Thoughts for the Day

The Demand for a Sign

The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.’ And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Many people who live in the countryside are very good at predicting the weather. Where I lived in Pembrokeshire we lived on a little bit of land that stuck out into the sea, and were always slightly ahead of the local weather forecast. So if the television weather forecaster predicted rain at 10am, it was likely to occur at 9am. But some people can look at still air and a slightly yellow-grey sky, and confidently predict that snow is on the way.

But such natural predictions are not what the Pharisees wanted. They wanted Jesus to make some gigantic sign such as the river Jordan parting company to allow people to walk along the river bed while the waters piled up on either side, as Moses did (Exodus 14.10-29). Jesus refuses their demand, for it comes out of their unbelief. They are blind to the evidence of God's mercy in the healings that he has carried out day after day; in the feeding of thousands of people; and in the stilling of a storm. Their wilful blindness was almost mind-blowing.

We live in the world many centuries later but all too often we challenge Jesus in the same way as those Pharisees. "Show us a sign" we cry, instead of looking at God's work in the world around us. The observant will see His work in the miracle of nature as seen in the beauty of a tiny lamb, or the complexity of a tiny snowdrop. The observant will see His work in the kindness of strangers to someone in distress. The observant will see His work in the birth of a baby nestled in her father's arms. The observant will see His work in the faith of one whose life is drawing to an end. We do not need to "see a sign", for the evidence of God already lies all around us, if only we will look.

Lord God,
sometimes we are blind and deaf
to the evidence of your existence
in our world.
Open our eyes and unstop our ears
to be aware of You,
and of Your love and mercy to us.
Stop our craving for a sign,
and give us the confidence to
realise we don't need one.
Amen.