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The
Lightstand Magazine
1986
• March• The Signs of John's Gospel
by Bro. Robin Lamplough
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One
of the chief characteristics of the earthly ministry of Jesus
of Nazareth, known even to those who have little real acquaintance
with his work, was that he performed miracles. All the gospel
writers testify to his ability to perform acts which were
beyond the powers of ordinary men. But sometimes, because
we read shallowly, we form the impression that these miracles
were general demonstrations merely of his supernatural power.
We can even fall into the trap which has ensnared modern evangelism,
which tends to present the miracles as magic tricks of the
sort performed by the kind fairy in nursery tales. John's
gospel, particularly, provides an antidote to that kind of
thinking.
SIGNS FROM GOD John acknowledged in his closing sentences
that Jesus wrought so many miracles that "if they could
be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself
would not contain the books that should be written" (Jno.
21.25). Yet, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he chose
to mention only eight of those miracles. He did not, furthermore,
use to describe them the word employed by the other gospel
writers, which directs attention to the power they revealed,
translated usually "mighty works" (and related to
our word 'dynamite'). Nor did he use the Greek word for an
act whether truly miraculous or a sleight of hand) which inspires
wonder in those who witness it. Rather he chose for those
eight specially selected miracles the word 'semeion' - a sign.
Clearly John was presenting to his readers of every generation
a series of signs from God. And he did it "that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that
believing ye might have life in his name." (Jno. 20.31)
The fact that John was guided to select eight miracles as
signs is in itself not without importance. It was on the eighth
day that a Jewish male child was formally numbered among the
covenant people through the rite of circumcision (Gen. 17.12).
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Add
to this the fact that only eight people survived the Flood (Gen.
7.13) and that the resurrection of Jesus took place on the eighth
day, which later became the particular day on which his followers
especially remembered his death and resurrection through the breaking
of bread (Mark 16.9 & Acts 20.7). This suggests that one of
the aims of John's Gospel was to present God's invitation to Israel
to renew its status as covenant people by making a new beginning
and accepting the new covenant in the blood of Christ.
John's perception of the miracles of Jesus, then, is that they were
signs; signs given to people who demanded a sign that would, as
they understood it, authenticate the message brought by this new
teacher (see Jno. 2.18). Yet they did not understand the signs they
were given: nor indeed did they recognize them as signs at all.
And, as a result of that, they remained impervious to his teaching
and beyond the reach of his healing touch. Yet, in the wonderful
provision of God, this very rejection of Jesus by the Jews made
it possible for those who were outside the commonwealth of Israel
and without hope in the world to be numbered among the people of
the covenant and to make a new beginning also.
FOR OUR GUIDANCE It is important, therefore, as we contemplate the
work of Jesus as it is presented in the gospels, that we should
not fall into the same trap as the Jews did. If Jesus came giving
signs, they were as much signs for us as for the people of his day.
And, by pondering their teaching, we may be instructed in the ways
of God and helped to prepare ourselves for His kingdom. The purpose
of this series is to examine some of the lessons suggested by the
eight signs of John's gospel, in the hope that they will be useful
to those "upon whom the ends of the ages are come." (1Cor.
10.11 RV).
R.L.
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