NOTES for Mat 16:1-6

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.