Our family dog, Shiloh, doesn’t understand how pointing works. If I point to something (like his ball or a treat on the ground) he looks at my finger. He doesn’t get that my finger is trying to draw his attention to something more important.

We can do the same thing with Jesus’ miraculous signs like healing and exorcism. At the end of the Gospel of John, he makes it clear that none of Jesus’ signs were ends in themselves, but “fingers” pointing to something even more important.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:30-31).”

In the Gospel of Luke, we’ve just seen a man set free from the oppressing power of a demon by the finger of God, and as many are marveling over this sign, Jesus doesn’t want anyone to miss the point, even the man who was mute. He wants to keep them (and us) from “staring at the finger” and missing what it’s pointing to.

It’s pointing back to Jesus and calling for a response, the obedience of faith. It’s possible to be on the receiving end of one of Jesus’ miracles, enjoying temporary blessing, only to miss out on what He ultimately came to give us.

This Sunday Randall Gruendyke will be preaching Luke 11:24-36 and Kenny Clark will be leading our sung worship. Would you pray for each as they prepare? And let’s ask the Lord to help our unbelief so that we might have greater life in his name.

See you Sunday, Grace. Come hungry!

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Song Link of the Week

I Am the Way by Grace Kids’ Adventure Week (The Pop Rockets)

Our kids at Grace have been singing this all week and it’s a great reminder at any age of the most important takeaway we should have from the Gospel of Luke.