Luke 11:29-30 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign… When Christ was on earth He was again and again assailed by this cry, "Show us a sign." "What sign showest Thou?" And there was an offer accompanying it. Show us this, and we will see and believe. If a man says to the holy and merciful Saviour, There is one proof which would satisfy me — which of us would not say, Surely Christ will grant it? Even if the thing asked he unreasonable, yet surely Christ will not be extreme to mark it — He will do what even prejudice asks — the end is good, and the means to it at least not evil. It is a natural question — we must not leave it without a word in answer — Why was Christ displeased, why is God silent, when this is the prayer? And I think we shall say — 1. Because there is a radical fault in the prayer itself. It originates, where it ought to follow; it prescribes, where it ought to accept. There is a thorough upsetting and subverting, in such prayer, of the relationship of man to his God. In such prayer man goes first, and God is to go after. Man says, I will give the law to my God — I will tell Him what He ought to do — and then, if He does that, I will have Him; not else. The very prayer is presumption. 2. But again, Because the result thus reached is not the rest and the inheritance which God designs for us. A man who believes because he sees has not got at last the salvation which he came for. It is a poor inferior mechanical process altogether, this conviction by the help of signs. 3. We might add yet one other reason, and say, Because such proofs would hopelessly perplex and alienate the mind which expects the dealing of God to be uniform and consistent in all its provinces of operation. (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. |
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