Making God Prove Himself

One

Carry Your Mat

In John chapter five, Jesus met a paralyzed man at the Pool of Bethesda. The poor man had been waiting for almost forty years, practically a lifetime, to get into the water and be healed. And Jesus did heal him. But he didn’t just heal him. He also told him to rise up and carry his cot. It wasn’t enough for Jesus simply to heal him, and it wasn’t enough for the man to show that he could stand, could walk, could move. Jesus commanded him to carry his cot, his sick mat, his stretcher, told him to carry around the symbol of his having been disabled. 

Why did Jesus do this? Why did He instruct the man to carry his cot?

Two

More than enough evidence in Christ’s Miracles

This was a common theme in Jesus’ miracles. He would perform a wonder, but then He would be sure to have the wonder confirmed with some further validation.

He did the same thing with the other paralyzed man, the one whose friends let him down through the roof. He also said to him, “Rise, pick up your pallet, and walk.” So that everyone would know by the sign of the sick-bed that this was the man who was no longer sick.

With the miracle of the loaves, Jesus ordered the extra bread fragments to be gathered up, to prove how extensively he had multiplied the bread. With the miracle at Cana, Jesus ordered the wine to be taken to the steward, so that everyone could know that the water had really been changed, and that the wine it had been changed into was good. When he raised Jairus’ daughter, He told them to give her something to eat, so they could see she was healthy and hungry. And when he healed the lepers, He told them to go show themselves to the priest, so that he could officially confirm that they were leprosy free.

It wasn’t enough for Our Lord to perform His miracle. He wanted to give us more than enough evidence, more than enough validation so that we would experience Divine Providence and finally stop relying on ourselves alone. 

Three

More than enough evidence in Our Faith

God is so generous with his evidence, in all the areas of our faith. He is constantly confirming the truth with additional confirmations.

He gives us more than enough evidence to know that He exists: The existence of this beautiful, unnecessary world. The impossibility of the existence of this beautiful and finely organized universe that could never come about by random chance. I mean, let’s be serious. I don’t care how many billions of years go by, your house isn’t going to get more organized by itself…let alone the universe. 

Or why do humans universally have convictions that some things are right, and some things are wrong if not that we have been designed a certain way, by a certain Designer? Or the longing we have for more than this world can offer. The realization that nothing makes sense unless there is a God to make sense of it.

He gives us more than enough evidence to know that Jesus is Lord, the miracles of His life, the perfect truth of His moral teaching, the historic details of His biography, the willingness of His first witnesses to be martyred for the sake of the Gospel, the confirmation of the Old Testament prophecies about His life and death.

He gives us more than enough evidence to know that the Catholic Church is His True Church, the miraculous witness of the Catholic saints, the Incorruptibles – those saints whose bodies never decayed, or the medically unexplainable healings that come through the prayers of saints long dead.

Or the Eucharistic miracles, Marian Apparitions - 70,000 people saw the miracle of the Sun at Fatima, one million people saw Our Lady in Zeitoun Egypt in 1968 and it was captured on Egyptian national T.V.

The timeless consistency and rational coherence of Catholic doctrine. The historical succession of the pope and bishops back to Peter and the Apostles. The continual growth of the Church even up until our own day.

God doesn’t give us just one sign of His existence, or His presence in Christ, or His revelation through the Church. He confirms it again and again, so that we can know that it is true.

The question is, will we respond by courageously following Him, or will we just keep raising more objections and looking for more signs of evidence?

Four

Whose turn is it to prove themselves? 

In the Book of Exodus, God sends Moses who works mighty sign after mighty sign. By God’s power, Moses performs miracles before Pharoah, predicts the great plagues of Egypt, parts the Red Sea, and supplies the Israelites with food and water in the desert. Miracle after miracle. Wonder after wonder. More than enough evidence that God is at work through Moses. And yet, even after all this, the Israelites, whenever they encounter some problem or some difficulty, complain to Moses, and say, “Is God with us or not?”

They want to test God. They want some further proof before they’re ready to trust and follow in faith.

But God has already proven Himself. The desert is the time for the Israelites to prove that they’re reliable, and faithful. 

So too, after Jesus heals the man at the pool of Bethesda, the religious leaders are upset that Jesus has told him to carry around his mat on the sabbath.

They want to know, who does this Jesus think He is? But Jesus has already proven Himself. He’s given more than enough evidence that He is God. 

Jesus doesn’t need to prove Himself anymore. Now is the time for the Pharisees to prove themselves – this is their opportunity to show that they are willing to accept the Messiah they’ve claimed to be looking for so long.

But they miss their chance, they’re too busy putting Jesus to the test, and they fail their own test of fidelity to God’s plan.

So is that what we’re doing?

Five

More than enough evidence in our lives

If we look at our lives honestly, we can see that God has provided more than enough evidence to know that He loves us, that He’s there for us, and that He’s taking care of us.

How many times has He granted our prayers? How many times has He saved us from our stupid and sinful decisions and given us another chance, spared us from the worst effects of our bad decisions? How many times has He brought good out of evil for us? How many times has He given us peace and happiness after we’ve followed His instruction?

He’s shown us that He’s a good and gracious God, and that He loves us. He’s confirmed it for us over and over again.

Now it’s our turn to show what we’re made of.

Will we respond to Him? Prove we love him by sacrificing time with our projects and entertainment to spend in friendship with Him in prayer? Will we be faithful to his moral teaching that comes through the Church? Or will we keep coming up with objections? Will we keep demanding new evidence? 

Will we keep demanding that God pass our tests, while our own chance to pass the test of faith and love in this life passes us by?