What is the Lord saying? That they were sinners, that they needed to repent, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had to come and die and suffer for us all and to bear the punishment and the pain for my sins because we cannot earn our own place in heaven. We cannot deserve God's favour and God's kindness. But we are not listening to this. It is not a shrewd objective investigation of the faith that causes the pessimist to reject it. It's the fact that it is going to be humbling. It is going to mean if these things are true, that I am going to have to respond to these things. I am going to have to seek a Saviour, ask for pardon, ask for conversion and a new life, and I don't want that because maybe I'm too proud, so I will be resentful and pessimistic about everything, and simply ward off the message by the instrument of pessimism.
Another thing about pessimism is that although natural pessimists are very often brilliant people, highly intelligent people – no question about that – at the same time pessimism makes us very susceptible, vulnerable to being programmed and influenced by others. There's nothing like it for that. You can say that very often with optimism but pessimism is even worse. One rumour and the pessimist is down. One bad report and the pessimist is plunged down and will accept it. The good things are not true; the bad things are true. And since this world is more full of bad news than of good, and people are inclined to gossip and complain more than they are to speak positively, the pessimist is very vulnerable to all this. This happened here. We read in Luke and in Matthew and in Mark in particular just exactly what took place and it was like this. They were very impressed by the Lord. Then the whispering started. ‘Just a minute, just a minute’, somebody said. ‘Is not this Joseph's son? and we know his brothers and sisters. How can this man be anything at all?’ Before long they all believe he was only a man. They're all converted to the most pessimistic view of Christ possible. It's the pessimist’s natural cast of mind to take too seriously doubts and rumours and so a cynical person, a pessimistic person has to be careful. You have to say, I've got to be very careful that I'm not just put off from faith in Christ by some shallow comments. If I'm going to make a good judgment I've got to challenge everything that I hear and I can't just take up and take as read everything which is against the faith.
The pessimist is always demanding more evidence. In Matthew 13 and to Mark 6 we find that they're pressing for more. Here you see it in the Luke account because they want the same miracles that they hear at Capernaum, and if they had more proof they'd want still more. He says, ‘I can't believe. Answer me this question.’ So we answer it and his mind leaps onto another question. We answer that. Then there's another question and on it goes endlessly.
Then another thing with pessimism. Pessimism and the pessimistic person very often doesn't feel any duty to believe even in matters of this life. He feels no duty to find something solid, to have a sunny side to life, to go forward, to have something definite to believe in, and is the same when it comes to the faith. The pessimist doesn't feel any duty in this matter at all. The pessimist says, well, I am doubtful about all this and that is the end of the matter. Whereas he should say, ‘I'm dubious about some things but this is important. This is important because if it's true, it's a matter of my eternal destiny.’ Pessimism forfeits so much. Pessimism meant that Christ could not do many mighty works there, Mark says, because of their unbelief.