The gospel of Mark now comes to a turning point. Jesus’ popularity among the people, and His refusal to kowtow to the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, are threatening their pre-eminence in the community. They respond as you would expect.
Mark 8:10-11 And immediately going on board ship with his disciples, He came into the parts of Dalmanutha. And the Pharisees went out and began to dispute against him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, tempting him.
Do you really think the Pharisees were expecting Jesus to produce some miraculous sign in the heavens? I mean, ever since when did that become the ID card to prove who was a real prophet? True, some prophets brought about astounding miracles in the Name of God or as directed by God, but many did not. In fact, in the Old Testament, the primary rule to be able to tell whether a prophet was true or not required the community to be well versed enough in the Scriptures to be able to judge the words of the prophet… whether or not those words agreed with the Law of God.
The people were supposed to be close enough to God, know Him well enough, that they would be able to discern His presence by recognizing His irrefutable Word. A secondary, practical test was that if a prophet predicted something was going to happen and it did not, that one misspoken “prophecy” was enough to condemn him to death. (Deuteronomy 18:22).
Note this important distinction: Predicting that something would happen, and seeing it come true, did not validate the prophet. Because God reserved to Himself the prerogative to test His people: Would they walk by faith in His Word, or would they allow themselves to be tricked by the powers of this world? (Deuteronomy 13:1-3).
(There is a huge lesson for us today in these rules. Paul the apostle carried them over into the disciplines required in the Church when he talked about the gift of discerning of spirits; and when he warned us that Satan came come to us disguised as an angel of light. It is a lesson for us because we are required to know God’s Word and His character thoroughly enough that we will not let ourselves be misled.
If you are ever in doubt, just turn to the life of Jesus: Fully human like us, He showed us how to live human lives that are at every moment in the Presence of God the Father. Through Him we know exactly what the Father is like (John 14:9); His Love, His Mercy, and His Justice.
It is a huge lesson for us today… Just because someone claims to speak on behalf of God, even in “defense” of God, even to the using of passages from Scripture, does not mean they are speaking from His heart.)
Ok, back to the Pharisees asking Jesus to display a sign from Heaven…
Why are they placing this extraordinary, unscriptural burden on Jesus?
I think it is precisely because they did not believe He could meet it. You see, the Pharisees could not meet that requirement either; and yet they wanted the people’s respect, the people to honor them and obey them as the representatives of God’s will… they wanted their power over the people.
But here Jesus was, winning the people to Himself, beating the Pharisees at their own “game.” They were seeing their power slipping away. Therefore, they thought: “If we can make the people see that this Jesus is nothing extraordinary, at least nothing more extraordinary than us, then maybe we can still win.”
There is a kind of paradox here. On the one hand, the Pharisees wanted to claim that they had God’s authority: That their interpretations of the Law were the correct ones. If that was so, then Jesus’ interpretations had to be wrong…
But how do you prove God is on your side?
They knew they couldn’t. Jesus was a lot better at using Scripture than they were. They could never trap Him in an error or a blasphemy. So, how do I prove that I am right and you are not? How do I prove that my favorite interpretation of Scripture is the correct one and you are just wrong?
The only way is to appeal to a higher authority. But when they tried that in the previous chapter in Mark (invoking the traditions of the ancients) that did not go so well. The only authority left is God. But they know they cannot force God to talk… that there are warnings in Scripture against trying to tempt God. So, they thought, “Maybe we can trap Jesus into doing what we don’t dare. And if he doesn’t, then he is just like us.” To me the paradox here is this:
In proving that Jesus could not appeal to a higher authority, they ended up pointing out, to everyone around them, that neither could they. So why should we believe them?
Jesus would not play into their hands… for a much deeper reason than they could possibly understand. Had Jesus invoked the power of God, and the people had seen it and claimed to believe in Him because of that miracle, He would have effectively coerced them into believing in Him. And God will never do that… because He will never overpower our free will.
Mark 8:12 And groaning in his spirit, He says, Why does this generation seek a sign? Verily I say unto you, A sign shall in no wise be given to this generation.
