Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God: The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross

How often have you heard people say that they are looking for a sign from God before making an important decision? Some are confused and uncertain. They look for a sign that will give them clarity on a decision they need to make. Others are lost and have reached a dead-end in their lives. They look for a sign that will point them in the right direction.

Many believers argue that asking for a sign from God is bad—an indication of a lack of faith or trust. They will often cite passages like Matthew 12:38 – 41 and 16:1 – 4 to support their position. In both of these passages Jesus rebukes the religious leaders of his day who keep asking him for a sign that he is the long-anticipated Messiah. Jesus declares: “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”

So is looking for a sign from God—asking for a sign, wrong? No; not at all. A quick survey of the scriptures reminds us that God has provided signs all the time. Circumcision and baptism, Passover and the Lord's Supper, are all signs. The rainbow, the plagues, the Sabbath, the budding of Aaron's rod, the parting of the Jordan and twelve stones to prove it and the virgin birth of Christ—all are signs.

God uses signs all the time. God uses and approves of signs. In the pages of the prophet Isaiah, Hezekiah gets an unsolicited sign while Ahaz is rebuked for not asking God for a sign. Biblically, a sign is an event or activity designed to reveal or point to God’s presence and action.

Signs are given to convince—to give a reason for belief. God gave signs to convince the people in Egypt to believe and follow Moses. Signs are also given to confirm—to support or encourage faith that is already present. Gideon asked for one and God responded positively.

The issue that Jesus deals with in Matthew’s gospel is one of motivation, the religious leaders are testing Jesus. Their request for a sign is for the purposes of validation—proof that he is the Messiah. But their desire for proof is not sincere. Jesus has performed many signs—many miracles throughout his ministry. They have seen much in the way of signs but they continue to refuse to see. This is what Jesus is getting at when he comments that they know how to tell what the weather will be but they cannot interpret the signs of the times.

Hypocrisy taints their petitions. Their insistence on more proof, better signs is just another way of avoiding submission to the truth, of acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah. Instead of following Jesus, they are demanding that Jesus follow their lead. This sounds familiar. We’ve been here before. Such testing was the same tactic used by the devil in the wilderness. Again and again, the devil asked for a sign, for proof, “If you are the Son of God, then…"

Only moments earlier in the conversation, the religious leaders accused Jesus of being in league with Satan but their own words betray their own sympathies for the devil. And so Jesus calls the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the teachers of the law, “a wicked and adulterous generation.” The word “adulterous” in particular should stand out. The idea here is that those who call themselves the moral authority, those who would label themselves “religious,” don’t practice what they preach. The ones who should be believers, the ones who were married to God were cheating on their God in practice. In refusing to see and believe what is right in front of them, they were being unfaithful to God—they were choosing to follow their own ideas and agenda.

Jesus refuses to give them a sign beyond what is before them—until later. The ultimate sign is coming for them and for all the world, Jesus assures. This sign—his death and resurrection--would confirm that he, Jesus, is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God. The sign of His resurrection would prove who He is and what His death was all about. Those who refused to believe would in their opposition to Jesus see him crucified. The very “sign” that they wanted would come from their own crime against Him. They would be guilty of His death. Out of that death would come the resurrection, their opportunity to believe.

But even then, when Jesus was dead, lying in the tomb, they would remember the coming sign and refuse to see it. They would try to stop it from happening by having Jesus’ tomb guarded. Later when the tomb was empty, we are told that they made up all kind of stories in order to obscure the sign of Christ’s resurrection.

As Christians, we need to appreciate the significance of all of this. Jesus greatest words of warning and judgment are aimed at the insiders—the religious—not the irreligious, not the outsiders—the so-called believers. God’s greatest concern isn’t for the people who miss the signs—it’s for us—those who refuse to recognize what is right in front of us. The only sign that Jesus said we’ll get is the only sign we need: resurrection. Paul said to the church in Corinth that “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain… your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins.” We could say it this way; the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the sign of our times—of all time!

And yet the very people who waited their whole life for God to show up, the ones who centered their whole existence of the establishment of God’s Kingdom, the devoted followers who studied, practiced and prepared for the Savior of the world, the Messiah, missed God’s greatest sign. The sign, not just of the times, the sign of all time—the Resurrection happened and they missed it. The greatest tragedy of the Gospel story is that those had the word of God in their hands, those who regularly attended worship, those who prayed diligently, those who gave offerings consistently, missed the punch line of the story.

As we regularly proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus but refuse to live the Resurrection as the Body of Christ, as the Church, are we any different?

 As the world looks for a sign as Christians, who or what are we pointing to?