Signs & Wonderings
Read Matthew 16.
I bet you've prayed the prayer. I know I have. "Lord, if this is what you want, give me a sign!" I just said something like it this morning, in fact. In the midst of a conversation with another pastor who had gotten his doctorate, I said, "God would have to give me a very clear sign to make me want to go back to school to get that degree!" We've probably all prayed the prayer—we want a sign, something significant to happen to point us in the right direction.
We're essentially no different than these doubters who are challenging Jesus in Matthew 16. The tension is rising, time is getting short, and the cross (we know and Jesus knows) is getting nearer. Those who have been "in power" for some time (or who have at least had the hearts of the people) are starting to think about getting rid of Jesus. He's got too many people who are following him. So these two religious groups, Pharisees and Sadducees (who normally didn't agree on much...Pharisees would have been the conservative group and Sadducees would have been the liberal group) come together to Jesus to ask for a sign. "If you just give us a sign, we will believe." Would they have, really? We'll never know, because Jesus refuses to give them what they ask for. He sends them back to the Scriptures, to read and study and understand what God is up to in his life. Signs? No, Jesus says. You already have all the information you need to know what I'm doing.
But since the religious leaders are questioning what he is doing, Jesus takes the disciples away for a retreat to clarify who he is and what he's about. He takes them about as far away as they can get—to a place way up north called Caesarea Philippi. The unique thing about Caesarea is that it was a veritable shopping mall of gods. Any deity you wanted, you could find in Caesarea. Jesus takes them there, to this playground of paganism, and asks them two questions: what do the opinion polls say about me? And who do you say I am?
Even when Peter gets the answer right, he immediately turns around and tells Jesus he's wrong when Jesus begins talking about the cross. You see, they've wondered for a long time what this Messiah was going to be like, but they knew for sure the Messiah would never serve, suffer or submit. Now Jesus is talking about doing at least two of those things. "Get your mind focused on the right things," Jesus says. "Don't assume your own wonderings are accurate. Listen instead for God's plan, God's work in all of this."
We don't seem to be all that different from those early disciples. We look for signs. And we assume our wonderings are accurate. All the while, Jesus is pointing us toward a vision of a different kingdom, a better world, a life beyond all wondering.
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| Caesarea Philippi, 2012 |
I bet you've prayed the prayer. I know I have. "Lord, if this is what you want, give me a sign!" I just said something like it this morning, in fact. In the midst of a conversation with another pastor who had gotten his doctorate, I said, "God would have to give me a very clear sign to make me want to go back to school to get that degree!" We've probably all prayed the prayer—we want a sign, something significant to happen to point us in the right direction.
We're essentially no different than these doubters who are challenging Jesus in Matthew 16. The tension is rising, time is getting short, and the cross (we know and Jesus knows) is getting nearer. Those who have been "in power" for some time (or who have at least had the hearts of the people) are starting to think about getting rid of Jesus. He's got too many people who are following him. So these two religious groups, Pharisees and Sadducees (who normally didn't agree on much...Pharisees would have been the conservative group and Sadducees would have been the liberal group) come together to Jesus to ask for a sign. "If you just give us a sign, we will believe." Would they have, really? We'll never know, because Jesus refuses to give them what they ask for. He sends them back to the Scriptures, to read and study and understand what God is up to in his life. Signs? No, Jesus says. You already have all the information you need to know what I'm doing.
But since the religious leaders are questioning what he is doing, Jesus takes the disciples away for a retreat to clarify who he is and what he's about. He takes them about as far away as they can get—to a place way up north called Caesarea Philippi. The unique thing about Caesarea is that it was a veritable shopping mall of gods. Any deity you wanted, you could find in Caesarea. Jesus takes them there, to this playground of paganism, and asks them two questions: what do the opinion polls say about me? And who do you say I am?
Even when Peter gets the answer right, he immediately turns around and tells Jesus he's wrong when Jesus begins talking about the cross. You see, they've wondered for a long time what this Messiah was going to be like, but they knew for sure the Messiah would never serve, suffer or submit. Now Jesus is talking about doing at least two of those things. "Get your mind focused on the right things," Jesus says. "Don't assume your own wonderings are accurate. Listen instead for God's plan, God's work in all of this."
We don't seem to be all that different from those early disciples. We look for signs. And we assume our wonderings are accurate. All the while, Jesus is pointing us toward a vision of a different kingdom, a better world, a life beyond all wondering.
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