RELIGION

A PERVERSE GENERATION ASKS FOR SIGNS By Ananiya Alick Ponje In a number of situations, signs are used by people to deduce underlying circumstances that would otherwise remain concealed. They betray hidden truths in both good and bad situations. There are situations which without signs would remain dormant or even regarded as non-existent. Doctors are sometimes able to detect a disease just by looking at the signs that may have appeared on the patient’s body. Unlike signs, symptoms are hidden and they only require direct individual testimony to be known. The credibility of symptoms may be doubted but the individual who is claiming to feel the symptoms has the right to accredit them even without anyone testing such credibility. Jesus Christ performed a number of miracles on a number of occasions to show that He indeed had the power from heaven in Him. He could have performed such miracles in enclosed places so that other people might not see Him, but He did not want them to doubt His ‘credibility’. He was living among a generation that was awfully prepossessed with doubts. Even after He had lived with them for three years and they had been close to Him enough to see how credible everything that He said was, his disciples still had doubts when He told them that He had risen from the dead. They only believed Him when they saw where the nails had pierced and when He told them to give him something to eat because a ghost cannot eat food. He was doing all this just to ‘erase’ his disciples’ doubts about who he really was. And, interestingly, this was happening after the three days that he had told them beforehand that he would spend in the grave. If they had doubts about a thing that had already been ‘pre-emptied’ to them, what more with things that would happen spontaneously? Doubt is something that has made many a people lose grand opportunities. Imagine this: A certain boy who had dropped from school because of poverty met a ‘Good Samaritan’ who pledged to pay school fees for the boy and provide other necessities. The ‘Good Samaritan’ produced every evidence that his offer was purely in good faith, but the parents of the poor boy rejected the offer because according to them it was impossible for someone to ‘just’ offer to help their child. The man tried all he could do to convince the ‘conservative’ parents but they could not budge. They were filled with such doubts that they could hardly accept the offer. Then the offer had to be shifted to another needy child who by now is doing quite well in school and his future looks bright. Much as it is good to assess an offer before accepting it, some offers are such direct and in clear good faith that they cannot be doubted. The parents who had rejected the offer wanted to see the credibility of the man making the offer but unfortunately, it could not come back to them. Nowadays, most Christian are utterly occupied with gnawing doubts about where and when to worship and which one is God’s true church. In the understanding of many, there are some churches where the meditation of God is stronger than in others. In fact, some churches are said to be ‘hotter’ than others are because miracles happen in them. Yes, miracles are a good sign of the manifestation of God, but not all of them are in good faith. Why should we seek signs to worship God? We just have to build our faith strongly in the Holy Spirit and this should be the greatest miracle. We are all vindicated by God and we do not need miracles to detect the presence of God, for He is supposed to be in our hearts already. Signs are for those who lack faith and would like to see vivid images so that they can believe. About the crowd that was increasing to see Jesus perform miracles, He said, “It is a wicked and perverse generation that asks for signs”, not that signs are bad, but that signs should not be the only catalyst of our spirituality. The faith that we can build in our hearts should provide us with myriad signs which will show us the ultimate love of God.