Signposts
Luke 7:18 – 8:39 Read it here
When the messengers from John the Baptist come to Jesus to ask if he is the messiah or if they should expect someone else, his answer is what we in our terminology would call “evidence-based.”
The proof he is who he says he is is not philosophical, but concrete. “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
A few days ago we read the scripture Jesus used to introduce his ministry, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Maybe the reason the world isn’t inclined to listen to what the church has to offer is that they aren’t seeing what it has to give. And maybe the reason they aren’t seeing it is that we aren’t doing it.
Do we really believe the miraculous can happen? Do we really believe healing can take place? I do. I have seen it. Not often, but convincingly.
But what about the less miraculous parts of the evidence, the things we can do with divine help but not necessarily divine intervention: preaching the good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners and setting the oppressed free? Is that really the witness we show to the world?
God has done great things and will do great things. Do we really live as though we believe that?