Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Matthew 12:38-42
When I was growing up down in the country, we used a few expressions that came to mind as I read today’s gospel. Those expressions were used when someone got too “hifalutin” for the rest of us! “He’s getting too big for his britches!” "He needs to be cut down to size!" “Who does she think she is, the Queen of Sheba?” “She is just too full of herself!”
Growing up in Meade County, there were only a dozen or so of us in the small town of Rhodelia, so we were always ready to cut each other down to size with remarks like those! Jesus grew up in the small town of Nazareth, and in in one place in the gospel he is back home for a visit. His reputation proceeded him. Instead of rejoicing in the success of his ministry, they basically are cutting him down to size by asking “Just who do you think you are, anyway?” We know you! You are one of us! You are just the son of the carpenter, Joseph, and Mary is your mother! You don’t stand out all that much! The story ends with these words, “And they took offence at him!” You need to be from a small town to really understand the sting of those words!
The bottom line of this gospel is that God comes to us especially in the very ordinary, rather than the spectacular and dramatic, events of life. The Scribes and Pharisees were always looking for “signs” – dramatic and spectacular happenings and personalities to “prove” that God was active in the world. Truly, God is to be found in the ordinary events, in the ordinary moments and in the ordinary people of this world. That is why so many people missed Jesus when he was here on this earth. He was so ordinary, while they were looking for something spectacular. While they were looking “out there” and “up there,” while they were looking among the famous and the powerful and the well-connected, God’s “sign” was standing right in front of them. They missed him because he was just “too ordinary.”
Our traditional Christmas story is told by the evangelist, Luke. Luke wrote for the underdog, the little people, the left-out, the losers of the world. When he tells the story, he emphasizes the dismalness of Christ’ birth: a poor young mother delivering her baby in a barn amid the smell of dung and donkey breath; greasy, crusty, bumbling sheep herders; doves dropping their stuff from the rafters; the restlessness of cows and no one to care. Luke wants his readers to know that God comes, not just for the rich and famous and powerful, the young and healthy, but especially for the lowest of the low, in the most desperate of circumstances. God comes for, and loves, every human being who has ever lived on this planet no matter how insignificant they may be in the eyes of others.
Where should we look for God working in our world today? Fatima? Medjugorje? Lourdes? I am sure God has worked there, but we don’t have to go to those places to see God working. He is working right here, right under our noses, right now in this very place! We just have the eyes to see it! We just need to look at this place, and the people in it, through the lens of faith! Miracles are happening every day, right here and right now! As Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke (10:23-24) “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
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