“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.’” (Mt 12: 38-41)
Here’s the thing about divine “signs”: They are sometimes “given,” as God sees fit, but they should not be sought or demanded. A similar thing can be observed about “signs” within our human relationships: Our beloved might occasionally bring us flowers, for example, as a “sign” of his love, but if we begin to demand that he do so, and, say, he does so, upon our demand, …that just isn’t the same thing, is it? Our demand for this “sign,” though understandable in certain cases, is rather a “sign” of our lack of faith in his love for us.
We may have reasons to doubt the love of a merely-human beloved, to the tune of, “If you love me let me know, if you don’t then let me go,” – because merely-human beings are changeable. But God is unchangeable, in His timeless love and faithfulness to us. So we should not project onto Him the sometimes “evil and adulterous” ways of merely-human relationships, which sometimes bring us to “seek for a sign” to keep them going. Let me trust my resurrected Lord today, and let Him embrace me, once again, with the sign of His cross. “The Lord is my light and my saviour; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps 26/27: 1)
