Signs and Sins: Matthew 16:1-4

In today’s journal entry, we’ll be looking at a short dialog that Jesus has with the Pharisees and Sadducees, and uncover one big idea that helps us see a clearer picture of Jesus’ character.

In this passage, we read that the Pharisees and Sadducees want (i.e. demand) a sign, but Jesus instead counter-challenges their initial request, calling it a request from those who are evil.

What is so wrong with asking for a sign? Gideon asked for three different signs (Judges 6), and he was granted each.  In Isaiah 7, God offers king Ahaz a “blank check” sign with no seeming repercussions.

So what is different about the requests of the Pharisees and Sadducees?

I can think of three big issues:

1. The first issue is the Pharisees/Sadducees were closed off to the signs that were all around them. There had been hundreds of signs already, most of them ranging from healing all kinds of diseases to casting out demons on numerous occasions, and these leaders chose to be blind to all of it in favor of something they felt could only come from God.
2. The second issue is that there was the expectation that this sign had to meet. Like the first reason, this had to be exceptional, and make all the other “lesser” miracles insignificant. But Jesus doesn’t work this way. Instead, every miracle was incredibly personal, and none were insignificant.
3. The third, and probably the biggest, issue is that it was counter to Jesus’ character. Any immediate sign would draw the focus onto Jesus, no matter what credit Jesus would have tried to point to the Father. Jesus came to show us the Father and to lead us to God. It is counter to His character to draw attention to himself – except perhaps for the case we could make regarding His death on the cross.

So it is wrong to ask God for a sign?

I will leave that up to you.

However, I will add that almost every “sign” God gave to individuals in the Bible was not designed to initiate faith, but instead to strengthen it. Also, almost all these signs had spans of time between the request and the fulfillment. With Gideon, it was several hours with his first request, and overnight for the two fleece requests. With Ahaz, the sign he was ultimately given was a messianic prediction that wasn’t fulfilled for hundreds of years.

The really big idea for this passage is this: Signs are not sins if they seek to give God glory. Signs are sins if they seek to draw attention to ourselves.