Bible Study series: Matthew 16:1-4. But Jesus told them of an unexpected sign.
A warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together. I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 16:1-4
1 Pharisees and Sadducees, tempting him, approached and requested him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 But in reply, he said to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘Good weather, for the sky is red!’ 3 And in the early morning, ‘Today will be bad weather, for the sky is red and gloomy!’ You know how to correctly judge the appearance of the sky, but can you not correctly judge the signs of the times? 4 An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, and no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Leaving them, he departed. (Matt. 16:1-4)
Comments:
We already saw the demand for a sign from heaven in Matt. 12:38-42. I repeat here some of my comments on the earlier pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or section.
1:
“Pharisees”:
“Sadducees”:
You can learn about those two powerful groups, at this link:
Quick Reference to Jewish Groups in Gospels and Acts
Both the Pharisees and Sadducees were the Watchdogs of Theology and Behavior (David E. Garland, Luke: Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament [Zondervan, 2011], p. 243). The problem which Jesus had with them can be summed up in Eccl. 7:16: “Be not overly righteous.” He did not quote that verse, but to him they were much too enamored with the finer points of the law, while neglecting its spirit (Luke 11:37-52; Matt. 23:1-36). Instead, he quoted this verse from Hos. 6:6: “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice” (see Matt. 9:13; 12:7). Overdoing righteousness, believe it or not, can damage one’s relationship with God and others.
“tempting him”: it is the verb that means, depending on the context, “to try” or “to tempt.” They wanted him to show them a sign in the sky or heaven. I struggled with either of those two words. They were tempting him to run out ahead of his calling.
I settled on “tempting” because Satan tempted Jesus to perform a sign, by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple (Matt. 4:5-7). I can almost hear Satan’s voice behind the voices of these religious leaders. He refused.
“requested”: it feels more like a demand.
“sign from heaven”: He denied their request because he did not want to broadcast his Messiahship with a magical super-sign (see v. 20, below). To put it in modern terms, he was not a trained seal at a waterpark. He does not respond to dares: “We double dare you!”
But what’s the context of the sign from heaven? It cannot be the list of these miracles, which Jesus had already been doing, and the Pharisees had seen or heard about:
One sign of the Messianic Age was the healing of diseases and broken bodies. Is. 35 describes this age. After God comes with a vengeance to rescue his people, these things will happen:
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is. 35:5-6).
Is. 26:19 says of the Messianic Age: “But your dead will live, LORD, their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout with joy” (Is. 26:19, NIV).
The phrase “in that day” refers to the age that the Messiah ushers in: “In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll and out of gloom and darkness the eyes will see” (Is. 29:18, NIV).
The Lord’s Chosen Servant will do many things. Here are some: “I am the LORD: I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for my people, a light for the nations, to open they eyes that are blind, to bring the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Is. 42:6-7, ESV). Is. 42:18 connects hearing and seeing with walking in God’s ways, and deafness and blindness with national judgment. As for leprosy, Jesus referred to the time when Elijah the prophet healed Namaan the Syrian of his skin disease, and the return of Elijah was a sign that the Messiah was here (Mal. 4:5-6; Luke 9:28-36).
Here are the miracles so far:
Blind healed (9:27-31)
Lame walking (9:2-8)
Lepers cleaned (8:1-4)
Deaf hearing (9:32-33)
Dead raised (9:18-26)
The poor enjoy the good news preached to them (4:17, 23; 5-7), particularly the Beatitudes which begins with the kingdom of heaven belonging to the poor in spirit.
The list is scattered in Isaiah: 35:5-6; 26:19; 29:18-19; 61:1.
Turner puts them in a list (comment on 11:4-5):
1.. Blind people see (cf. 9:27-28; 12:22; 20:30; 21:14; Is. 29:18b; 35:5a; 42:7a, 18b).
