Matthew 16:1-12: The Wickedness of Asking Jesus For A Sign

Big idea

People ask Jesus for signs, proofs of his authority, divinity, and Godhood. This is not seeking the truth, but running away from God and his Christ, and putting God to the test. While Jesus did many signs which pointed to who he was, the one sign he offers the world is his resurrection from the dead. The disciples are warned not to be fooled by the religious leaders’ pretence While they make a show of looking for the evidence of Jesus’ identity as Messiah, they actually are play acting, hypocrites. The followers of Christ must beware of them. They must not be like them. However, the disciples are slow of heart to understand this. And so are we.

Introduction

You are so confident that you possess the truth, that you are the chosen ones. How do you know? You think you know all these things. How arrogant! No one knows what happens after you die. Has someone come back to tell you what happens?

Oh, yes, Jesus this, Jesus that! That’s all you talk about: God, Jesus, bible. Were you around 2000 years ago? Did you see what happened? Have you got a time machine, so that you know? They say Mary was a virgin. They say Jesus did all these wonderful things. They say Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, but how do you know for sure?

I’ve never seen a miracle. I’ve never seen someone walk on water, or calm the storm, or raise a dead person.

Look, there’s one easy way for Jesus to prove himself. You say he is God, that he can do anything, and he wants people to believe in him. Why doesn’t Jesus just come back now and prove himself to us? Then we would all believe. You believe he is coming back, don’t you? So why doesn’t Jesus do it now? Then we would all see him. He’d be on the nightly news. It would save us all that time and effort. We could send the space shuttle up to meet him. Then everyone would know that Jesus is God’s Son. Then I will say, “You were right, I was wrong!” Then we would all believe in him, wouldn’t we? Then all the wars can stop, because we will know which religion is right. If Jesus is who you say he is, why doesn’t he do it now?

No, No, I’m not changing my life because of some book written 2000 years ago! You can waste your life, if you want, believing those stories, but I’m not. Jesus might have been a good man, he might have said some good things, but that’s it, leave it at that!

Ever had a conversation like that? Ever brought up the topic of Jesus, and then had a response like that? Maybe you’ve had that conversation with your mum and dad, maybe with a friend, a brother, a sister, a relative, maybe with a complete stranger.

Who wants to be gullible? Who wants to be naïve? Who wants to be a fool? Lot’s of people make big claims that they are somebody when they are not. Even now, we can go and visit them in the psychiatric wards in our hospitals.

And so we can understand the question from the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These were the religious leaders of the Jews. The Sadducees were the priests, the Pharisees were the experts in the law. They normally didn’t get on. They had a professional rivalry. But isn’t it nice how Jesus brings people together, and makes friends of enemies? For their enmity to Jesus is greater than their enmity towards each other. And so these two groups, the religious heavies, come to visit Jesus, and they ask him this question. Verse 1:

The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. (NIV)

Come on Jesus, you’re are saying big things. You call yourself the ‘Son of Man’, the one who everyone will worship, the one whose kingdom will never end (Dan 7:13-14). You claim to be able to forgive sins (Matt 9:2ff). Only God can do that. You think you are pretty special. You say you are more important than family (Matt 10:37). You think you are allowed to ruin households (Matt 10:34ff). You expect people to follow you even to death (Matt 10:38). You claim God has committed everything to you. You call God your own Father. You say no one can know the Father except through you (Matt 11:27-28). What about a little proof? What about a little evidence? What about a sign from heaven?

It is a reasonable request, at first glance, except that this verse is from Matthew chapter 16. And as 15 chapters worth of evidence from Matthew’s account of Jesus' life lies in the past, we’ve already seen some of the many reasons to believe that Jesus has offered. He has done things that other men simply do not do. He has fed multitudes, 5000 men (really 15 or 20 thousand people) with 5 loaves, and 4000 with 7 loaves (Matt 15:29ff, 14:13ff). He has healed by remote control, saying the word, and then a child far away is cured (Matt 15:28). He walks on water (Matt 14:22). He cures the disabled (Matt 12:13ff), gives the blind their sight, the mute their speech (Matt 9:27ff), the paralysed their legs (Matt 9:1ff). He has cured in the incurable (Matt 9:20ff). He has driven demons away (Matt 8:28ff). He has even resuscitated the dead (Matt 9:25). Everyone was talking about it. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t shut people up about it. None of these things were done in a corner. And yet, the religious leaders ask, “Show us a sign from heaven”. The question is, “will such people ever see a sign”.

Suppose Jesus gave them a sign from heaven, right there and then. Would they see it, or would they say, “It is by the devil, the prince of demons, that he drives out demons”. He is demon possessed. He is a sorcerer. He is a magician. He deceives the people. It’s all done with mirrors, a trick of the eye, or sleight of hand.

Suppose Jesus returned to earth this afternoon. The space shuttle went up to meet him. All the evening news bulletins reported on the event. Suppose he even turned up to our church in person. Would there not be people who would say, “It’s a stunt. Great make up job and acting. How do you know it was Jesus himself? How do you know he wasn’t an illusionist, like Houdini, or a hypnotist? And about the TV reports, it’s amazing what computer graphics can do. How did they do those special effects? We can bring all kinds of fantasy or sci-fi stuff to life now.

We can find reasons not to believe in Jesus Christ. We are very good at it. Jesus says much the same thing to the religious leaders. The last part of verse 3 and verse 4:

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign. (NIV)

If they had eyes to see, there had more than enough signs. But they are blind to the signs. They see and do not see. They hear and do not hear. And in this way, miracles work like the parables. Jesus does all these miraculous things, but then when people come to Jesus and ask for proof, Jesus says “No, I won’t do a miracle for you. I’m not a traveling freak show. I came to declare God’s kingdom, that people should repent and believe the good news. If you won’t believe that, forget about miracles. If you don’t trust me, nothing I do will be good enough for you.”

