were left behind. They did not incorporate into their thinking the same experience as Peter. In other words, there is a major difference between witnessing and observing as opposed to incorporating an experience into one’s personal life as Peter did.
3. It was not until the day of Pentecost that all of the  disciples were empowered by the Holy Spirit. They all had a personal experience at that time. Afterwards, they all began to preach to people far and wide of different cultures and different languages that still were Jews. They became witnesses out of personal experience and not rehearsing an observation.
4. This verse shows how dubious many of the disciples were. They did not doubt that Jesus was the promised Messiah. They did not doubt that he performed all the miracles they witnessed. However, they were hesitant to except that the ministry of Christ would go further, including them in the rest of their lives. They were uncertain what would happen next.
5. It behooves us then that we incorporate into our own thinking a personal experience with Christ and not just be observers to his wonderful love. When we pray and serve God it must be out of our relationship with him and not just our knowledge about him. This is similar to the experience that the disciple Thomas had in in John 20: 26-29. He did not believe until he had that personal experience with the resurrected Christ. If we are to go to all the world, it must be out of her own personal investment with Christ.