The narrative in Matthew is expanded:
Matthew 16:1-4 And the Pharisees and Sadducees, coming to [him], asked him, tempting [him], to shew them a sign out of heaven. But he answering said to them, When evening is come, ye say, Fine weather, for the sky is red; and in the morning, A storm to-day, for the sky is red [and] lowering; ye know [how] to discern the face of the sky, but ye cannot the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it save the sign of Jonas. And he left them and went away.
Two things to note here: First, Jesus is appealing to the instructions we talked about from Deuteronomy: Here the Pharisees are asking for a “sign” (a miracle) and yet they should already have been able to interpret all the signs (in the sense of signposts) that already proved that Jesus’ ministry was from God. Everything He said and did, agreed with the Word of God. Second: Interestingly enough, God the Father had already decided long ago that there would be a miraculous sign. But it would be a sign that would have no power to coerce.
Think about it: Could I trick you into following a man that ended up being tortured and killed for doing nothing wrong? I mean, how long is the queue of people waiting to take up their own cross? willing to rejoice in their poverty, if that is their lot? willing to be slapped on one cheek just so they can turn the other? willing to give up their (God-given) rights if that is what it takes to proclaim with their lives the Word of God?
Sure… I believe He rose from the grave… and that He has prepared eternal life for us; but there is no way I can prove that to you.
Do you feel coerced yet?
Mark 8:13-21 And he left them, and going again on board ship, went away to the other side. And they forgot to take bread, and save one loaf, they had not [any] with them in the ship. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and [of] the leaven of Herod.
And they reasoned with one another, [saying], It is because we have no bread. And Jesus knowing [it], says to them, Why reason ye because ye have no bread? Do ye not yet perceive nor understand? Have ye your heart [yet] hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many hand-baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say to him, Twelve. And when the seven for the four thousand, the filling of how many baskets of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven. And he said to them, How do ye not yet understand?
From the other gospels we know that they finally understood:
It was the leaven of the Pharisees’ doctrine:
Matthew 16:12 Then they comprehended that he did not speak of being beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
What was this leaven that permeated their whole doctrine, their whole way of life? I think it was their claim that they were right with God. They were so blinded by that claim that they could not see that if God could not be forced to vouch for them with a sign from Heaven, then there was no other earthly sign that could prove it either.
They were so caught up in their own self-righteousness that they could not see that righteousness, in the eyes of God, can only be revealed by the heart.
The Pharisees are alive and well in our time
If you have listened to the news, particularly in the politically charged environment we live in in the US, you have seen them speak from their political pulpits: Some will tell you their actions are justified, even upheld by God, and that therefore their opponents actually hate God. Such speech sinks to its lowest level when they resort to quoting Scripture to prove their point.
Well did Paul say:
Romans 2:23-24 thou who boastest in law, dost thou by transgression of the law dishonour God? For the name of God is blasphemed on your account among the nations, according as it is written.
Paul is referring to a verse from Isaiah:
Isaiah 52:5 and now, what have I here, saith Jehovah, that my people hath been taken away for nought? They that rule over them make them to howl, saith Jehovah; and continually all the day is my name scorned.
In Isaiah, God’s Name is scorned by the other nations because His people, who were chosen by Him, whom He established, ended up slaves and oppressed, with no power. And those Gentile nations could say, “What kind of god is this Jehovah, to let you be reduced to this?” Of course, in saying this the Gentiles missed the fact that the people brought this upon themselves. (And that, ultimately, it was God Himself who used those nations to humble His people.)
Paul reuses the verse in an even worse accusation: here the Roman Jewish believers are living relatively free, prosperous lives (even if the nation is subjugated), certainly free to worship their God, and yet, their actions testify against them that they do not take their God any more seriously than the Gentiles around them. Their lives are not a demonstration of God’s holiness, righteousness, and mercy. Instead, they are lording it over each other, at each other’s throat, even apparently appealing to the Law to justify their loveless actions.
And the Gentiles, who see these believers acting this way, know they are no better than themselves; therefore their “God” must be no better than their own gods. God’s Name is blasphemed, and people who could have been saved are instead turned off and driven away from God and His Word.
This is not hyperbole. I have seen skeptics on social media who recognize the fallacies (hypocrisies) of these modern-day Pharisees (that pick and choose verses to justify their deeds) and the result is that those skeptics conclude that God’s Word is imperfect and relative, limited in its scope and easily twisted to justify anything. God’s Word is blasphemed.
