‘Because you have seen me, you have trusted’

Abstract

This chapter argues that, for all four canonical evangelists, signs, miracles, prophecy, and teaching, though reliable indicators of Jesus’ identity, cannot prove his identity and do not create trust, or lasting trust. Those who seek signs, moreover, or try to assess Jesus’ identity rather than responding to him with trust, are fundamentally untrusting. Even the appeal to scripture cannot prove Jesus’ trustworthiness, though it affirms that Jesus cares for creation as does Godself. Trust arises from personal encounter with Jesus, who is present or near, sees and is seen, calls and is heard. Jesus’ trust in God is also a model for his followers, and the trust that responds to him brings new life. For the final redactor of John, only those who have been pre-elected can trust in Jesus. The synoptic gospels and Acts, however, suggest that, in Jesus’ lifetime, no new or special revelation should have been needed for people to trust in him. He should have been recognizable, to both Jews and gentiles, as a man of God through whom God acted, and this should have been enough for the beginnings of trust. This, it is suggested, makes better sense of the theme, especially in Mark, that Jesus went unacknowledged by many people, than the now widely shared but, in the world of the first century, counterintuitive idea that a divine revelation went unrecognized. Finally, this chapter considers whether the gospels’ portrait of Jesus in his earthly life also acts as an image of the exalted Christ.