Occasionally I meet someone who hates Christianity who also wants to see a miracle and usually has a particular miracle in mind. If I do this particular party trick, then they would believe! Reason is not enough. Revelation is not enough. They demand a greater sign than creation and personhood. I am thankful that God has not given me the power to perform such miracles because the reaction is not good.
How do I know?
When I have seen a miracle (and I have seen a few), the hateful who witness it with me become even more hateful. They look for the trick. They get angry. Seekers want answers, but a certain kind of person has made up their mind. Facts will not impress them and, in fact, . . . simply infuriate them. They have built a system with certain conclusions and it is so fragile, since it defies reality, that they must constantly and hatefully oppose the world.
We build ideological sand castles and are irritated when people point out the sea is coming. When our sand castle starts falling to the sea, we can blame the sea or blame the person who told us that our sand caste could not endure. Worst, however, is when we are so proud of our little construction that we refuse to live in the mansion built for us up the hill.
Here is the historical record of one such reaction. Jesus had just gone to a friend who had been dead for three days. Jesus wept over death . . . God learned our pain . . . and then raised Lazarus from the dead. I cannot think of a better sign that this man was also God: death is the great and last foe we face. Jesus beat death. What was the reaction of His critics? Was it to change their minds? They had build an entire point of view on the sandy ground that Jesus was not the Messiah. Lazarus proved Jesus was the Messiah and life swept away death and any rational grounds for unbelief :
But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death…
There is nothing that irritates a hater more than when God dares disagree with them. God answered Jesus’ prayer and brought life from death. A demon might be able to fake a healing or mimic a deliverance. No demon can raise the dead. A conman might be able to sling the right words together and build an audience or name drop his way to prominence. Raising a dead guy who already stinks is outside of any grifter’s power.
And the establishment type views this as a problem to be solved and not as a sign that they might have missed something. God blesses Lazarus through Jesus and Lazarus is going to be saying the wrong things. He will increase our “Jesus problem” and so Lazarus must go.
Companies do this when they decide that the obstreperous guy in the next cubicle has to go because he keeps inventing new products that are taking the company away from its core business. Why should Kodak waste time on this “digital paper” stuff when we make film? The fact that it works and excites folks only makes it more vital to get rid of him. Fire him and anybody who helped him and get back to what we do.
Schools do this when a teacher starts having success using unapproved means. How dare this teacher use Common Core (or not use Common Core but his own curriculum) and end up helping kids? We oppose/support Common Core! Fire him and get rid of these students who have embarrassed our school!
We do it in churches when lives are transformed, but not in our approved way. How dare this Galilean come and say things that way? He isn’t following the denominational lesson plan! We know what the “kids like” and she isn’t doing it . . . and the kids are showing up. We need to get rid of her and these weird kids. They are showing us up.
Surely we would never stand in the middle of Holy Week and start plotting to kill Jesus and Lazarus. We would not side with death over life just to prove our particular point. We do not want to win that badly, do we? And yet I think I do. It happens whenever we let “our side” get away with stuff that we would mock in the other side. We plot to kill Lazarus whenever we mourn good news if it happens when the other political party is in power. We plot to kill Lazarus when people come to Christ, but not through our means, our way, or in our timing. We kill Lazarus when we are wrong and shout over any facts that look to show us up. We kill Lazarus when we remove anyone who disagrees with us.
We become fans of the Grim Reaper and enemies of Jesus.
Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me . . . a sinner.
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