Are You Sure That You See?

I was reading a chapter in the book of John this morning, when something jumped off the page at me. Take a look at John 2:18-21;

"18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” 21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body."

This was right after Jesus had run out the livestock, overturned the money changer's tables and told those who sold doves to get them out of His Father's house and to stop making it a marketplace. The Jewish leaders are hacked off and demand that Jesus explain Himself. What's interesting is that they are looking for Him to perform some type of miraculous sign to prove that He is being led by God.

Now what caught my attention this morning is the sign that Jesus talks about is His resurrection. Which is something that won't happen for almost three years. The timeline for this setting is right after He turned the water into wine, which was the first miracle that Jesus had done. I think sometimes we, like the Jewish leaders ask Jesus for something, and expect that He will be "Johnny on the spot" with it. When most of the time, we have to wait a while for the answer to our prayer.

You see, the Jewish leaders got their answer from Jesus, they just missed what He was saying. They didn't actually see what He was talking about. We find that Jesus used this way of talking to the religous leaders in Matthew 13:13, where He quoted Isaiah 6:9-10. Talking about them seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not. What they didn't realize was that Jesus did give them the sign they were looking for, they were just unable to see the answer for what it was.

Interestingly enough, they were the spiritual leaders of the Jewish race, and they were focused on the here and now (the Temple) more than what Jesus was actually telling them (His body would be raised up in three days). Is it any wonder that they were aggravated at every turn when they dealt with Jesus?

The real question now is, are we sure that we are seeing? Are we focusing on what's around us, or on what Jesus is really trying to get us to see? A good exercise would be the next time you are talking to the Father about something, ask Him to reveal to your spiritual eyes what is going on. I'm reminded of 2 Kings 6:17:

"Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire."

Elisha's servant was all panicky and thought they were going to die, but Elisha prayed and the Father showed the servant what was really going on. We need that some days, and we can have it if we will only ask the Father to let us see with our spiritual eyes, and not stay focused on what we see with our natural eyes.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!