LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Those Who Ask for Signs
The Lord Jesus severely rebuked the Jews for asking for signs. They wanted Jesus to convince them by miracles and mighty deeds that he was the Christ. However, the Lord did not agree to grant them such a thing.
It is that the signs do not produce faith in the heart, they only satisfy the curiosity of the flesh. When, in the story told by the Lord, the rich man asks Abraham to send a prophet raised from the dead so that his family may repent, Abraham replies: "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone does" (Luke 16:31). Not even the resurrection of a man could produce repentance for life, because that is only produced by hearing and believing the word of God.
Those who ask for signs move in the sphere of the flesh, of external things. However, God searches the heart of man, in that corner where only God sees and can enter.
Chorazín, Betsaida, Capernaum are Galilean cities that went down in history as scenes where the Lord performed many miracles, and which the Lord rebuked for not repenting. "Woe to you, Corazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that have been done in you had been done in Tire and Sidon, long ago they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes" (Matt. 11:21). To Capernaum he says: "If the miracles that have been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day". Few words are as severe as those that the Lord directs to the cities and men seeking miracles.
On another occasion, when the scribes and Pharisees said to the Lord: "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you", he answered them: "The evil and adulterous generation demands a sign; but no sign will be given to them, but the sign of the prophet Jonah". And this sign had nothing to do with marvelous events that would satisfy people's curiosity, but rather pointed to his own death and resurrection.
Next, he compares that generation to a man from whom an unclean spirit has come out. The unclean spirit returns again and takes possession of that man, causing him further damage. In the same way, that generation that was the object of God's grace and power would later be tossed around by Satan, and his last state would be worse than his first.
Those who ask for signs expose themselves to a bad end. They do not have a heart to hear the Lord and believe his word. The evil heart always looks for an excuse not to repent. Paul, speaking to the Corinthians, says: "Because the Jews ask for signs, and the Greeks seek wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, for the Jews a stumbling block, and for the Gentiles foolishness" (1 Cor. 1:22-23). Neither the Jews asking for signs, nor the Greeks seeking wisdom, please God. Only those who glory in Christ crucified satisfy his heart.
The cross of Christ is the sign of the prophet Jonah, the only one that God gives to man as a testimony about his Son. Christ is not truly known through signs, but on the cross. There he accomplished the most mighty and far-reaching work.