“Prove it to Me”

December 12, 2023

So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this, because we know this man, Jesus, is a sinner.”

“I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” — John 9:24–25, New Living Translation.

“Prove it to me,” or “Show us a sign,” spoken with an attitude of smug pretentiousness is an example of why anyone dismisses that demand when anyone puts it on ourselves. Jesus is the same. If someone really wants to know, seeking in any serious way, the attitude will be respectful. Here is more of the illustration:

The religious leaders continued their grilling, “We know God spoke to Moses, but we don’t even know where this man comes from.”

“Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He healed my eyes, and yet you don’t know where he comes from? We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will. Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn’t have done it.” John 9:29–33, ibid.

That is a case where the religious leaders had already decided to find a way to get Jesus out of their way. They were putting the man to the test just like they had often tested Jesus. As used in James 1, “testing” or “tempting” is described in the New Testament Greek Lexicon — NAS — “in a bad sense, to test one maliciously, craftily to put to the proof his feelings or judgments.”

There’s more to this enlightening story, and you can choose to take a minute to read it for yourselves in John 9. You’ll hear all the smart-mouthed retorts of the religious leaders.

https://www.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.9.NLT

I really don’t think that we are really as smart as we think we are…