Then Jesus went out again[1] from the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis [where he had healed the demoniac]. Jesus went up a mountain, where he sat down. Then large crowds came to him bringing with them the lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them.
They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking, and they asked him to place his hands on him. After Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, he put his fingers in the man’s ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven and said with a sigh, “Ephphatha” (that is, “Be opened”). And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue loosened, and he spoke plainly.
Then they came to Bethsaida [the hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter] . They brought a blind man to Jesus and asked him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village. Then he spit on his eyes, placed his hands on his eyes and asked, “Do you see anything?”
Regaining his sight he said, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.” Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again. And he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”
As a result, the crowd was completely astounded when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel. Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more, saying, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
After sending away the crowd, Jesus immediately got into a boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha, in the region of Magadan. Now when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test/tempt Jesus, they began to argue and asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
He said, “When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather, because the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, because the sky is red and darkening.’ You know how to judge correctly the appearance of the sky, but you cannot evaluate the signs of the times.”
Sighing deeply in his spirit Jesus said, “Why does this generation look for a sign? I tell you the truth, a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”
THE SAME PASSAGE AS A COMMENTARIED NARRATIVE
Then Jesus went out again from the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the very pagan Decapolis, where he had previously healed the demoniac. Apparently the demoniac had done what Jesus requested: he told everyone about the mercy God had shown him.
When Jesus went up onto the side of a mountain and sat down, large crowds came to him bringing with them the lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others. They laid them at his feet, and he healed them. The word had spread. This man can heal. For the Jewish people scattered throughout the region, surely this reminded them of what the prophet Isaiah had foretold long ago.
In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel….Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. (Isaiah 29:18-19; Isaiah 35:5-6)
At one point, they brought to him a deaf man who also had difficulty speaking, and they asked him to place his hands on him. So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, put his fingers in the man’s ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven and said with a sigh, “Be opened”. And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue loosened, and the man spoke plainly.
Oh, and what that manner of healing conveyed to this man. The Gentile religions had a ritual of “enlivening images of the gods,” which involved anointing and thus symbolically “opening” the eyes, ears, and mouth of the image they had created to represent their god.
In this case, Jesus enlivened the real image-bearer of God: humans who are made in God’s image. Jesus’ actions testified that he is the True God come to restore the image of God in humanity – in this case, giving a sign of His power by literally opening his ears and loosening his tongue.[2]
Then they came to Bethsaida, the hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter. They would know their hometown; they would know if there were fakers or charlatans trying to trick Jesus. The people brought a man who had become blind to Jesus and, apparently aware of his previous miracle already, asked him to touch him.
Jesus took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village. Then he spit on his eyes, placed his hands on his eyes and asked, “Do you see anything?” Regaining the sight he had lost, he said, “I see people, but they look like trees walking.”
Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again. And he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”
As a result of all the miracles Jesus did, the crowd was completely astounded when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and this largely pagan crowed praised the God of Israel. Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone.
But as much as he ordered them not to do this, they proclaimed it all the more, saying, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” This unqualified affirmation from Gentiles is about to stand in sharp contrast with the Pharisees and Sadducees.
After sending away the crowd, Jesus immediately got into a boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha, in the region of Magadan. Now when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test/tempt Jesus, they began to argue and asked him to show them a sign from heaven.[3]
The Pharisees were unwilling to accept that the miracles Jesus did were empowered by God; they thought his power came from Satan (Matthew 12:24; Matthew 12:38). Their rabbis thought that demons and false gods could perform certain miracles on earth, but God alone could give signs from heaven:
· the manna of Moses' time
· the staying of the sun and moon by Joshua
· the lightning and thunder that came at Samuel's word
· the stroke of death on the captains who tried to arrest Elijah
· the rainbow after the flood
So, as impressive of the miraculous meals were, they might have been done by magic or through the power of Satan.
