Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees

 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 the region of Tyre and Sidon, 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 sign from heaven would be some spectacular display of power, designed to be offered as "proof" of Christ's identity as Messiah.  My study bible comments that the time of the Messiah among the Jews was expected to be accompanied by signs.  But these hypocrites do not recognize the signs Jesus has already done in His ministry (such as the healing of the multitudes in yesterday's reading), because their hearts were hardened; therefore they ignore the works happening all around them.

"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.   An adulterous generation is one not loyal to God -- specifically the God of Israel.   This is an echo of the illustration used by the prophets for Israel at times the people were unfaithful in the past (Jeremiah 2, Hosea 2:2-13).  My study bible comments that Jesus refuses to prove Himself in a spectacular way.  A sign is not given to those whose motive is to test God.  Let us remember also that Jesus' ministry must unfold according to the will of the Father.  He has already been tempted by the devil in the wilderness (4:1-11); this is yet another temptation in that sense to depart from the Father's will and perform some "innovation" because it is demanded of Him by those who are wicked and adulterous.  The sign of the prophet Jonah is a veiled prediction of Christ's death and Resurrection (12:40), the ultimate sign or revelation of Jesus' identity as 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 comments that the leaven of the Pharisees is their doctrine and their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).   It offers a reason that the disciples are so painfully slow to understand:  as Jesus states here, it is because they have such little faith.  It was not until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given, that they would fully grasp Christ's teachings.  Jesus' expression of the two distinct miracles of feeding the multitudes affirms that these were two separate events.

What does it mean to demand a sign?  A lot of people seem to have faith in science, and in an absolute way rather than a healthy one.  With this attitude, few people seem to realize that science works best through competing hypotheses, not absolute faith.  Faith and worship belong only to God.  Science is a kind of practice of reason and method, designed to discover new things about our world and how things work.  But we do not forget that above science -- and before -- is Creator, the One who endowed us with minds that can think and create, two signs we are created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26).  But faith belongs first in God, and faith is not present in these hypocrites' demands for proofs.  This is not a scientific endeavor in a search for the true identity of Jesus, and it is important that we understand the difference.  Neither is it an honest search for an honest answer, or one that seeks honest testimony as in a courtroom (Mark 14:55-59).  To demand a sign in this context is hypocrisy, made with hardened hearts that do not want to see.  And Jesus simply won't go there.  He won't do what is against His Father's will and the plan for His ministry.  He will not add what He is not guided to do.  So often in the popular mind this is the opposite of what is seen as good or reasonable.  I have heard people ask, even recently, "Why didn't Jesus simply appear to all of the Sanhedrin at His Resurrection?  Think of what good that would do to convince everyone."  Well, I think they are missing the point, that Jesus' ministry must evolve a certain way, and that all of those things Jesus is divinely ordained to do as His ministry unfolds affirm the power of faith.  They also effectively separate those with a capacity for faith from those with hardened hearts who do not want to understand, or those for whom appearance is all and the heart is a different matter.  Where faith meets with Jesus is in the deepest places within us.  It is not a sworn allegiance to a side, it is not in shiny pyrotechnics made simply to impress.  Those things -- both the nominal allegiance to a politicized side in which appearance is everything, and the dazzling spectacles that seemingly no one can resist -- belong to the devil, the anti-Christ (24:24).  Let us consider once again the faith of the disciples who follow Christ.  They are not the elect of the society, the great men of education and of power.  They follow Christ in humility, in faith, because there is something in their hearts that moves them to do so.  Let us remember the power of the small, the daily prayer, the seeking of guidance from God for our lives -- and leave off the power to impress, to persuade, and to prove.  Those are all illusions, and they are not where Christ goes for His ministry.  God the Father has not ordained for Jesus to "convince" but rather to elevate faith, to affirm it, to elucidate it, to find it and bring it out wherever it is found and in whomever it is found -- whether that be in a Canaanite woman, a centurion, or two demon-possessed men who live among the tombs in a far away place.  This is the One we seek who came to teach us, and we follow Him.  It might do to think of His words today, for they apply to us now:  "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."