But God’s Word is not limited in scope. God’s Word will stand forever. It is the human heart that tries to find ways to pervert it.
Luke 17:1-2 And He said to his disciples, It cannot be but that offences come, but woe [to him] by whom they come! It would be [more] profitable for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should be a snare to one of these little ones.
How much we need Paul to stand up and speak to our people today!
This is a life-or-death situation.
Back in Deuteronomy, Moses had representatives of 6 tribes stand on Mount Gerizim and representatives of the other 6 tribes across on Mount Ebal to proclaim to the people the blessings and the curses of the covenant. The message to them was: “Now, make your choice! What do you want, blessing or curse?”
Deuteronomy 30:11-14 For this commandment which I command thee this day is not too wonderful for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in the heavens, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to the heavens, and bring it to us, that we should hear it and do it? And it is not beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, that we should hear it and do it? For the word is very near to thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
It is not so deep only the learned can get it, not so hard that only the heroes of faith can attain it; it is for every one of us, here, right now, attainable, if only you would reach out!
For the word is very near to thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
And that is why the Pharisees missed it.
They did not want anyone looking inside their hearts.
Paul the apostle told the Greek philosophers the same thing at the Areopagus:
Acts 17: 24-28 (NIV) “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
He is not far away at all. We all can just reach out and touch Him. But the people who would use Scripture to divide us against each other imply it is not so. That they are right… and everyone else is wrong.
Paul and Moses would have the same message for them: “Stop pretending God’s will is deep and onerous, that it is misunderstood and blatantly disobeyed by your enemies. Stop proclaiming the Word is on your side. No! His Word is beside all of us… if only we would accept it into our hearts.”
“Listen!” Moses would add, “your life depends on this…”
Deuteronomy 30:15-16 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil, in that I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that thou mayest live and multiply, and that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Who is being called to love the Lord?
I am!
There is nothing here about me berating my enemies and claiming they do not love God. This is all about where I stand before my God with open heart, because it is there in that heart that He resides if I love Him; and it is from there that He will call me to account me for the wickedness and hate that I choose to harbor in that heart at the same time that I claim that I made it His throne.
We’d better beware… God does not dwell in the midst of wickedness.
That kind of double mindedness that praises God out of one side of the mouth and with the same lips curses his other children has deadly consequences…
Deuteronomy 30:17-18 But if thy heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and thou shalt bow down to other gods and serve them; I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish; ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whereunto thou passest over the Jordan to possess it.
And that is where all rampant evil eventually leads us: to the worship of the false gods.
gods… Yes they too are alive and well in our time:
There are the gods who claim intellectual power, who claim to be so high and lofty with their own human (scientific) knowledge and righteousness that they can flout the Laws of the living God… gods who claim they can declare what is right and wrong and that the God of the Bible – because “He” does not exist – has no place in that decision… who claim humanity is a law unto itself.
Through Isaiah’s words, God mocked this hubris:
Isaiah 29:15-16 Woe unto them that hide deep, far from Jehovah, their counsel! And their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? [Oh] your perverseness!—Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay, so that the work should say of him that made it, He made me not; or the thing formed say of him that formed it, He hath no understanding?
And then there are gods like Mammon, the power of money, who will gladly give you the power to control it as long you use it to enrich yourself and drive your enemies into destitution. We live in a world where money is used as a weapon of injustice; by which the rich can get away with anything, and if they don’t like the verdict they get, they can appeal over and over again, keep pushing, trial after trial until they prevail or the other side gives up. But the poor can afford only one trial, only one chance.
Is this what money and prosperity are for? Not according to Solomon:
Proverbs 22:9 He that hath a bountiful (good) eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor.
Money was meant to be a tool of generosity. A good eye sees where the need is and moves to help. That is what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:
Matthew 6:22-24 The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light: but if thine eye be wicked, thy whole body will be dark. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.
Used right, money and the resources it buys are a blessing to others… and us: they become a light in our lives because generosity reveals to us the generous heart of God. But used wrong, money corrupts us… it makes us evermore self-centered.
But perhaps the most insidious god of all is…
The god of human power.
