Jesus has already done plenty to prove himself to anyone who is half interested in who he is. The Father has done more than enough to authenticate that Jesus is indeed the Son of God—and as such, is worthy to be accepted as Savior and obediently followed as Lord. On Judgment Day, we won’t be able to offer the excuse that God didn’t prove himself to us. Maybe today, we ought to prove our trust to him through our unqualified worship and loving obedience.
The Journey: Matthew 16:1,4
One day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, demanding that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. He replied, “…Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign…”
A sign? They want another sign? You’ve got to be kidding!
Keep in mind that Jesus had just delivered the demonized daughter of a Syro-Phoenicean woman (Matthew 16:21-28). He had just healed scores of people—“the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again”—in the Galilee (Matthew 15:29-31). Then to top it off, he had just fed 4,000 men (not including women and children) with seven loaves of bread and a few fish—with seven doggy bags for his disciples afterwards. (Matthew 15:32-39)
Now the Pharisees and Sadducees had the gall to ask Jesus to show them a miracle! As we used to say when I was a kid (for which I was usually reprimanded by my very prim and proper mother), “what did they want, egg in their beer?” What else could Jesus do, raise someone from the dead before their very eyes? Oh yeah, he’d already done that, too! Come on, did they expect him to die and come back to life again to prove his divine authority? Oops, guess he did that as well.
The point is, Jesus has already done plenty to prove himself to anyone who is half interested in who he is. The Father has done more than enough to authenticate that Jesus is indeed the Son of God—and as such, is worthy to be accepted as Savior and obediently followed as Lord. On Judgment Day, no one will be able to offer the excuse that God didn’t prove himself to them.
At some point with Jesus, we need to stop asking for proof and start proving our faith—whether or not we have signs, wonders and miracles to, yet again excite, to fuel our trust that Jesus is who he said is. Augustine pointed out, “Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.” St. Anselm argued that believing, that is what we call saving faith, is the precondition of knowing:
I believe in order to understand. (credo ut intelligam)
Miracles are nice—but our faith doesn’t depend on them for stability. You’ve got all the proof you need! So why don’t you prove your faith in Jesus by giving him your trust today!
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