Thursday 30 October 2025

Psalm 92

Background
Embarking on chapter 16 in Matthew's Gospel, we are back with conflict and controversy, and are presented with quite a difficult passage. The Pharisees and Sadducees challenge Jesus to give them a sign that he is the Messiah. It's something of an echo of the wilderness temptations and the challenge to the dying Jesus to come down off the cross.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees were not natural allies, but suspicion of Jesus brings them together. The Pharisees were one of the religious parties of Jesus’ day. Unlike the Sadducees, who tried to apply the Law precisely as set out in the Torah (the first five books of what Christians call the Old Testament), they looked for interpretations in the light of experience. They also believed in resurrection, which the Sadducees rejected.

Jesus counters the challenge to provide a sign in two ways. First, he asks why they can see the signs of the weather ('red sky at night' etc) but are blind to the cosmic 'signs of the times' about Jesus, such as the miraculous feedings (feeding the 5000, etc). Second, he says that asking for a sign is anyway hypocritical because they are hoping and expecting that there will be no such thing. The enigmatic reference to “the sign of Jonah” refers back to Matthew 12:38-41 where there had been an earlier call for a sign from the same people.

Jesus has had enough of this sterile debate and turns away, but there then follows a somewhat opaque conversation with the disciples. The clue to understanding what’s going on is that yeast (often called 'leaven') had two distinct meanings. It could simply mean baked, risen (leavened) bread, or it could also mean false religion. They talk at cross purposes for a while, the disciple thinking that Jesus is telling them off for forgetting the bread. And he does scold them for lack of faith in worrying about bread in the wake of the two great feeding stories. The disciples are really no better than the Pharisees and the Sadducees; they haven’t been using their eyes. Eventually, they get it and one can imagine the embarrassed silence.

This all sets the scene for what now follows: one of the great revelatory moments in Matthew's Gospel when Jesus is acknowledged as Lord and Messiah.

To Ponder:

• Recall a time when you were talking at cross purposes with someone. What does that feel like and how is it resolved?
• Do you ever long for some kind of sign from heaven? Why?

Prayer
Save me, O Lord, from bad religion and false expectations. Amen.

Bible notes author: The Revd Alan Bolton
Alan Bolton is a supernumerary presbyter in the High Wycombe Circuit, having sat down in 2018. He preaches regularly round the Circuit. His other occupations are family, music, model railways, walking and reading, with a close interest in politics.