Show Me A Sign! Matthew 16:1-4

 The Demand for a Sign

16 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

While the Gentiles are continuing to exercise great faith in Jesus, the Pharisees are still exercising great cynicism.  Though the Pharisees were different in almost every way, they were united in their opposition to Jesus.  

Consider some of their differences:

1. The Pharisees subscribed to the smallest points of the oral and scribal law.  They took the Hebrew bible literally.  The Sadducees, only received the written words of the Hebrew bible. They often interpreted the bible as figurative rather than literal, especially in regard to the supernatural miracles.  

2. The Pharisees believed in angels and the resurrection.  The Sadducees didn't. 

3. The Pharisees were not involved in the government and only cared about their freedom to worship.  The Sadducees were aristocrats and collaborated with the Roman government.  

4.  The Pharisees longed for the Messiah.  The Sadducees did not.  The Messiah was more of a concept than a reality.  (Guzik)

But Jesus posed a threat to the power of both of these groups.  These two groups asked Jesus for a sign.  They were obviously oblivious to all the miracles Jesus had already done.  They didn't see them as signs from heaven, though they were clearly supernatural.  They were looking for Jesus to send down fire from heaven to take out the Roman legion, not heal a blind man.  

2 He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 

Though the leaders were confident in predicting weather patterns based on the signs, they could not see the signs predicted by the scriptures from all of their prophets.  

"Jesus said this of the religious leaders of His own day regarding the signs of His first coming. There were prophecies, circumstances, and evidences that should have made it clear to them as signs of the times that the Messiah had come. Many people today are just as blind to the signs of the times regarding the second coming of Jesus."  (Guzik)

4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

Jesus wasn't against producing signs, but the wicked and adulterous generation did not believe them and thus it wasn't enough for them.  Instead of seeing the signs Jesus performed as pointing to God, they were more interested in satisfying their own curiosity and performing their own lithmus test.  

The big question is why does Jesus say that the only sign that will be given to them is the sign of Jonah.  Most commentators think Jesus is referring to the miracle of his resurrection the dead.  The connection to the sign of Jonah could be:

 1.Jonah was thrown into the sea by the mariners, to whom he had entrusted himself: Christ was delivered to death by the Jews, to whom he was specially promised.

2. Jonah was willingly thrown into the sea: Christ laid down his life, and man took it not from him.

3. Jonah by being cast into the sea saved those in the ship: Christ by his death saved the children of men.

4. Jonah after he had been in the whale’s belly three days was cast up on dry land: Christ after three days rose again from the dead.

5. The Ninevites, though upon the preaching of Jonah they made a show of repentance, yet returning to their former sins were soon after destroyed; so were the Jews within forty years after Christ’s ascension. (Poole)

Why do you think even if people see a sign, they still don't believe?  Do you think there is a greater sign than Jesus being raised from the dead?  Why did the Gentiles believe in the signs Jesus performed, but not the Jewish leaders?  Do you think the resurrection was a sign that actually happened literally, or was a figurative story showing that death comes from life?  Why is it important to believe in a literal, historical resurrection?