The Sadducees did not believe in the existence of any Spirit or Satan himself.[4] They joined the Pharisees because they were fully persuaded that miracles were impossible, and any one who attempted to produce them would prove himself a miserable impostor.[5]
So this generation, represented by the Pharisees and Sadducees in a ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ coalition, asked Jesus for some apocalyptic “sign from heaven” they didn’t believe he could do, something in line with the ʻmighty deeds of deliverance’ that God had worked on Israel’s behalf in rescuing it from slavery.
So Jesus gave them an example of a sign in the heavens – but not the kind of sign they were hoping for. This was one even children knew: “Red in the morning, sailor’s warning. Red at night, sailor’s delight.” And then he pointed out that they have missed the point. “You know how to read the signs in the sky, but you’re missing the signs of the times.”
Sighing deeply in his spirit, Jesus said, “Why does this generation look for a sign?” It wasn’t just a question. It’s part of an oath formula that would typically include something like, “May God strike me down” or “May I be accursed of God” if a sign is given to this generation.[6] It’s kind of like if Sheila, die-hard Florida State fan who bleeds garnet and gold and actually has hope this year, would say, “May I be a Gator fan with season tickets for life before I give you another sign.”
Then Jesus told them, “Here you are, a wicked[7] and adulterous generation, one that brings about the agony that comes from evil[8] and saddles people with idolatrous hardships, asking for yet one more impressive sign on your terms and not God’s. Here’s your sign, on God’s terms: the sign of Jonah. Surely you remember this passage:
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish[9], and he said, “I called out of my distress to the Lord, and he answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;[10] you heard my voice…Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head.
“I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but you have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. “While I was fainting away[11], I remembered the Lord…“ Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land. (Jonah 2:3-10)[12]
To his interrogators, Jesus continued. “Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish; so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth before he returns to life. In fact, the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because when Jonah warned of the danger of judgment, that pagan Assyrian city repented without having a single sign, and God spared Nineveh.
Now someone greater that Jonah is here, and has provided numerous signs in line with the prophets, and will be raised from the dead, to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins for the entire world,[13] and God’s own people will refuse to listen and respond.”
* * * *
There’s a lot we could unpack in this section. I want to focus on what Jesus said to the Pharisees and Sadducees about signs.
“They desired a sign of their own choosing: they despised those signs which relieved the necessity of the sick and sorrowful, and called for something else which would gratify the curiosity of the proud. It is great hypocrisy, when we slight the signs of God's ordaining, to seek for signs of our own devising.” (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)
Jesus had been dropping signs like candy, but they weren’t the signs the Pharisees and Sadducees wanted. They had so many cynical reasons to dismiss amazing things as they held out for the grand earth-shattering, public spectacle on their terms.
Meanwhile, the blind can see, the deaf can hear, the mute can speak, the lame can walk, the possessed are freed, water turns into wine, thousands of people are fed with miraculous provision, dead people are raised, and good news is proclaimed to the poor.[14] None of that counted.[15]
So Jesus offers the sign God has ordained: Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Jesus dies and then brings himself back to life, demonstrating His claim to be God in the flesh, the Incarnation, the one sent to save those who are spiritually dying. That’s the sign that matters the most.
I’ve been thinking of how tumultuous life is with its rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, and how often I’ve wished I had an sign (on my terms) that God is near. At times, I have prayed that I could see something obviously miraculous – an angel would be cool, or money magically appearing in my bank account, or I wake up 20 pounds lighter, or the Lions win the Superbowl. That, my friends, would be the sign that God is near and cares.
To connect the dots with today’s stories, that would mean I am dismissing all the signs of the miraculous intervention of God in the world around me just unfolding in what feels like ordinary life.
Take this church over 50 years. There were really good years and really bad years. The people in this congregation have been the source of hope to some and heartache to others. Both the church as an institution and the individuals in at have had times of spiritual feast and famine. It’s life in every church. When Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble,” he didn’t add, “except in your congregations, which will be perfect!” And yet here we are by the grace of God.
And let’s make it more complex:
We have people whose church history (in some church) has been characterized by joy and blessing who are communing with those who have felt traumatized by churches they have attended, and they have to figure out how to understand each other when they respond so differently to the successes and scandals of the American church.