(1) Jesus Offers One Sign (vv. 1-4)

Jesus does, however, offer one sign. Verse 4 again:

A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. (NIV)

Jesus does give them a sign, the sign of Jonah. Jesus has talked about the sign of Jonah previously in Matthew’s Gospel. Back in Chapter 12 verses 38 to 40:

³⁸Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.” ³⁹He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (NIV)

In the sign of Jonah, Jesus doesn’t point to anything he has done in the past. He points to the future, his future, for the Son of Man has booked three days and three nights accommodation in the earth. It will be a brief stay, like Jonah’s stay in the fish’s belly. It’s not quantity time, but quality time. It is an intense time of concentrated judgement, a time were Jesus becomes sin for us, bearing the wrath of God against sin. Jesus will endure three days dead and buried. And that is the sign. It is only three days. Jonah stayed in the fish only three days. The fish could not keep him down. For God had a job for Jonah to do, so Jonah was vomited up.

And Matthew will record that death could not hold Jesus down. The grave could not contain him. Death could only hold Jesus three days. But then the grave spat him out. Death spread to all before Jesus (the exceptions being Enoch and Elijah). But when death consumed Jesus, it developed a sever allergy. Death projectile vomited Jesus. And the anaphalactic reaction destroyed death.

Death and the grave were no place for Jesus. His body was not to see the corruption that comes with death. Jesus went to the heart of the earth to defeat death for us. And therefore he died, but death could not start its processes on Jesus. Jesus never sinned. So death could not work decomposition on him. It had no right to him, no hold on him. So Jesus emerged from death triumphant, the victor over death.

All of you who watch those murder mystery or crime shows know that scientists use animals to help them solve murders. Forensic scientists work out how long it takes for the maggots or other animals eat the body, and therefore how long the body has been dead for. They work out which bit was gnawed by a rat, or which eye socket was eaten out by a magpie. Even underwater, they work out what organisms feed on the body, so they can work out the time of death. If the maggots don’t get feed on it above ground, the worms will get it below, or the whole body will be burnt and crushed and reduced to ashes. Rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, young or old, this is where we end up.

Is this why we have children? Is this why my wife gave them birth, for them to only die and become food for the very bottom of the food chain, or else, to be reduced to white fragments of bone? Is this all that that we wait for, all that we can bequeath to our children.

Death is disgusting. It is repugnant. It is wrong. It is offensive, an obscenity on the face of God’s creation. And it is the wages of sin, the just punishment God visits upon my sin and yours.

And the sign Jesus offers is death for three days, and only three days, and after that, “resurrection”. In other words, Jesus’ sign is that he will defeat death. He will rise again, never to die again. He will take up a new resurrected body. Never again will he die, or be killed. And this victory he won not for himself but for us. That is the sign Jesus’ offers.

Can you see how fitting and appropriate that sign is? Jesus came to earth not just to perform a healing here, an exorcism there, nice weather here, a free meal there. Come on Jesus, surely you can do better! He did. Jesus engaged in mortal combat. He went to the heart of the problem in the heart of the earth and there he fought a battle that we because of our sin were too weak to fight. He entered death’s domain to defeat death and to rid the earth of its obscenity. And that is what he has achieved for us by his resurrection. Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? We have the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But show me a sign, say the skeptics. Show me a miracle. Then I will believe in Jesus. When Jesus comes into his world, he doesn’t need to show his proof of identity. That’s like Bono being asked for his ticket at a U2 concert, or the Queen to go through security checks and present her ID to get into Buckingham Palace? Does Steve Waugh need to show his ID at the SCG, or James Packer at Crown Casino. That’s the height of offence. So it is when Jesus comes into the world he has made. Every true child of God will recognize him. His sheep know his voice and heed his call and those that do not recognize him are not his sheep

(2) Jesus Offers One Warning (vv. 5-12)

But there is something to learn from the skeptics. They provide us with the opportunity to receive a warning, because they are hypocrites. The Pharisees and Sadducees claim to believe the Old Testament. They claim to be waiting for the Christ. But then the Christ arrives on the scene, doing all the things that the Christ was supposed to do, and they don’t believe him. They reject him, but they do it by play acting. They pretend to be open to the possibility but ignoring the signs that Jesus actually does, they play a game of asking for a sign.

And so Jesus warns the disciples: Don’t be like them. For the disciples are in danger of becoming like them because they don’t see the significance of the miracles. They are ‘of little faith’. They don’t seem to have understood the significance of the feeding miracles, that Jesus can provide bread with a word. And at one level, we can be sympathetic to their dullness and inability to understand. But little belief can easily become unbelief. Little faith can fade to no faith. The disciples could begin to ask for signs, too. And so Jesus tells those in the boat with him to beware.

And he tells us to beware. Do you want Jesus to prove himself to you? Do you think that a little miracle would be nice? Do you want an answer to just one of your prayers so that God might show that he is really there and for you? Will God be more real if a little bit starts going my way for a change?

And it is a small step from this to us bellowing to the heavens, “Come on Jesus, prove yourself! Is all I get an old sign in an ancient book? What about a new sign for me? Let me see something a bit more immediate, more direct. Let me experience a sign myself! And in our anger and frustration and rage against God we then forget that a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign. Asking for a sign is the way of unbelief, not of faith.

But we are people of faith. We have the sign of Jonah, a sign that speaks to our deepest need—Jesus, dead and buried, but raised on the third day. We will be happy with that.

Amen.