2.. Lame people walk (cf. 9:1-8; 15:30-31; 21:14; Is. 35:6a)
3.. Lepers are cleansed (cf. 8:2; 10:8)
4.. Deaf people hear (cf. 9:32-33; 12:22; 15:30-31; Is. 29:18a; 35:5b)
5.. Dead people are raised (cf. 9:18-26; 10:8; Is. 26:19
6.. Poor people hear the good news (cf. 4:14-17, 23; 5:3; Luke 4:18; Is. 61:1c)
Healing points to the Messianic Age, ushered in by the Messiah himself. The list of miracles is people-centered.
So what is a sign from heaven which the Pharisees demanded?
Here are some possibilities.
Elijah confronted the false prophets of Baal and called down fire from heaven, which consumed the drenched sacrifices (1 Kings 18:20-40). He ordered the false prophets to be put to the sword. Would he call down fire on the Romans?
Then Elijah also called down fire to consume the soldiers from king Ahaziah (2 Kings 1:1-16), exactly in the passage where the god of Ekron, Baal-Zebub, is mentioned. Jesus’s critics must have taunted him to call down fire on the pagan Romans. Would he do it? Recall his response to James and John, when they asked permission to call down fire on the Samaritans who rejected them (Luke 9:51-55). He wheeled on them and told them no. He rebuked them. Or maybe they tested him to do some other sign, like God making the shadow go backwards, as a sign to king Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:9-11; Is. 17:14-20).
Moses commanded the sky to go dark (Exod. 10:21-29) and other nine plagues. Could Jesus do that to deliver Israel from Rome or prove he was the Messiah?
Whatever the demanded signs were, he rejected their games. He would not produce a sign in the heavens or skies to dazzle the crowds. He was going to be a different kind of sign (see vv. 29-32).
Miracles of God, particularly the ones Jesus performed to usher in the kingdom of God, are purposed to help people, to set them free from natural deformities and diseases and spiritual, demonic afflictions and falsehoods with the truth—all the abnormalities of a world gone haywire, a fallen world. In Elijah’s case, the fire from heaven flashing down on the sacrifices helped the small nation of Israel to come out from under the false gods. But Jesus could foresee that the kingdom of God would not be restricted to Israel. The kingdom would go far outside its borders to all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). So there is no need to call down fire to protect an old Sinai covenant, for such terrifying displays of instant judgment is not how God works to proclaim the good news of the kingdom in the New Covenant to the entire globe.
But be careful! God is still a judge, and those living outside the New Covenant are susceptible to his judgment in the afterlife, if not in the here and now. And people in the New Covenant are vulnerable to God’s judgment, as well, beginning right now (Heb. 12:5-11; 1 Pet. 4:17).
Jesus could read their thoughts or motives and perceive what they were seeking: a contest of honor and shame. His critics were setting up the rules. “Perform this wonder in the sky, Jesus, like Moses did, and do it now, because we say so!” Uh. No.
Jesus did not perform miracles in the sky. He was interested in helping people.
Now let’s look more closely at the verbal sparring match between Jesus and these religious leaders in their cultural context.
As I noted in other chapters, first-century Israel was an honor-and-shame society. Verbal and active confrontations happened often. By active is meant actions. Jesus shamed the leaders to silence. He won. It may seem strange to us that Jesus would confront human opponents, because we are not used to doing this in our own lives, and we have heard that Jesus was meek and silent.
More relevantly, for many years now there has been a teaching going around the Body of Christ that says when Christians are challenged, they are supposed to slink away or not reply. This teaching may come from the time of Jesus’s trial when it is said he was as silent as a sheep (Acts 8:32). No. He spoke up then, as well (Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:32; Luke 23:71; John 18:19-23; 32-38; 19:11). Therefore, “silence” means submission to the will of God without resisting or fighting back physically. But here he replied to the religious leaders and defeated them and their inadequate theology. Get into a discussion and debate with your challengers. Stand toe to toe with them. In short, fight like Jesus! With anointed words!
