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No 'Signs' for the Pharisees? A Look at Luke 16:31 |
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AMANDA: One might speculate as to why God did not provide us categorical proof that would convince everyone that Jesus was divine and rose from the dead, or even that God Himself exists. But Jesus Himself points out in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead" (Luke 16:31). BRUCE: Nope. Drop the bacon-bits and step away from the salad bar, Amanda!
First, let me emphasize that it is Christians like yourself, Amanda,
that posit the extraordinary claim that their Jesus (and He
alone, mind you) performs "miracles" in the world today!
But all you have to offer in the way of evidence for your
"miracles" are assertions that are somehow always
lacking in verifiable evidence; or to arbitrarily give Jesus
credit for events that require nothing outside
the natural world to account for. In other words, your intense
desire that Jesus and miracles be a reality mandates that you
find something to validate that desire, and you do so
by applying any perceived "good" in the world as
being the wondrous work of your Jesus (anything good that people do
for other people is always a favorite), while all that is
"bad" is either the work of the devil or else some "higher
good from Jesus that is beyond our limited mental capacity to
comprehend."
The problem is, you have yet to establish that any miracles
are ever present at any time and for any reason,
let alone that your chosen god would have exclusive rights
to having performed such events, were they to actually occur, that
is.
Second, those religious leaders
("they") being referred to in Luke 16:31 are the
Pharisees (and also Sadducees in Matt.16), and as such, they are not
representative of the "crowds" and "people
standing round" witnessing all these alleged miraculous events
and "believing" as a result! Even you must know,
Amanda, that the Pharisees are portrayed in the gospels as
opposing Jesus at every turn, seeing him as a threat to their
authority (Mark 3:6; 7:1; 10:2; Matt. 12:24; 15:1-2; 16:6-12; 23:1;
John 11:47-48; 12:19, among others). They embodied the old
establishment that was to be replaced by the new--that is,
the New Kingdom. Simply stated, they are a
strawman group (like Pharaoh in the Exodus fable) whose views of
Mosaic law are set up specifically for Jesus to knock down and replace
with his own "interpretations." Indeed, Matthew
16:5-12 has Jesus explaining a previous parable to his disciples
which was intended to convey how they are not to
go by the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees!
Even more telling is that there are some
passages that give us a view as to why they did not, or
rather could not, believe:
So Jesus himself was "blind[ing]
their eyes and harden[ing] their heart[s]" in order to
prevent them from seeing and understanding! I find it
very interesting that Jesus would prevent from seeing, those
that would supposedly be most helped by seeing...
But even if it was the case that no signs were
to be performed for these "religious leaders" (the
Pharisees), as you claim, that still does not solve the
problem of Saul, who was a Pharisee--oops
(Phil. 3:5; Acts 23:6; 26:5), and his conversion following the divine incident
on the road to Damascus! If Paul can be given a
"sign" (from Jesus himself, we are told) that is sufficient
to allay all his skepticism, and indeed turn his hatred and
persecution of Christians into apostleship in their cause, then why is
it unreasonable to expect a "sign" from Jesus (e.g.,
seeing just one single child resurrected from the dead) in order to
allay my own skepticism, and in turn make me into a devoted apostle
for the Christian cause?
And what of Jairus? (Luke 8) Wasn't
he an "official of the synagogue"? (Mark
5:22; Luke 8:41) Did not Jesus show him the ultimate
"sign" by resurrecting his dead daughter from the dead? In
the story we are told that Jairus "threw himself down at
Jesus's feet" and proceeded to "beg" that Jesus
"come to his house, because his only daughter, who was about
twelve years old, was dying." And shortly thereafter we are
informed that his daughter was dead (v.49). And how
does Jesus respond to this news? Why he says to Jairus, "Do
not be afraid; simply have faith and she will be well again."
(v.50), after which Jesus goes to her and resurrects her ("Her
spirit returned, and she stood up immediately" [v.55]).
And what of John's version of the Jairus story,
the "royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum"?
