"Are you here for the show?"

Two thousand years ago Jesus was "The Show of the Century!"  Absolutely!  He was The Eagles, Siegfried and Roy, Bono, and Taylor Swift all rolled into one.  He was like the Olympics ten times over. People came from all over that region, what we now know as Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, to see Him put on the show.  "He healed my arm!"  "I couldn't walk and now I'm walking!  Look at me!"  "I was blind and He touched my eyes and now I can see better than you do!"  "My little girl was dead and He brought her back to life!""No way!""Yes He did!  I can still barely believe it myself!"Stuff like that was a main part of "The Jesus Show."  And He did it all the time.In Matthew 12: 38, the gospel writer tells us, "Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, 'Teacher we want to see a miraculous sign from you.'"  In other words, "Do your show!  We want to see the show!"Jesus is deeply saddened by this and by the lack of belief and understanding on their part.  He calls them, "A wicked and adulterous generation."  We frown at them too, not realizing that we are not very far from them.  We are always wondering what Jesus can do for us.Jesus goes on to remind them of the story of Jonah, how the prophet went (very reluctantly!) to Nineveh to preach about God to the Assyrians in his day.  At that time (Jonah's time) Assyria was a power house in the world and dominated that part or the world.  The Assyrians were well-known to be the fiercest, most brutal people in the world.  And Jonah goes to preach to them.  Good luck!But Christ says, "they repented at the preaching of Jonah" and came back to God.  Repent.It is an interesting word.  From it we get "Repentance!"  A high sounding word.  But all that the word "repent" means is "turn around."  "You are going in the wrong direction.  Turn around."It is what Christ wants the Pharisees and scribes to understand.  They are going in the wrong direction.  They are moving away from God.  He desperately wants them to see this.  He wants to get their attention.  He wants them to repent; to turn their lives around and turn back to  God.  He hopes that the miracles of healing that He is doing will get their attention.  But all they want is to see the show.Christ offers us far more than a show.  "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." (Matt: 11:28-30).  "I am the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6). So now we have to ask ourselves, "Am I just here for the show, or am I looking for something more." He is certainly offering it to us.