The Gospel of John opens with a grandiose picture of Jesus who "was with God" and "was God" (John 1:1), who is the Creator of all that is made (John 1:3), "the true light" (John 1:9). When we first meet Jesus "on the street", so to speak, it's when John the Baptist is pointing Him out to his disciples: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) From this a couple of John's disciples left to follow Christ. Philip went on to tell Nathanael that they had found the Messiah, "Jesus of Nazareth". Of course, Nathanael was a skeptic. "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" What convinced Nathanael? It was when Jesus met him and said, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." (John 1:48)
The very next story in John's Gospel is the story of the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) in which Jesus famously turned water into wine. John concludes that story with, "This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him." (John 2:11) There ... see that? John didn't call it a "miracle" although it certainly was. John called it by its intent, its function. It was a genuine miracle--an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs--for the purpose of demonstrating who He was, manifesting His glory, and engendering belief.
In the very same chapter, Jesus went and drove out the money-changers from the temple (John 2:12-22). Famous story. Whip and all. Jesus was passionate about His Father's house. "His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house will consume Me." (John 2:17) When the Jews asked Him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?", He promised to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days (John 2:18-19). John explains, "But He was speaking about the temple of His body." (John 2:21) And then John says this.
When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken." (John 2:22)In the Bible, what English calls "miracles" are viewed not merely as "divine intervention", but more at John's terms--"signs". Nicodemus saw it, for instance. His question was, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." (John 3:2) The "signs" told Nicodemus (and anyone else paying attention) that Jesus was who He said He was. It worked for God's prophets. It worked big time for Jesus. Genuine miracles were affirmation that the person doing them was from God.
So, if you are reading the signs, what was the sign of signs? What was the kicker, the end-all of signs? Which one pointed without ambiguity to something far different about Christ than any other? "When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed." There were lots of signs. Water to wine, healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding thousands with nearly nothing, walking on water. Lots of signs. But the one, the singularity that the Scriptures say made His disciples ultimately believe, was the Resurrection. (I put a capital on that word because of its magnitude.) Attested to by eyewitnesses (1 Cor 15:1-8), referenced by writers of Scripture as well as extra-biblical authors such as Josephus, Tacitus, and others, an event on which the eyewitnesses based their lives and even deaths, this key sign is the end of the question. He wasn't a mere man. He wasn't a mere prophet. He wasn't a misunderstood crusader. He was God Incarnate who died for our sins and His rising again from the dead was the sign that demonstrated it.
Could it be that this simple fact is the reason that there are so many who dispute the Resurrection?
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