When signs aren’t needed… (Mark 7:24-8:21)
A road sign that says “Cape Town – 200km” is necessary because the traveller hasn’t yet arrived, and the traveller might need to know how to answer the incessant questioning of their child from the back seat; “Are we there yet?” or “How much longer?”.
The sign in one sense is a comfort that you are on the right route but it is also a confirmation that you’re not there yet. Because signs aren’t needed when you’ve crested the majestic Sir Lowry’s Pass after 18hrs of driving and you’re enraptured with the beauty of the setting sun sinking into the ocean alongside Table Mountain. You’re there and so signs that mattered in the endless roads of the Great Karoo where everything looks the same, matter no more – you can see the mountain now.
As we read Mark 7:24-Mark 8:1-10 its hard to not be amazed again at the miraculous power and love of Jesus on display. Jesus delivering the Syrophoenician woman’s child just like she asked Him to, Jesus healing the deaf man with the speech impediment, Jesus feeding 4000 people with just loaves & a few fish…
And yet after all this, the Pharisees approach Jesus and demand that He give them a sign to prove or explain who He was and where His authority came from (Mark 8:11). In a rare sign of frustration Jesus sighed deeply! What more could they have asked for, what more would convince them?
What irony! No sign from heaven would be given because Jesus Himself had come from heaven, and when you have the real thing, you don’t need a sign. God incarnate in Christ there right with them, performing miraculous wonders, and yet they couldn’t see the Him, rather they wanted a sign that would point to Him.
Jesus is God’s final word as Hebrews 1:1-4 says;
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”
Friend, Jesus is the supreme sign of God’s love for you and for me. There is and will never be anything or anyone greater than Jesus and His life, death, resurrection & second coming. There is no other sign from God because Jesus is God and Jesus has come and He will come again.
Jesus is the sign and the destination we long for!
Two words that matter 