Seven Signs: Reflections

I am the Light of the World. I am the Bread of Life. I am the Gate. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the True Vine. I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

In his recount of the gospel, John helped his readers to know that in placing their faith in Jesus, the Messiah, they were trusting someone who made incredible self-revealing statements. These wouldn’t be the only claims Jesus made about Himself.

In one encounter with those who critiqued Him, He even made the astonishing claim that He is before Abraham was. It is an astounding claim and to the listeners, it angered and enraged them to the point of seeking to stone Him because it was blasphemous to their ears. Jesus, however, would later challenge the baying mob if they wanted to get Him because of the signs that He was showing. The mob dismissed the signs and contended the claims.

John gave his readers reason to believe because Jesus displayed signs to indicate that His claims had to be true. As some people contended this, recipients of the signs He performed were best placed to state that Jesus did not just talk the talk. Exploring the seven signs has been fascinating. Individually, they have brought much to the table in terms of the mission of Jesus and what they each say about Him.

The signs say much about Jesus and the condition of humanity. Jesus came to address areas of great lack that blights humanity. There’s a lack of preparation for the celebration at the wedding. There’s a lack of health with the official’s son. There’s the lack of faith with the man at the pool of Bethesda. There’s a lack of provision with the feeding of the thousands. There’s a lack of powerful presence in the storm. There’s the lack of vision with the giving of sight to the man born blind. There’s the lack of life seen in the raising of Lazarus.

In expressing his trust in God, David wrote a psalm that indicated that God was His shepherd and as such, He would not live in lack. The revelation of the Good Shepherd, brought Light on the situation, that access through the Gate – the True Way to Life – was access to the Bread of Life and the True Vine from which there was a life-sustaining provision ever producing the fruit of death defeating Life. That kind of access was a place filled with a provision where there would be no lack.

This is the life promised by God when faith is placed in Jesus not just because He says it, but because He demonstrates it. He demonstrated it for those who followed Him to be left with no doubt that He was everything He claimed to be. That inspired them to live proclaiming Him as the Messiah and that in Him there was the kind of life that would defeat death. Where we see the lack, God sees provision made in a right relationship with Him through the Son by His Spirit.

The idea is to treasure and value that right relationship with the Father. The idea continues to see this Father look to restore right relations with His Son who came in the flesh to show the way back to the Father. The idea culminates in people engaging in this relationship by the Spirit of God and learning to live in His presence, with His power, for His purpose.

This relationship gives a new perspective on what we go through. This relationship gives us hope in the one who is trustworthy because He doesn’t just make proclamations but has demonstrations. So we too look to live by what He proclaimed and be used by Him to further demonstrate this new rule that He ushers in. A rule where every need is met, founded on the fundamental need for that right relationship with God.

Every generation needs to receive this message afresh. Every believer can be reinvigorated in following Jesus when they consider what He said about who He is and what He demonstrated to indicate that. That reinvigoration is necessary as we’re battered with doubts and fears as well as the barrage of criticism, mockery and worse still apathy.

This matters. It matters because Jesus’ claims are a matter of life or death – it is a matter of embracing what it means to be in the light of the one who created us to live.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden