Can you Prove it?

It's a common question when people are exploring the Christian faith: can you prove that it's true?

Jesus faced similar questions himself. Having just driven out the traders from the temple area, people wanted to know why he thought he had the right to do it:

The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’
Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’
At first sight this seems a crazy answer. Is Jesus claiming to have some magical construction powers? Evidently his hearers thought the same:

They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
The hearers demanded a sign. Jesus responded by predicting his death and resurrection. He saw himself as the true temple of God, which is a claim he had already made earlier on.

The word "sign" occurs 18 times in the gospel of John - more than in any other book in the bible. The word was obviously important to the author. In fact, if you read the whole gospel, it's possible to see it has been structured around a series of major "signs" performed by Jesus. We'll see many more of them as we progress through John's gospel.

Jesus does not perform miracles on demand; but he does perform signs. Signs point away from themselves towards a greater reality. The question about any signs are:
  • can we read them?
  • can we understand what they signify?
  • are we following them?
What do you make of Jesus' claim that he would be raised from the dead? If it happened, what would that sign indicate? 

You can read the whole story we've looked at today here. 













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the previous post we saw how Jesus broke the social conventions of his day by starting to talk with a Samaritan woman by a well. The conversation that followed had a major impact on the woman's life and that of her community.  The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to...
Read more

Family Matters

Throughout history, the presence of large amounts of free alcohol have meant that weddings have often been occasions when people drink a lot. It was the same in first-century Palestine. At this particular wedding, the party was about to take a turn for the worse: the hosts had run out of wine. Then, as now, this would have been embarrassing and Jesus' mother appears to want him to do something about it.  On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ‘ Woman, why do you involve me? ’ Jesus replied. ‘ My hour has not yet come .’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’  At first sight, Jesus' answer seems a bit rude. First, he addresses his mother as "Woman." Then, he seems to shrug off her request with the seemingly off-hand phrase, "Why do you involve me?...
Read more