We look for signs to help us decide what to do. God faithfully provides them.
The US Presidential primaries are in full swing, and voters across the country are looking for signs. We want signs that a person is strong, signs that they can do what we want them to do, and signs that they can beat everyone who is running against them. We look for candidates with money, with an independent streak, and yet who agree with us. Our bizarre presidential election is the most vivid example, but races from sheriffs to senators feature the same drama.
Our need for signs is not only in politics; it is everywhere in life. Employers choose employees by looking at their training, experience, and ability to get along. None of these guarantee that the employee will be successful, but without a crystal ball or tea leaves to read the future, such signs are the best way a company has to choose the person with the best chance of accomplishing institutional goals. Patients seek signs that a doctor will make them well, and car buyers seek signs that a vehicle will make them happy. Interpersonal relationships are the same; men and women seek signs in choosing their friends and even their mates.
Jesus had been healing the sick, feeding the hungry, teaching the untrained, and performing miracles for two years when the religious leaders of the day asked Him for a sign in Matthew 12. Ostensibly, if Jesus produced the right sign, these men would believe Him. Ordinary men seek ordinary signs from each other – diplomas, resume’s, and physical feats. Jesus was anything but ordinary, and these leaders sought miracles from Him. I claim to be a physician and people want to see certificates and licenses. Jesus claimed to be the one and only God, and people wanted to see Him do things that only God could do. The Pharisees and scribes search for signs was different in degree but not in kind from what they saw, and what we see, in day to day life.
Why we seek signs
People seek signs not primarily to determine what to believe but to determine what to do. The first step is to gain information and the second step is to make a decision. Voters need to know about a candidate before they can decide whether or not to vote for him or her. Therefore the first reason to seek signs is to learn about something or someone. The Bible says that as we know a tree by its fruit, we will know a person by what he or she says and does. This “fruit” is a set of signs.
The second reason to seek signs is to delay making a decision that we don’t want to make. In this circumstance, “seeking signs” is usually called “getting more information”. Government leaders, business executives, and many others delay decisions until the issue resolves itself one way or another. Passive leadership is a trap; even if an organization chooses not to act, inaction should be a deliberate choice.
The third reason to seek signs is to help decide what to do. Sometimes we follow the direction that the signs lead, as when circumstances point toward taking a certain job and we take the job. Other times we go a different direction than where the signs lead. How many of us have been called to give money to a homeless man, or witness to a neighbor, or go on a mission trip, and we went the other way? God’s sent signs to Jonah that clearly pointed east towards Nineveh, but he went west towards Spain. Our works reflect what we really think, and those works are often inconsistent with what we say we believe. People seek signs both to justify doing something and also to justify not doing something.
The scribes and Pharisees had plenty of information about Jesus. They had heard Him speak countless times and seen His mighty works. They noted the compassion with which He treated the poor and the boldness with which He confronted injustice. They were not waiting for more information; these men knew enough about Jesus to decide whether or not to follow Him.
God’s answer
Jesus accused these scribes and Pharisees of being “evil and adulterous”. They had more than enough data to choose to follow Him, but they refused to do so. We do the same thing in many parts of our lives.
Our Creator gives us all of creation to declare His glory to us and His love for us, and we can choose to see Him in this sign or choose not to. The evidence for God is absolutely overwhelming; indeed almost every person for all of history has seen God in nature. Those who choose to see God in creation will enjoy His beauty, His power, His brilliance, and His love. After all, God does cause the rain to fall on both the evil and the good.
There have always been a small minority who refuse to see God in His creation. Those who choose not to see God in the universe will not enjoy those things. They may enjoy the physical world, but see only random chance or impersonal forces behind it. One of the great appeals of Darwin’s theory of evolution is that it provides a semi-plausible explanation for the existence of the universe without the need for God. For those who don’t want God or guilt to limit their conduct, evolutionism is a handy belief.
God provides signs of His work in every part of life. Our ability to love is a sign of His love, and the warmth of our relationships reflects the warmth of the relationship that we can have with Him. God provides people who know Him to minister to others, and the very existence of the Church is a powerful testimony to the truth of the Bible and the person of Jesus. Thousands of religious movements have come and gone over the millennia, but the work of Christ has remained. God has given us signs, but we must interpret them rightly.
Jesus harsh reply, however, is overshadowed by His spectacular promise. Despite their obstinacy, God would indeed give them a sign, one which was foreshadowed nearly 1000 years before in the example of Jonah. Jesus was about to do something that no one in history had ever done before; He would raise Himself from the dead. What greater sign could anyone do to prove His divine nature than to rise from the dead?
God’s warning
The scribes and Pharisees had refused to believe in Jesus despite His words and His works. Jesus healed hundreds if not thousands, but that was not enough. He fed over ten thousand, but that was not enough. He uttered millions of the most wonderful words ever to pass through human lips, but that was not enough. There was one last thing that Jesus could do to try to reach these hard-hearted men; He could conquer death. If the scribes and the Pharisees refused to believe in Him after that unmistakable sign, there was no sign that they would ever accept. Thus their doom was sure.
In this example, the scribes and Pharisees were about to make a poor choice, and they would unfortunately pay dearly for it. Non-Christians today must make the right choice or pay similar consequences. Christians, however, also need to trust and obey God, both in small and large matters. Our eternal salvation is not at stake, but our effectiveness is. Luke tells us that to whom much is given, much is required (12:48). God gives us little signs which He expects us to follow, and faithful obedience in these little things enables faithful obedience in the big ones.
Conclusion
Seeking signs is a common and important human activity; God even commands us to do. The error of the scribes and Pharisees was not in seeking a sign, but in choosing poorly with the information that they already had. The Lord’s grace to them, and to us, was and is overwhelming. But we can still choose to disbelieve. If we do, if we close the door to our last hope of salvation, we have no hope.
