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After such display of power and with such an array of signs before them, we are left
even more perplexed as to why the Jews did not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their
Messiah.
"But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on
Him" (John 12: 37).
We may never know the true reason for their unbelief but a possible explanation is
that, in Jewish terms, there were two pictures of the Messiah in the Old Testament; The
Messiah-ben-David, the all powerful One, the great King and the Messiah-ben-Joseph,
the holy and humble One, the suffering One. Some schools of Jewish theology taught
that the Messiah-ben-Joseph was not a picture of the Messiah Himself but of His people,
the Jews, because the Messiah and His people were so close, were so united. The people
of Israel had suffered much under the Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Greeks and Romans
so the picture fitted and, not only that, they could not see how it was possible for the
Messiah to suffer. They looked only for the Messiah-ben-David, the mighty One whom
they desired to see so much; He would free them from the Roman oppression. But when
Jesus came "lowly, and riding upon an ass" (Zech. 9: 9), the vast majority of them did
not see His signs as a testimony to His Messiahship simply because they were not
looking for the lowly One. They wanted the mighty One. However, not all of that
generation were like that. As the miracles in the O.T. had led some of those living at the
time to believe in Jehovah and to listen to the servants who did the miracles, so in the
gospels we read:
"This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana in Galilee, and manifested forth His
glory: and His disciples believed on Him" (John 2: 11).
"Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in
His name, when they saw the miracles which He did" (2: 23).
"And when He thus had spoken He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And
he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was
bound about with a napkin . . . . . Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had
seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him" (11: 43-45).
"And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not
written in this book. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name" (20: 30, 31).
Thus John recorded his eight signs to show that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah! The
miracles and wonders performed by the Lord Jesus were signs to the people of Israel to
encourage them to believe. They testified to the Jews that the One Who performed them
was their Messiah but were these wonders a witness to every nation? No! They could be
a blessing to a Gentile but they could not be a witness to him of the Lord Jesus'
Messiahship. They could only be a testimony to the nation that held the key to them.
That key was the Scriptures and that nation was Israel.
"What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision? Much
everyway: chiefly, because unto them were committed the oracles of God" (Rom.iii.1,2).
[NOTE: For those who are interested, the 26 Miracles of Matthew and the signs of John
are dealt with fully on pages 152-214 of Charles H. Welch's Parable, Miracle and Sign.]