Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times

 

 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 Gentile 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, according to my study Bible, means a spectacular display of power.  It says that the time of the Messiah among the Jews was expected to be accompanied by signs, but these hypocrites have not recognized the signs already being performed because their hearts were hardened, and they ignored 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.  "Adulterous generation" is an echo of the prophets, who compared an unfaithful Israel to an adulterous spouse (Jeremiah 3; Hosea 2:2-13).  My study Bible comments that Jesus refuses to prove Himself in a spectacular way, for a sign is never given to those whose motive is to test God (see also Matthew 4:5-7).  The sign of the prophet Jonah is a "hidden" prediction of Christ's death and Resurrection (see Matthew 12:40), the ultimate sign that Jesus is truly 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.   The leaven of the Pharisees, according to my study Bible, is their doctrine and their hypocrisy (Luke 12:1).  It further explains that the reason the disciples are painfully slow to understand is that they have such little faith, as Jesus indicates.  They will not fully grasp Jesus' teachings until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is given. 

 

 In the first part of our reading for today, Jesus says, "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."  Jesus speaks about the ability to read signs.  So, even as the Pharisees and Sadducees are demanding signs from Him, He's chastising them for their inability to read the signs that are already right in front of them.  They demand proofs of His identity, while at the same time His healings and the grace that comes through His ministry is multiplying, even among great numbers of people who witness them.  In the second part of our reading, Jesus warns the disciples about this perspective of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  He tells them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  But, as often happens in the Gospels as the stories of the interactions of Christ and His disciples are reported, neither do the disciples seem capable of discerning the "signs" or symbols Christ is using here.  They don't understand Him, nor what He's telling them.  In one of the lovely comical moments of the Gospels, they hear Him speaking about leaven, and they think He's upset because they haven't brought bread.  This opens the door to an almost incredulous Jesus reminding them that He's fed thousands of people twice from a handful of loaves of bread, asking them to remember in detail all the baskets of leftover fragments of bread they took up afterward.  He asks, finally, "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."   But Jesus gives us a clue concerning both the lack of comprehension of the Sadducees and Pharisees, as well as the incomprehension of the disciples.  "Little faith" is the cause for both.  But, of course, this prompts us to ask of the difference between the little faith of the disciples and the lack of faith in the Pharisees and Sadducees.  For that discernment, we need also go back to Jesus' words.  He addresses these religious leaders as "Hypocrites!"  and there we can discern the difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the disciples.  For the disciples, for all their own difficulties and slowness of comprehension, are sincere in their faith, even if that faith is still yet "little."  We know that eventually even one of them will betray Jesus, namely Judas, but Judas also we can call a hypocrite for his duplicity and betrayal, emblematic in his betrayal of Jesus with a kiss (Matthew 26:47-56).   We could say that the hypocrites in this story (including Judas) are heading one way -- away from Christ, while the sincere disciples, even though they as yet have only "little faith" are headed more deeply toward a fullness of relationship with Him.  And this is the way that we need to see our lives, for from the perspective of the Gospels, this is the framework of faith.  We are either headed in one direction or the other, toward Christ or away from Him.  This is the summing up of the "two ways" so prevalent in early Christianity, and remains so for us.  As we have reviewed lately in commentary, it is the guarding of the heart that remains so necessary for us today, the understanding that we need to be aware of our inner lives as much as our outer lives, made clear for us in the teaching of Jesus in Monday's reading, to "Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a manmouth, this defiles a man."  He explained, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.  These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." Let us endeavor for the purity of heart that guards against hypocrisy, the sincerity of the disciples, and not the mask of virtue that hides the work we need to do in the heart.  For often when we seek to fool others, we are only fooling ourselves.