In the movie Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones finds himself on a quest for the Holy Grail. Along the way, he endures an escape from a Zeppelin, a fight with Nazis on top a tank, rambling through the desert and an encounter with Hitler himself.
But his biggest trials come at the end of the movie. His father, a man who he has had a strained relationship with, is dying of a gunshot wound and Indy believes that only the Holy Grail can save him. To find the Grail, though, Indy must face several tests, the last one being a literal leap of faith.
Indy stands at a giant chasm. The notes from his father’s journal say that only a leap from the lion’s head will prove his worth. For a few minutes, all Indy can do is stare at the chasm and sputter. There is simply no way he can jump that far and make it safely to the other side.
There is no way.
Tonight my dad reminded me of another leap of faith, the one Peter had to make when Jesus called to him to follow him out onto the lake, to walk on water. At first Peter is the epitome of the faithful. He walks on water.
It’s one thing for Jesus to do it. He’s the son of God, but here’s Peter, just your regular joe, able to do the impossible simply through faith.
Of course, Peter is only human and when he sees the wind, he’s afraid and he begins to sink. Jesus comes to him and pulls him up and says “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?”
I remember that when I first read those words, I read them as a rebuke as if Jesus were chastising Peter, as if Peter had disappointed him.
Now, though, when I read those words, I don’t see them as being harsh at all. I see Jesus addressing Peter the way a father might address his child who had become lost in the woods. I see Jesus as holding onto Peter and comforting him with those words.
Why would you doubt me?
And the unspoken words … If you knew how much I loved you, you would never doubt.
I, of course, have been making my own leap of faith recently in applying to seminary. I have always been a planner. I’ve been accused of planning out my day when I wake up in the morning down to what I will eat and when I will eat and how long that will take. And I will admit to that.
So to have to apply to seminary, to have to begin this journey without complete knowledge of how it’s all going to work out … it has been a huge leap of faith.
The other day, I was looking through my filing cabinet. I’ve had it since high school and in the back of one of the drawers, buried under some papers, was a tiny notebook. I had only written on a few of the pages, but on those pages were my thoughts about being called to the priesthood.
I had written those thoughts 16 years ago.
And there it was. It was like I had written a letter to my future self. All the things that I have felt this past year haven’t been new. They had been brewing in me for a very long time. And even in my youth, I knew that I would never be truly happy if I didn’t answer the call.
And so I will make that leap of faith because again and again God has shown me that it is the only option. And again and again God has shown me that if I knew, truly knew how much He loved me, I would never doubt. Those two things are very important to know in any leap of faith, that God’s way is the only way and that God loves us more than we can imagine.
In Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Indy does make that leap. He does it because he knows that it is the only path available to him. And he must take it, if he wants to save his father.
Imagine how much easier it would have been had he also known God’s love.