We have people on sharply different sides of the political aisle with very strong opinions.
We have people who have attended Black Lives Matters rallies taking communion with people who attended the Capitol on January 6.
Remember Covid? We had small differences to navigate.
We have different streams of the faith trying to make a unified river: Calvinists, Arminians, Provisionists, charismatic, liturgical, progressive and historical theologies.
How does this work? Is that not a miraculous act of God, working through the truth of His word and power of his Holy Spirit, to create what should be an impossible community out of what Paul calls a new humanity (Ephesians 2:15-16) transformed by and united around the person of Jesus Christ. And is it not a testimony to the great power of God when communities like ours make it work? Our Christ-centered unity is supposed to be a sign to us, and a sign to the world.
But it’s even more personal for me. I can’t ignore the times I have seen God’s supernatural intervention and provision in my life: finding the inexplicable ability to forgive when I was ready to settle in to bitterness; freedom from the chains of addiction; a slow arc of maturity against all odds (that still has a long way to go); surviving childhood trauma that could have crushed me but did not; navigating deep grief with hope. So many signs. It doesn’t feel to me like I got the signs I wanted every time and in every way, but I know I have those.
But Jesus reminded his generation that if none of those signs were there (or at least not obvious), there was one sign that mattered: the Resurrection of Jesus.
The death it took to offer salvation to us establishes the depth of the love of God for all of His image-bearers.
The Resurrection demonstrates His power to save from even the most foreboding valleys of the shadow of death.
The gift of the Holy Spirit means The Comforter will always be with us.
In other words, the fact that God is for us and with us is enough on its own. Even if life does not unfold in the way we hoped; even if what God allows us to go through is baffling, the death and resurrection of Jesus have demonstrated that God is for us and with us.
[1] I am skipping the Feeding of the Four Thousand referred to by “then.” It’s functionally the same sign given to the Jewish people in the Feeding of the Five Thousand, but this time it’s for Gentiles.
[2] See Isaiah 29:18–19; 35:5–6
[3] Of course they argued. The Pharisees were religious conservatives; the Saducees religious liberals. The Pharisees appealed to the lower and middle class; the Sadducees the upper class. The Pharisees would not collaborate with Rome; Sadducees did. The Pharisees believed in the afterlife; the Sadducees did not. The Pharisees were waiting for a Messiah; the Sadducees were not.
[4] This difference is noted in Bengals Gnomen.
[5] Pulpit Commentary
[6] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament
[7] HELPS Word-studies
[8] HELPS Word Studies
[9] Interesting article speculating on what could have swallowed Jonah. https://armstronginstitute.org/315-what-was-the-great-fish-that-swallowed-jonah
[10] Sheol and the Pit are Old Testament terms that refer to the realm of the dead.
[11] The Hebrew says that his soul or nephesh fainted, meaning he took his last breath.
[12] When God then tells Jonah to “arise,” this is the same word Jesus used when he raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Mark 5:41reads: “Taking the child by the hand, He said to her, “Talitha Kum!” (“Little girl, I say to you, get up!“) – The previous three footnotes are from an article by Frank Turek at crossexamined.org
[13] I appreciated this point found in “Reading the Sign of Jonah: A Commentary on our Biblical Reasoning,” by Chad Pecknold (University of Cambridge) https://jsr.shanti.virginia.edu/back-issues/vol-3-no-1-extending-the-signs-jonah-in-scriptural-reasoning/reading-the-sign-of-jonah-a-commentary-on-our-biblical-reasoning/
[14] A sign Jesus gave to John the Baptist, Matthew 11:5.
[15] In one sense the Pharisees were right to be cautious. The Jewish people remembered how Pharaoh’s magicians mimicked Moses’ miracles. The book of Acts records magicians getting very angry that miracle-workers are hurting their profits. Even today, spiritual warfare of the supernatural kind rages between forces of good and evil. There are principalities and powers in the unseen realms that have a very real impact on the world.