Articles
Show Us ANOTHER Sign – Mark 8
Show Us ANOTHER Sign – Mark 8
“The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him” (Mark 8:11). So far in our reading, Mark has recorded MANY specific accounts of ‘signs’:
| · In their synagogue, he Cast out an evil spirit – 1:21-28 · He then healed MANY, including Peter’s mother-in-law – 1:29-34 · Healed the man with leprosy – 1:40-45 (HE then spread this story far and wide) · Healed the paralytic 2:1-12 (showing his power to forgive sins) · Healed a man with a paralyzed hand – 3:1-6 · Calmed the storm – 4:35-41 · Cast out many spirits in the man of Gerasa – 5:1-20 · Healed the woman with the continual bleeding problem – 5:25-34 · Raised Jairus’ daughter from death – 5:21-42 · Feed 5000 – 6:30-44 · Walked on water – 6:45-52 · Healed the Syro-Phoenician’s daughter – 7:24-30 · Healed the deaf mute – 7:31-37 |
Such were ‘not done in a corner’, but were publicized throughout Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Yet, they now request a ‘sign from heaven’, which perhaps is simply a greater sign like the sun moving backwards or?
The purpose of signs was to point to a truth, but some people simply have such an aversion to truth that the sign is ignored! Like the blind man in John 9, the one fact that they stubbornly refused to deal with was the fact that Jesus made him to SEE. The blind man no longer was blind!
Even later, in the presence of the apostles, the Jewish leaders would admit the sign and deny its necessary inference (Acts 4:16). The apostle Paul could write: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23).
John chose 7 signs (eight including the resurrection of Jesus) to include in his book. He declares at the end: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
When people today, having read the testimony of those who observed Jesus and the apostles doing such signs, ask for yet another sign they are just whistling in the dark. As Abraham told the rich man: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:31). Jesus DID rise from the dead. Many refused to believe even that. Many DID and do believe. Do you?
Hugh DeLong
