“So what’s new?”  We might ask this of a friend or be asked ourselves. “Not much,” is a usual answer, but just now-and-then we have something fun or interesting. When one does answer with something new, the response, after a few seconds, is often, “So what else?” We want more and more of the whole story and we get bits only.

The Pharisees sidled up to Jesus and were asking for something new. Jesus knew that they would want something newer and newer after that. They wanted something, of course, that they would be able to refute and discredit Him and His teachings and His followers.

The ten verses which come right before this little sparring session in today’s Gosple, contain the second relating of a miraculous multiplication of loaves of bread which even has left overs. So they are asking for a new sign which, instead of a sign He gives them, a sigh and departs.

Signs are indicators pointing to someone or something beyond, such as road signs advertising a town or restaurant up ahead. Jesus was not a sign, but the present reality, the real-deal and the religious leaders could not accept His being the reality. They did not want God to be so personal that they would not be able to argue with, debate and so keep the Personal-God impersonal and beyond.

I was speaking with one of our students this week and this person came to the awareness that he was not comfortable being up close and personal with this relating God. He admitted that he was not peaceful in his being known and Jesus was the very incarnation of Psalm 139, “O God You know me and search me.” He also shared that he was a very good escape artist. He was funny, smart and a skilled talker, but did not like intimate conversations. He avoided being personal, but a “dancer.”

Jesus left for the opposite shore leaving the Pharisees dancing by themselves.

We too look, rather by nature, look for signs which will give us a sense of control and power, knowing! Business-relationships can be intense, and can degenerate into being personal, in the sense of attack and diminishment. Love-relationships are up-grading, affirming and personal beyond power and control. So here it is, Jesus offers a love-relationship and the Pharisees want a business where they can convince rather than invite, where they distribute rather than receive. They want to deal with signs with which to dance rather than being met face to face with a Person offering them their persons.

Yes, we want facts, evidence, sureness and that is so much a part of our humanity. This feature then is a large part of the nature of faith, the nature of a personal relationship which Jesus offers the Pharisee within each of us. It is the Holy Tension for each of us to experience and actually enjoy. Believing means we do not know what’s new all the time. What’s new are the opportunities to admit our humanity and allow that to be met quite personally by Jesus, The Real Deal.