Prove It…Again

Today’s Reading:

• Luke 8:1-3; Mark 3:20-30; Matthew 12:22-45; Mark 3:31-35; Matthew 12:46-50; Luke 8:19-21; Mark 4:1-9; Matthew 13:1-9; Luke 8:4-8; Mark 4:10-20

Verse(s) to Ponder:

• One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.” But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.” – Matthew 12:38-39, New Living Translation

Thoughts:
In the face of Jesus’ goodness, in the face of the wisdom and morality of His teachings, opponents still came and demanded that He perform a miracle to convince them that He was genuinely here as God’s representative.

It’s not as if they hadn’t been able to witness any of His other miracles already. And they had certainly heard His teachings. He wasn’t hiding anything.

No wonder Jesus called them out. No wonder he said that their hearts were evil and adulterous—that their inclination was to be unfaithful to their God.

And yet He still gave them a sign. The sign of Jonah—that is, the sign of His own death and resurrection.

How many of them responded to His sign? How many of us are just the same as they were, rejecting Jesus despite everything He’s done and demanding another sign?

Note: I have obviously been less than consistent about posting devotional thoughts for a while now, so I’m not going to claim that I’ll be consistent for the next few months, or that the blog will be centered around a certain theme (it was supposed to deal with faith-stretching verses this year). I just hope that these thoughts are still an encouragement to you, whenever they come your way.