“He hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort.” (Luke 23:8b)
Read Luke 23:1–12
I remember seeing a movie, “The Man with Two Brains”, which starred Steve Martin. My (sometimes fallible) memory is that his wife had died, and he had fallen in love again. He was standing in front of a portrait of his deceased wife and saying, “Send me a sign. Just send me a sign”. The portrait started spinning around furiously. He said once more, “Send me a sign”, as he watched the painting spinning around, and then took it off the wall and put it where he couldn’t see it.
Wouldn’t it be great if God was better at providing signs to help guide us in our decision-making, to see what will happen in the future or, even more importantly, to show God’s amazing powers that would cause people to become Christians?
Herod wanted to see Jesus perform a sign — maybe a miraculous healing, a repeat of turning water into wine, or perhaps even some stunning revelation about what glorious things awaited Herod in the future. Any one of these probably would have satisfied Herod and proved that Jesus was a subversive and justifiably worthy of elimination.
It was not to be. Jesus was not going to play the game. He just stood there, not responding to the taunts, insults or accusations. Maybe if Jesus had performed just one sign, things would have turned out very differently.
Jesus’ humility meant that He had nothing to gain but the cross. As Christians, we are very much in the minority in our current times. We have no earthly power, but we are still called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified so we can serve not only God but also our fellow humans.
As we gather for worship, we confess our faith, hear God’s promises of forgiveness once again and receive the gift of Jesus’ body and blood. If that’s not a sign of God’s love, I don’t know what is!
Prayer
Father, I thank You for the love and mercy You give me daily. I ask You to continue to strengthen my faith so that my words and actions show everyone around me the love You have for them. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Stay encouraged!
Pastor Mike