Of course, caution is needed. The original context is a life-and-death struggle between the kingdom of God and religious traditions. Get the original context, first, before you fight someone in a verbal sparring match. This was a clash of worldviews. Don’t pick fights or be rude to your spouse or baristas or clerks in the service industry. Discuss things with him or her. But here Jesus was justified in replying sharply to these oppressive religious leaders.
2-3:
Jesus simply brings up the weather. This generation knows how to read it and make sound predictions. Now what about the spiritual climate? Do they know how to recognize it? Can they see the Messiah right in front of them? No, the Pharisees and Sadducees could not because they were stuck in their old ways and old Judaism and their interpretations of the law. Plus, if Jesus could not perform a sign in the sky like Moses or Elijah did, then why did they obey what Jesus said?
“correctly”: it was inserted because it is implied in the one Greek verb.
“signs of the time”: time: the noun here is kairos (pronounced kye-ross and is used 85 times), which speaks more of a quality time than quantity. BDAG is considered by many to be the authoritative lexicon of the Greek NT, and it defines the noun as follows: (1) a point of time or period of time, time, period, frequently with the implication of being especially fit for something and without emphasis on precise chronology. (a) Generally a welcome time or difficult time … fruitful times; (b) a moment or period as especially appropriate the right, proper, favorable time … at the right time; (2) a defined period for an event, definite, fixed time (e.g. period of fasting or mourning in accord with the changes in season), in due time (Gal. 6:9); (3) a period characterized by some aspect of special crisis, time; (a) generally the present time (Rom. 13:11; 12:11); (b) One of the chief terms relating to the endtime … the time of crisis, the last times.
All of this stand in a mild contrast—not a sharp contrast—from chronos. Greek has another word for time: chronos (pronounced khro-noss), which measures one day, one week or one month after another.
Here are the signs of the Messiah, which Jesus told to John the Baptist’s disciples, while John was in prison, doubting:
2 When John heard in prison of the works of Christ and sent word through his disciples, 3 he said to Jesus: “Are you the Coming One, or should we expect someone else?” 4 In reply, Jesus said to them: Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5 the blind see again and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised and the poor have the good news preached to them. (Matt. 11:2-5)
The Pharisees and Sadducees were not attuned to these Messianic signs because they were stuck in their old Judaism and temple worship.
4:
This verse is nearly a verbatim repetition of 12:39. The evil and adulterous generation is like the wilderness generation of Deut. 1:35; 32:5, 20. Adultery connotes unfaithfulness to God (Is. 1:21; 57:3-9; Jer. 3:10).
The sign that the evil generation will get is the resurrection. Plenty of people were eyewitnesses to Christ’s resurrection (e.g. 1 Cor. 15:3-8). To the Athenians, Paul preached the resurrection (Acts 17:31). See Matt. 11:38-42 for more comments about the resurrection on the third day.
Some cessationists (those who believe the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Cor. 12:7-11 and other miracles have ceased after the apostolic generation, except on rare occasions by God’s sovereignty) quote these verses to support their belief that only an evil generation seeks for “signs and wonders.” Of course, they are taking the verses out of context. In this context they asked Jesus to perform a sign in the sky, just to put him on trial and tempt him to use his divine nature on his own without the will of the Father. “Prove it, Jesus! We demand a sign in the sky right now!” He said no. He is not a performing seal at a water park. Signs and wonders like the kind Jesus listed for John the Baptist are designed to help people. Yes, they confirm that the kingdom is here, but not to show off and to put on a display and performed right when misguided people demand to be entertained and awed. The people who were actually healed were desperate, without the malevolent motive to tempt him to clap his hands and work a miracle in the sky, like a magician.
GrowApp for Matt. 16:1-4
1. Jesus tells the religious leaders that the sign is standing in front of them—himself. How can you discern Jesus in your life and not your own self-improvement?
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 