Crossing Niagara

Charles Blondin (1824-1897) was one of the greatest acrobats of all time. He began his training at five years of age and within six months was astonishing crowds as “the Little Wonder.” The most outstanding among his many dangerous feats were the exhibitions he gave on an 1100 foot-long tightrope stretched 160 feet above Niagara Falls. He crossed the Falls several times, always with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, on stilts, pushing a wheelbarrow. Once he even sat on the tightrope and cooked an omelet! But one incident stands out above the others. After successfully crossing Niagara, Blondin asked the gathered crowd, “Who believes I can cross back over the Falls?” The crowd roared as one man, “We believe!” “Then who,” Blondin said, “is willing to get on my back while I cross?” The crowd was silent. Finally, one brave man stepped out of the crowd and said, “I will.” He climbed on Blondin’s shoulders, and they both walked successfully over Niagara Falls.

John Wesley once said, “The devil has given the Church a counterfeit to faith – mental assent.” Mental assent is head knowledge. It is agreeing with the Word of God in the mind without believing it in the heart.

The crowd at Niagara Falls mentally assented to Blondin’s ability to cross, but the brave man who climbed on his shoulders believed from his heart.

We see this illustrated in Mark 4 beginning in verse 35.

“And on that day, when evening had come, He said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’”

The phrase, ‘that day’ is significant; Jesus had spent the day teaching on faith and the power of God’s Word. After preaching, Jesus boarded the boat and immediately fell asleep. Soon a fierce gale arose, and the disciples, knowing the destructive power of storms on the Sea of Galilee, panicked. They awoke Jesus saying, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Jesus calmed the storm then rebuked for their complete absence of faith, “How is it that you have no faith.” They had spent an entire day listening to Jesus teach, but all they had to show for it was head knowledge, or mental assent.

It is easy to mentally assent that Jesus can do anything. It is another thing to climb on His shoulders and cross Niagara Falls with Him.