How many times have I heard someone with an, "It’s-God’s-fault" attitude, and superior tone say, "If God would perform a miracle for me I would believe in Him." Don’t be too sure such a person is being completely honest. Jesus worked many miracles while on earth as evidence that he indeed was from God. Yet many who actually saw those miracles refused to believe. It turned out that their own personal desires and interests were more determinative than what their eyes clearly saw. They would not believe anything that required them to do or give, what they did not wish.
Jesus entered a synagogue on the sabbath to teach and saw there a man with a withered hand. It was not just a sore hand, or with some unseen pain, it was visibly shrunken and shriveled. Jesus told the man to stretch forth the hand and he miraculously made it whole. The people clearly saw a miracle. And their response? "But they were filled with madness and communed with one another what they might do to Jesus" (Lk. 6:11). He violated their traditions and clergy-made laws about the Sabbath. They preferred their traditional ways to the changes required in following him.
On another occasion Jesus healed a man known to have been blind all his life. And what did the religious leaders do? They called the healed man and put him on trial, demanding that he renounce Jesus as a sinner. When he would not, they kicked the healed man out of the synagogue (Jn.9:34).
Then there was the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, after which there were 12 baskets full of left over food. Surely those present would follow him the rest of their lives. It would seem that way, but when Jesus denounced their materialism and selfishness, saying that food was more important to them than Jesus’ credentials of Messiahship, and when he insisted they must partake of him, they turned and walked away from him (Jn. 6:66).
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Many witnesses were there from Jerusalem attesting that Lazarus had been dead and in a closed tomb for 4 days. And the response? Instead of believing, Jesus’ opponents tried to kill Lazarus and destroy the evidence. They were afraid that if the people followed Jesus, the Romans would remove them from power. They plotted about what they could do about Jesus, "for this man does many signs" (Jn. 11:47).
So what people were and what they were most interested in was more important to them than what the miracles indicated about Jesus. He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mt. 5:8). But for those who had pride in their own intellectual superiority, they didn’t see God (Mt. 11:25-26), miracles notwithstanding.
God could have had his word written to appeal to whomever he wanted. He could have had it written so that only nuclear physicists understood it. But he had it revealed in such a way that the pure in heart could see it. So that those seeking truth, really objectively seeking truth above all else, could see it. Those who have their own reputations and power to maintain, those who treasure their own religious traditions and preferences ahead of truth, and those who just want to sin, will never see the truth about Jesus — even if they saw a miracle.
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