The apostle John has a
thing about signs. You might say it’s one of the dominant themes of his gospel.
Every gospel mentions
that the Lord Jesus performed signs (or miracles, depending on your
translation), but John leaves the rest of them in the dust. In connection with
the earthly ministry of the Lord, he references the word on sixteen separate
occasions. Compare that to Matthew (three), Mark (one) or Luke (four) and you’ll
see what I’m saying.
Unlike the old song, in
John, signs don’t block out the scenery. They are the scenery.
Glory at the Wedding
It doesn’t take the
apostle long to warm to his subject. Drafted into service by his mother at a
wedding, the Lord Jesus turns water into wine. From his response to Mary’s
request we might wrongly conclude that what the Lord is doing here is
grudgingly addressing a beverage shortage, a mere inconvenience: “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour is not yet come.” John records his Master’s words, but with the benefit
of years of hindsight he is undistracted by the apparent brush-off. He
editorializes, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did
at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
It is unfortunate that the KJV, among
others, often translates “sign” as “miracle”. Most were miracles, true, but it seems to me John’s emphasis is not on
the act itself — not, say, in the case of a healing, on the benefit to the
person healed — but rather on what
it means. The Greek sēmeîon means “token”, “mark” or “indication”. A sign is intended to draw attention to
something else. If some of the wedding guests missed the real point of the exercise,
John does not.
I find it immensely interesting that Mary instinctively
took the servants fussing about their wine problem to her son. There were
obviously earlier signs of which we have no record.
Bad for Business
That’s only chapter 2, and already it’s
clear that something important is going on.
Shortly after, Jesus
leaves Galilee and heads for Jerusalem, where he cleanses the temple. That must
have come as a bit of a shock for the money-changers and the pigeon sales reps.
Accustomed to plying their trades in the temple courts with the full
cooperation of the religious authorities, they are suddenly confronted with a young
rabbi from Nazareth carrying a whip. Distinctly bad for business.
So the authorities
naturally inquire “What sign do you show us for doing
these things?” and the Lord responds, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Understandably, they didn’t grasp the metaphor.
This is the last of John’s sixteen signs if we go chronologically, as Jesus didn’t actually perform it until after his
crucifixion and burial.
Trust Issues
Later in chapter 2, John makes
reference to a number of miraculous signs done in Jerusalem during the same
visit. During the Passover Feast, “many believed in his name when they saw
the signs that he was doing”. John doesn’t bother to tell us what Jesus was doing, just that it resulted in a
lot of shallow belief. Jesus never took such temporary enthusiasm seriously. He
“did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people.”
Here we get our first indication that the signs Jesus
performed were not really intended to transform unbelievers into true disciples. No
mere display of power could do that. Jews who were only attracted by the bells and
whistles turned out to possess no lasting faith. No, the signs were primarily intended
to confirm and strengthen existing faith. At the wedding in Cana, it was his disciples that believed in him, though others
undoubtedly knew a miracle had been performed. Secondarily, the signs stood as a witness against those who saw them but ultimately rejected the Lord as the Messiah of Israel.
Signs and Being Born Again
This point is quickly reinforced at the very
beginning of the next chapter, where Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and
shows evidence of faith. The signs have done their work in a believing heart,
and so he wants to know more. But he starts with “We know that you are a
teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Correct. Message received. And so the Lord
takes Nicodemus on from the initial signs to the necessity for new birth and to
the penultimate sign, the lifting up of the Son of Man “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness”, so that “whoever believes in him may have eternal life”.
This is the objective, you see: not healing
for healing’s sake or the eviction of demons to improve the earthly lot of the
possessed. This is not just for the very temporary benefit of a lucky few. No, Jesus
healed, drove out demons and even resurrected some, all as evidence that
eternal life is available to everyone who desires it always and only
through him.
They Still Did Not Believe
I can’t take you through them all, but
there’s a sign reference in almost every chapter of John’s gospel up until we
come to chapter 12, when, at least from John’s perspective, we come to the
time in the Lord’s ministry when there seems little point in further public
displays. He makes this rather sad comment:
“Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.”
Signs, signs, everywhere a sign. And of
course John tells us the final purpose of the signs: that their rejection would
confirm Old Testament prophecy:
“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
The question is rhetorical, and the answer here is either “very few” or “not enough”.
The Final Two Signs
From chapter 13 on, the Lord is
concerned only with his own, with those for whom the signs were merely
confirmation, with those who were after “the words of eternal life” rather than
mere displays of power. We have chapter after chapter of intimate, personal teaching
in the upper room. If there are any signs or symbols in these chapters, it is only
bread and wine, reminding his friends of the body he would soon give and the great Body he
would build with them from Pentecost on.
I suppose you could count Judas’ kiss, by
which he betrayed him, which Matthew tells us was a “sign” for the men who
arrested him. But we’d just be grafting that in if we did: John doesn’t mention
the kiss at all.
Then we have the final two signs: the
lifting up of the Lord Jesus of which he had previously spoken, and the
glorious fulfillment of the sign he gave to the unbelieving Jews, the temple of
his body destroyed and raised up again in three days, just as he promised.
Nothing has been the same since, has it?
Many Other Signs
John closes his gospel with this thought:
“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.”
The signs were everywhere, and for anyone
who missed them, the Lord’s disciples carried them on for a generation afterward,
doing exactly what their Master did.
If we’re amazed by John’s record of what
Jesus did, imagine what isn’t recorded.
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