A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah

Jonah raised up from the belly of the whale, fresco, 15th cent.  Meteora, Kastraki, Greece

 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.  He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."  And He left them and departed.

Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?  Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? -- but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

- Matthew 16:1-12

Yesterday we read that Jesus departed from Tyre and Sidon (to which He had withdrawn from the influence of the Pharisees), skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there.  Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them.  So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.  Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.  And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way."  Then His disciples said to Him, "Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?"  Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?"  And they said, "Seven, and a few little fish."  So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.  And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude.  So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left.  Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.  And He sent away the multitude, got into the boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.  He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."  And He left them and departed.  Adulterous generation is a term used by Christ once before, in 12:39.  It is an illustration used for Israel by the prophets when Israel was unfaithful to God (see Jeremiah 2; Hosea 2:2-13).   My study bible comments that Jesus refuses to prove Himself in a spectacular way, as a sign is never given to those whose motive is simply to test God.  (See also 4:5-7.)  The sign of the prophet Jonah is an allusion to and prediction of Christ's death and Resurrection (12:40), which will be the ultimate sign that Jesus is the Christ. 

 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?  Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? -- but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  My study bible says that the leaven of the Pharisees is their doctrine and their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).  It explains that the reason the disciples are painfully slow to understand is that they have such little faith.  They will not fully grasp Christ's teachings until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given.

The disciples seem rather slow to understand Jesus in today's reading.  Perhaps it is simply that what He is saying to them is so hard to accept.  How is it possible that the leadership of the Pharisees and Sadducees is so corrupt that their entire approach to questions about Christ is simply evil, and their influence entirely bad?  Jesus speaks of leaven in a manner of speaking common to Scripture, in which leaven figures in a negative sense.  (The exception to this depiction is in one of Jesus' parables, when He likens the kingdom of heaven to leaven; see this reading.)  Its enzymatic action in this particular case doesn't lead to the good of the whole, but to the detriment of the whole.  The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees is both hypocrisy and their doctrine, according to my study bible.  It is something that poisons a way of thinking and being, especially how one practices one's faith.  It is based on selfishness, the hidden agenda of protecting position at all costs, the fear of having to give up a system of gain and privilege to a higher truth, a greater good that is present.  Their challenge to Jesus to present a sign -- at a time when there is an abundance of signs present (see yesterday's reading, above) -- is mere hypocrisy, a coverup, a form of a lie.  Jesus' abundance of signs all point to the presence of the Messiah, as they well know.  Their demand for a sign is similar to what He's condemned before, that they call the work of the Spirit evil; what Jesus called the blasphemy against the Spirit in 12:31.  But in this case, they simply pretend that they see no work of the Spirit, that the signs which are being produced are not signs of God at work.  It is the same blindness to the miracles of Christ that Jesus taxes His disciples with, when they fail to understand His saying about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Are they blind, as well, that they've forgotten that He has twice fed thousands in the wilderness?  Is their blindness to the presence of something far "greater than Solomon" (12:42) a sign of the influence of the leadership,  a leaven that denies the work of God in their midst?  Perhaps what is unfolding is at once such a great and overwhelming reality, and, as well, a devastating tragedy of denial, that they are not quite ready to grasp where this ministry is heading.  The events in which they now play a part are far more than a simple ministry of an itinerant preacher.  Now there is something far greater that is involved, even apocalyptic, a presence which suggests judgment for those who refuse to recognize it, whose blindness is deliberate and malicious.  But perhaps what we are to take away from this lack of understanding on the part of the disciples is just how commonplace these things really are, how much they are a part even of our own contemporary lives.  Do we always want to recognize God in our midst?  Isn't it much easier to ignore a profound spiritual injustice rather than take a look at what we might dismiss?  To perceive this kind of injustice asks of us as deep a choice as it asks of the disciples.  Oftentimes, we don't want to look at how someone in our midst is slighted or treated unfairly, especially when it involves our own social circle or our own family.  That is because such events demand of us to make a stark choice, outside the norm, perhaps to depart or change habitual relationships.  Christ comes into the world shaking things up, telling the truth, even presenting the beauty of God to the world in His astonishing signs of healing.  But there are those who will deliberately persuade others this is not really happening, or that they need a better proof, or even that He's simply malicious and must be gotten rid of.  But Jesus will not fall for their bait, and no sign will be given to this "wicked and adulterous generation" except the sign of the prophet Jonah, because this is what God the Father ordains for Christ's ministry, and Jesus will obey His mission in faith to the end.  These things still call each of us to make a choice about Christ for ourselves.  What do we believe?  And if we believe Him, then what must we follow in our own lives?  We, like the disciples, will choose to participate in His Cross one way and another.  Sometimes it will be mean acknowledging and living an uncomfortable truth -- and it will also mean a fulfillment of joy in its transcendence and acceptance.