Picture: The True Sign 3TC 260.1
This chapter is based on Matthew 15:29-39; 16:1-12; Mark 7:31-37; 8:1-21.
In Decapolis, where Jesus had healed the demon-possessed men of Gergesa, the people had insisted that Jesus leave. But they had listened to the messengers He left behind. As He came into that region again, a crowd gathered, and a deaf, stammering man was brought to Him. Taking him aside, Jesus put His fingers in his ears and touched his tongue. He sighed when He thought of the ears that would not be open to the truth, the tongues that refused to acknowledge the Redeemer. At the command, “Be opened,” the man’s speech was restored. 3TC 260.2
Jesus went up on a mountain, and there the crowds flocked to Him, bringing their sick and lame. He healed them all; and the people, though they were heathen, glorified the God of Israel. For three days they swarmed around the Savior, sleeping at night in the open air, and through the day pressing close to hear the words of Christ and see His works. 3TC 260.3
At the end of three days, their food was gone. Jesus would not send them away hungry, and He called on His disciples to give them food. At Bethsaida they had seen how their small supply of food became enough to feed the large crowd, yet they did not bring all they had to Him now, trusting His power to multiply it for the hungry crowds. Again the disciples revealed their unbelief. The people He fed at Bethsaida were Jews; these were Gentiles and heathen. Jewish prejudice was still strong in the disciples’ hearts. “Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude?” 3TC 261.1
But obedient to His word, they brought Him what they had—seven loaves and two fish. He fed the multitude, and they had seven large baskets of fragments remaining. Four thousand men, besides women and children, were refreshed in this way. 3TC 261.2
Then with His disciples, Jesus crossed the lake to Magdala. In the border country of Tyre and Sidon, the remarkable trust of the Phoenician woman had refreshed His spirit. The heathen people of Decapolis had received Him gladly. Now as He landed once more in Galilee, where He had performed most of His deeds of mercy, He was met with unbelieving contempt. 3TC 261.3
The two sects—Pharisees and Sadducees—had been bitter enemies, but now they united against Christ, asking for a sign from heaven. When Israel went out to battle with the Canaanites at Beth Horon, the sun had stood still at Joshua’s command. The leaders demanded some such sign from Jesus. But no mere external evidence could benefit them. 3TC 261.4
“Hypocrites!” said Jesus. “You know how to discern the face of the sky”—by studying the sky they could foretell the weather—“but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” Christ’s own words, spoken with the power of the Holy Spirit, were the sign God had given. The song of the angels to the shepherds, the star that guided the wise men, the Voice from heaven at His baptism, were witnesses for Him. 3TC 261.5
“But He sighed deeply in His spirit, and said, ‘Why does this generation seek a sign?’” “No sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” As the preaching of Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so Christ’s preaching was a sign to His generation. But what a contrast in how these two groups had received the word! The people of the great heathen city humbled themselves. The high and lowly together cried to the God of heaven, and He granted them His mercy. “The men of Nineveh will rise in judgment with this generation,” Christ had said, “and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.” Matthew 12:41. 3TC 262.1
Every miracle Christ performed was a sign of His divinity, but to the Pharisees, these works of mercy were a great offense. The Jewish leaders looked with heartless indifference on human suffering. In many cases, their oppression had caused the suffering that Christ relieved. So His miracles were a rebuke to them. 3TC 262.2
What led the Jews to reject the Savior was the highest evidence of His divine character: His miracles were for the blessing of humanity. His life revealed the character of God. He did the works and spoke the words of God. A life such as this is the greatest of all miracles. 3TC 262.3
Many in our day, like the Jews, say, “Show us a sign; work a miracle.” Christ does not grant us power to prove our claims or satisfy the demands of unbelief and pride. But is it not a miracle that we can break from the bondage of Satan? Opposition to Satan is not natural to the human heart. It is implanted by the grace of God. When one who has been controlled by a stubborn, wayward will yields to the gentle pull of God’s heavenly agencies, a miracle has happened. So also when someone who has been under strong delusion comes to understand moral truth. The change in human hearts, the transformation of human characters, is a miracle that reveals an ever-living Savior. In preaching the Word of God, the sign that should be evident now and always is the presence of the Holy Spirit, to make the Word a renewing power to those who hear. 3TC 262.4
The people who asked for a sign from Jesus had hardened their hearts. They refused to see that His mission fulfilled the Scriptures. “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.” Luke 16:31. 3TC 263.1
Turning from the group of critics, Jesus got into the boat with His disciples. In sorrowful silence, they again crossed the lake. When they reached the other side, Jesus said, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” The Jews had been taught to regard leaven as a symbol of sin. In leaving Magdala so suddenly, the disciples had forgotten to take bread. They understood Christ to be warning them not to buy bread from a Pharisee or Sadducee. Their lack of spiritual insight often led them to misunderstand His words. 3TC 263.2
Now Jesus reprimanded them for thinking that, in that solemn warning, He who had fed thousands with a few fish and barley loaves could have referred to merely temporal food. There was danger that the crafty reasoning of the Pharisees and Sadducees would leaven His disciples with unbelief. 3TC 263.3
The disciples were inclined to think that their Master should have granted the demand for a sign in the heavens. He was able to do this, and such a sign would silence His enemies. They did not recognize the hypocrisy of the critics. Months later, Jesus repeated the same teaching. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Luke 12:1. 3TC 263.4
Leaven works without being noticed, changing the dough to its own nature. So if we allow hypocrisy in the heart, it permeates the character and life. A striking example was the practice of Corban, by which people concealed a neglect of duty to parents under a pretense of liberality to the temple. The scribes and Pharisees concealed the real tendency of their doctrines, instilling them skillfully but deceitfully into the minds of their hearers. This deceptive teaching made it hard for the people to receive the words of Christ. 3TC 263.5
The same influences are working through those who try to explain the law of God to make it conform to what they do. Such people do not attack the law openly. They put forward speculative theories that undermine its principles. They explain it in a way that destroys its force. 3TC 264.1
The Pharisees’ hypocrisy was the product of their self-seeking. This led them to twist and misapply the Scriptures. Even the disciples of Christ were in danger of cherishing this subtle evil. The reasoning of the Pharisees, who often wavered between faith and unbelief, influenced the followers of Jesus to a great degree. In their hearts, even the disciples had not stopped seeking great things for themselves. This spirit stirred up the strife over who would be greatest. This put them so much out of sympathy with Christ’s mission of self-sacrifice. As leaven will cause corruption, so the self-seeking spirit, if we cherish it, brings about our defilement and ruin. 3TC 264.2
Today, as long ago, how widespread is this subtle, deceptive sin! How often our service to Christ is marred by the secret desire to exalt self! How ready the thought of self-praise and the longing for human approval! The love of self, the desire for an easier way than God has appointed, leads us to substitute human theories and traditions for the divine principles. 3TC 264.3
The religion of Christ is sincerity itself. Zeal for God’s glory is the motive that the Holy Spirit implants, and only the power of God can banish self-seeking and hypocrisy. This change is the sign that He is working. When the faith we accept destroys selfishness and falsehood, when it leads us to seek God’s glory and not our own, we may know that it is from the right source. “Father, glorify Your name” (John 12:28) was the keynote of Christ’s life, and if we follow Him, this will be the keynote of our life. 3TC 264.4
