This week, we are presented with a parade of Biblical characters who want God to demonstrate his greatness. They want him to prove his justice, his deity, even his frugality. In effect, they say, prove that you are God.
Such demands are easy to make from positions of privilege. Job had wealth. The Pharisees were ethnic and religious elites. The Greeks had cultural status. Still, our insistence that God prove himself comes from something deeper, a sinful human nature, which reasons that a God who does not bless or recognize us in ways we expect must not be a great God at all.
Naturally, insolent questions bring about disappointing answers. Many of the Greeks in Jesus’ audience walked away. The Pharisees hardened their hearts. And it’s easy for you and I to follow suit when we find ourselves facing God’s hard teaching and discipline.
But we are also given other images of Jesus that shatter our dark misperceptions: the Son of God, kneeling on the floor to wash the filthy feet of sinners; shedding tears at the grave of a friend; talking frankly about his own burial. This is the mighty God we serve?
Absolutely.
These demonstrations of humility culminated in Jesus’ death on the cross for us, the unworthy. But his resurrection points ahead to the glory we want God to show us. The Transfiguration gives us a glimpse, but for now, while we live in this world, God makes his power perfect in weakness. So we labor and suffer and sacrifice in the steps of our Savior, learning as Job learned that our Redeemer lives, and in our flesh, we will see God.
