Matthew 16:1-12

Breaking with Officialdom

Matthew 16:1-4 Pharisees and Sadducees Demand a Sign

(Mk 8:11-13; Lk 12:54-56)

¹ The Pharisees and Sadducees came up to Jesus,

and testing him, demanded that he show them a sign from heaven.

² In answer he said to them, “When evening comes,

you say, ‘A fine day is on the way, for the sky is red’;

³ and in the morning, “It will be wintry today

since the sky is red and cloudy.’

You know how to interpret the way the sky looks

but you cannot read the signs of the times.

⁴ A wicked and faithless generation demands a sign

but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”

And he left them and went away.

Pharisees and Sadducees made an unlikely combination. Sadducees was Matthew’s own addition, not mentioned by Mark. He may simply have wished to speak of representatives of the Jewish leadership.

Their request for a sign may have been little different from that made by Peter, who asked Jesus to bid him walk on water [14:28].

Signs can make faith unnecessary – or they cater for those with only little faith. When challenged, Jesus would give no special sign, except the sign of Jonah. Jesus considered that his work and his person were sufficient to generate faith. Anything else might serve only to trivialise the genuinely sacred: mystification replacing mystery.

Jesus did not perform his general healings and exorcisms as means to elicit faith in him. They were signs of the advent of the Kingdom and anticipations of it, illustrating it and calling for faithful commitment to it. Jesus worked particular healings in response to people’s faith, not as ways to arouse faith.

Matthew added the phrase except the sign of Jonah, but gave no further explanation. The reference to Jonah recalled the earlier comment made by Jesus:

Some of the scribes and Pharisees then responded.

They said, “We want a sign from you.”

In answer, he said to them,

“A wicked and unfaithful generation demands a sign.

No sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

Just as Jonah was in the stomach of a whale

for three days and three nights,

so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth

for three days and three nights. [12.38-40]

Jesus’ resurrection would be the only sign given. That had proved sufficient to the members of Matthew’s community. It was not accepted by Matthew’s other Jewish contemporaries, who continued to remain attached to the synagogue.

(The question could be asked why Christians believe that Jesus rose from death [despite never having witnessed it themselves], other than by their being opened to its reality by their recognition of the truth of his message and his person, as they resonate in the truest depths of their own spirits. They are able to interpret the sign of Jonah.)

Matthew 16:5-12 The Yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees

(Mk 8:14-21)

⁵ When they crossed to the other side,

the disciples forgot to bring any loaves of bread.

They were out of Jewish territory and on the other side. Mark had the disciples explicitly disembarking in Bethsaida, which was just out of Galilee, on the eastern side of the Jordan River as it entered the Sea of Galilee from the North. In the next incident, Matthew would have the disciples in the district of Caesarea Philippi, clearly in Gentile territory.

⁶ Jesus said to them. “Look out and be wary of

the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Mark had Jesus caution against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod. Matthew kept his focus strictly on his disputes with the leaders of his local synagogue – just as he had cited Sadducees explicitly in the previous incident.

⁷ They talked about this among themselves, but said,

“We have not brought any bread.”

⁸ Aware of this Jesus said, “You have so little faith;

why are you discussing among yourselves

that you have not brought any bread?

⁹ Do you not understand,

do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand

and how many baskets you took up?

¹⁰ or the seven loaves of the four thousand

and how many baskets you took up?

¹¹ Why do you not understand that when I said,

‘Be wary of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees’,

I was not talking about bread”?

Mark had Jesus add no more. He left it to his readers to interpret the meaning of Jesus’ comment. Though Mark had castigated the disciples for their lack of faith, Matthew regarded the whole issue as far too subtle, so added the explanation that followed (for those of little faith).

¹² They then realised that he was not telling them

to be wary of yeast in bread,

but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Though consistently and bitterly critical of Pharisees and Sadducees, Matthew’s primary interest was teaching. But what had the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees to do with the feeding of the crowds and the amounts left over? Jesus had responded to the needs of the crowds, those excluded from respectable Jewish life for reasons of ritual impurity: the sick, the blind, the lame and maimed. Jesus, indeed, gave them more than enough – like the woman who hid yeast in three measures of flour [13:33]. Within the culture, yeast was seen as a corrupting ingredient, temporarily helpful, but turning bad over time. Many formal interpreters of the Torah and tradition rejected these people, labelled them sinners and marginalised them. Given Jesus’ understanding that his feeding of the needy was intimately connected to Eucharist, Matthew wished his community of believers to take on board Jesus’ attitude of inclusivity, and to avoid all trace of elitism.

Next >> Matthew 16:13-20