(John 4:46-53) It's interesting that after this man
"begs" for Jesus to heal his son, Jesus responds with the
same admonishments about needing to see "signs and
wonders" in order to believe, but do we see Jesus refusing
the request as he refuses the Pharisees? Let's see:
The answer, of course, is an emphatic
"NO," he does not deny the request, but rather performs the
"miracle" as requested, almost as an afterthought.
It's important to note, here, that Jesus' constant irritation at
having to do these healings and resurrections (ho-hum) was not because
he didn't want to do them, so as to relinquish the suffering of
the afflicted or their relatives (e.g., the anguish of the widowed
mother over the death of her only son), but that he shouldn't have
to do it; rather, any "true believer" should
be able to perform such healings and resurrections all by himself, if
he "only had faith!"
So, whenever there were no "true
believers" around to perform healings and resurrections (cf.,
Matt.17:14-21), it was evidently not an unreasonable
request to ask of Jesus to perform the miracle himself! Indeed,
it wasn't unreasonable for his own disciples to make requests of him,
and it certainly wasn't unreasonable for all the "people standing
round," so why should it be so unreasonable for me to request
just one "sign" in the form of just one single
resurrection (either from Jesus himself or from any one of his
"believing" flocks), as compared to the multitude of
miracles that the disciples and "crowds" allegedly observed
in order that they would "believe"?
Third, it is not prayers or requests to
Jesus from myself that I am appealing to here in
order to have a resurrection occur, but rather to those
agonizing prayers and appeals (begging) to Jesus FROM
BELIEVING CHRISTIAN PARENTS (or even non-believing
parents--theologically it makes no difference in this case) who have
lost a child through disease, SIDS, fires, car accidents,
suicide, torture, murder, terrorist attacks, or any other
gruesome end you can think of. In my own experiences as a
fire-paramedic, I have personally witnessed anguished parents pleading
to God to "bring their [dead] child back to them!" I
went on a SIDS just a couple months ago, in fact, where the mother was
pleading with Jesus, saying, "Oh Jesus, oh God, I just want
my baby back! Please, Please!" She was inconsolable.
I also had a 2 year-old girl get burned to death because her
five-year-old brother was playing with a lighter in their
bedroom, caught the bed on fire, and then ran and hid, closing the
bedroom door behind him (with his baby sister still in there).
The mother can be heard on the 9-1-1 tape pleading to God to save her
baby, although, even by this time the baby had been virtually
incinerated (the mother had already tried to reach her, but the flames
held her back). There are other examples I could cite from my
own experiences, so I know that similar situations occur all the time
across the U.S. and around the world.
Would you be so naive as to suggest, Amanda,
that there are no "widowed mothers" in the world today who
have had their "only son" die? (Luke 7) This story
(funeral procession in City of Nain) is especially interesting because
we are never told that the mother of the dead man was a follower
of Jesus, or that she was even praying to God to have her son returned
to her. All we are told is that Jesus (accompanied by his disciples
and a large crowd, plus all the townspeople in
the City of Nain), when he "...saw her his heart went
out to her, and he said, 'Do not weep.' ", after which Jesus
resurrects the young man and "...restored him to his
mother." (Luke 7:15b).
I am simply requesting to be present
when Jesus performs just one of these patented
resurrections today on behalf of one of his grieving
followers. I want to be one among the
"crowd" of "people" standing round in order that I
may witness said resurrection, and "believe" and
"be filled with awe" and "praise God" as a result
of having seen! (John 11:42, 12:17; Luke 7:11,12,16)
So, Amanda, since you are a "True
Christian" who "lives the Christian life" and are a
"true believer," then perhaps you could demonstrate for me
the reality of your claims of Christian truth, and have your
heart "go out to" your friend, the one who's little boy
drowned while she was talking on the phone, and "in Jesus'
name" (John 14:13-14), resurrect her little boy from the dead!
But please let me know when you plan to go to his grave and exhume the
body to perform the resurrection, because I would like to be "one
among the crowd" present when this dramatic "miracle"
happens!
Bruce Monson
Adherence to Life BEFORE Death
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