Main news for 16 July 2015

King James Version (en)

Matthew, Chapter 16, verse 6

⁶ Jesus warneth his disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees

⁶Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

NOTES

Jesus' answer to the Pharisees' request that He show them some “sign from heaven” seems rather strange. Judging by the meaning of His words, we must conclude that they had enough information and needed no other signs. The only sign Jesus clearly alludes to when He speaks of the “sign of the prophet Jonah” is His death and resurrection. What, then, does He mean when He says that even without signs the Pharisees have everything they need to understand the situation? And what kind of “sign from heaven” are they asking Him for?

In speaking of a “sign from heaven,” Jesus' interlocutors apparently meant some proof of His messiahship. There were generally accepted ideas about such proofs, according to which the Messiah had to give certain well-known signs of support from above, signs visible and intelligible to everyone. Evidently there were Pharisees prepared to see Jesus as the Messiah, but only as the “right” kind of Messiah. He had no intention of becoming that “right” Messiah.

He told those demanding signs plainly: you have seen enough to make a decision. If you were honest with yourselves, doing so would be no more difficult than looking at the sky and deciding whether to expect fair or rainy weather soon. Indeed, throughout His earthly ministry Jesus gave everyone willing to see more than enough evidence of the nearness and active power of the Kingdom He brought into the world. Anyone who wanted to see could see everything necessary. Only those who did not want to see—those for whom their own religious ideas and theological concepts were more important than the Kingdom and testimony to it—failed to see or notice the obvious.

Jesus had no intention of playing along with such people. This was not because their ideas were worse or better than any others, but because the position they had adopted separated them from the Kingdom from the outset. They were prepared to accept it only on their own terms. Yet the conditions for entering the Kingdom were by no means determined by them and were nothing like what they imagined. Those who wanted the Kingdom had to choose between the Kingdom and their religiosity. Jesus had no intention of hiding that fact from them.

Jesus' words are not always easy to understand, and at first their true meaning remains hidden even from His disciples. Only after the Teacher's explanations do they grasp that He is speaking not about bread, but about...

Today's reading tells us about Peter's confession, which is preceded by Jesus' conversations with the Pharisees about signs and with the disciples about the "leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." It concludes with a description of Peter's conversation with Jesus, during which...

Today's reading tells us about Peter's confession (vv. 13-20), which is preceded by Jesus' conversations with the Pharisees about signs (vv. 1-4) and with the disciples about the "leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (vv. 5-12). It concludes with a description of Peter's conversation with Jesus, during which Jesus speaks rather sharply about His disciple (vv. 21-28).

The central event here is Peter's confession: he recognizes in Jesus the Messiah, the Christ promised by God, while the people considered Him a prophet (vv. 14-16). And then Jesus, confirming Peter's conclusion, says that he could understand this only through revelation from God (v. 17).

It would seem that the Messiah was expected not only by Jesus' disciples: in Gospel times, messianic expectation among the Jewish people was very intense. But the point is that Jesus least of all resembled the Messiah whom both the people and the learned rabbis expected. The people expected a Messiah-king who would free Judea from Roman rule; the learned rabbis and theologian-scribes wanted to see a Messiah who matched their theological theories. It is no accident that the Pharisees and Sadducees ask Jesus to show them one of those messianic signs by which, according to their own concepts, the Messiah alone could be recognized. And Jesus refuses - not, of course, because it was difficult for Him, but because He did not want to fit into any theological concept and had no intention of conforming to anyone's ideas. Accepting such a Messiah, one who matched no generally accepted norms or views, and in whom the majority were ready to see an ungodly man and a violator of the Torah rather than the Messiah, was truly possible only by revelation.

Soon after this, it was time for Peter and the other disciples to learn about the cross and the Resurrection (v. 21), and then it turned out that this knowledge was unbearable for a person. It was still possible to accept a persecuted and suffering Messiah, especially since the image of the suffering Messiah was well known to every believing Jew from the book of Isaiah. But to accept His complete defeat was utterly unthinkable, and death on the cross was perceived by Peter and the other apostles only as defeat. The reality of resurrection in general, and of Christ's Resurrection in particular, was still only a distant prospect for them, so that even when He had risen, they still could not fully believe it for a long time.

It is no surprise that Peter cannot come to terms with the thought that the Teacher's death is inevitable (v. 22). But Jesus is uncompromising here as well: one cannot stop halfway; one cannot accept the Messiah and refuse His path. A person who acts this way turns from a disciple into an adversary (v. 23). There is only one road into the Kingdom (vv. 24-27), and one can arrive there only by walking it to the end.

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