You are Miraculous! - August 14, 2010

Good Saturday morning! A nice and cool morning to start the day! The cool mornings may not be here to stay just yet, we are only at the middle of August after all. The kids do have to go to school next Wednesday though; that just seems too soon to me, probably not soon enough for all the moms looking forward to a break. How soon is too soon anyway? We can't seem to agree on that in this life. For some 6 am is way too soon to get up, for others that same time is called 'sleeping in'. We have different opinions on when to arrive at work, early or late, and when to arrive for an appointment. We just don't agree on a lot of things. Someone was most likely going to be offended by Jesus clearing the merchants from the Temple. Today, Jesus gets a question that many of us have heard in our lives, especially at work or in the military.

But the Jewish leaders demanded, "What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it." (John 2:18)

That "What are you doing?" question also arrives as, "Who said you could do that?"; "Who gave you the authority to do that?"; or even, "What do you think you're doing?". The person asking the question is surprised or offended in some way so he or she asks a question that has an obvious answer. The Jewish leaders could tell quite well what Jesus had been doing. Often a person asking about your authority to do something already knows whether you have the authority or not. In the military, we often ran into the question of authority. If you did something that overstepped your rank, a person of higher rank might get offended. The correctness of what you had done often didn't matter as much as the question of your level of authority. Yes, stupid things did happen such as putting something back the way it was simply because the person ordering the improvement didn't have the necessary rank to order the improvement. The Jewish leaders wanted to know if Jesus had exceeded his authority. The question to start their investigation seems to indicate that they had already decided on that issue, but we'll let Jesus answer them in the next verse.

We believe in Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, and our Lord. To us the question of his authority is answered in that Jesus has the very highest authority. However, the Jewish leaders had decided to oppose Jesus and didn't believe that he was the long awaited Messiah. "Show us a miraculous sign" comes from what the religious leaders and others expected of their Messiah. The leaders of the time expected a conquering hero who would come in with signs and wonders sending the Romans running back home. Jesus, as we know from the other Gospels, didn't conquer anyone, and his miraculous signs, of which he did many, were ignored willfully by the Jewish leaders. In fact there may have been more Romans who believed in Jesus than believers among the Jewish leaders. Jesus is Messiah, but he did not fit the wishes of many of the leaders looking for their own version of Messiah. Accepting the Messiah, Jesus, just as he is proved difficult for many while he walked the earth, and many find it difficult even today. Jesus gave us the authority to spread the good news of his grace. Do we have a miraculous sign to prove it? You are born again are you not? That Jesus could take sinners such as you and me, and make us into beloved children of God is certainly miraculous!

Enjoy the day in Christ!

Bucky