This is the god the Pharisees were unknowingly serving all their lives. All that they claimed they did for righteousness, they really did for their own aggrandizement, to get and keep power over the people. This is why Jesus called them hypocrites. They claimed to be serving no other god but the Lord, instead they were themselves their own gods.
And they were skilled at manipulating the Scriptures to twist their interpretation in their favor… until Jesus came on the scene and destroyed them on that account every time.
This, in our time, in our world, is the god of political power… Its servants claim they are the gatekeepers of righteousness, working hard to protect us; and they will even pick and choose the Scriptures, like the Pharisees did, to justify their power.
But the fallacies, the hypocrisies, ought to be obvious to the people of God. Anyone that uses that power, claiming to uphold the law, and yet the end result of their policies and actions is the hurting of the powerless, of the widow, and the orphan, and the stranger – the very people of which God has always said He will be their Father – anyone doing this, is treading on very slippery ground.
Yes, there is a reason there is law… for every human community needs laws to build boundaries that will protect us from one another. But beware of idolizing those laws. We all know human laws are imperfect… that is why we all become experts at finding loopholes.
Is it any wonder then that we try to do the same with the law of God?
We think we can pick and choose what law to keep or that we can pit one verse against another and claim my favorite verse trumps yours.
But that doesn’t work because God will not be mocked.
Galatians 6:7-8 Be not deceived: God is not mocked; for whatever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap. For he that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh; but he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life…
God’s Law is not a law written on paper or even carved in stone that we can pervert. It is a Law written in the heart of humanity, and we all know what it means. And just in case we thought we could get away with claiming we don’t know what it means, He sent His Son to spell it out. And when we killed Him on the cross, that Son released upon the whole Earth the Spirit of the Living God so that from then on, now in our time and for all time, there is no excuse.
John 16:7-11 But I say the truth to you, It is profitable for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you. And having come, he will bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe on me; of righteousness, because I go away to [my] Father, and ye behold me no longer; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
There is no excuse for anyone that tries to play games with the Word of God because the Spirit is here. Anyone that stands up and tells you they are going to dissect the Scripture to tell you how they are justified in hurting a child of God, automatically puts himself in a dangerous place… especially if they claim “justice” demands it…
That is a losing proposition because God is both a God of Justice and Mercy… And which one do you think triumphs? Which one do you think He prefers?
Matthew 7:1-2 Judge not, that ye may not be judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you.
And these people will say, “But there is a law and the ‘authorities’ must enforce that law. If you want to have mercy you can, as an individual, on your own time…”
Really?
And what are those authorities made of?
Robots? AI? Or people?
And if the answer is people, individual people… all from the head of the government down to the humblest clerk… why are they not subject to the Law of God?
You cannot make the Law of God contradict itself because God has always been – above all – the God of Mercy. If He were not, we would be utterly lost… for it was that God of Mercy that gave up His One and Only Son to die for us.
Justice may condemn, justice may demand punishment for a crime, but if there is a way for Mercy to triumph, it will:
James 2:10-13 For whoever shall keep the whole law and shall offend in one [point], he has come under the guilt of [breaking] all. For he who said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Thou shalt not kill. Now if thou dost not commit adultery, but killest, thou art become transgressor of [the] law.
So speak ye, and so act, as those that are to be judged by [the] law of liberty; for judgment [will be] without mercy to him that has shewn no mercy. Mercy glories over judgment.
If we want justice to hold, we must honestly be ready to do all the work required to find the merciful way to carry out that justice.
Because If we let it, Mercy can always find a way. And I know what these people will say: “No, no, if you start making exceptions to the (present) letter of the law, we will just have anarchy and then we will all lose our God-given blessings to these law breakers.” To which my answer is:
Well then, why don’t we work together to change the law?
Do you really want God to judge you by the letter of His law?
The Spirit has always been around to reveal the heart of the Law
In the Old Testament, God had a Sacred Law that He gave Moses. It had rules that governed the service in the Tabernacle, a Law that emphasized the holiness of the Temple… and people died for disobeying those laws. (Do you remember the guys that reached out to keep the ark of the covenant from falling off a cart in the time of King David? They died right on the spot for touching it.)
Well… in the early years of the reign of King Hezekiah he did his best to bring not only his Kingdom of Judah back to the Lord but as many as he could from Israel; with the result that when they were celebrating the Passover…
2 Chronicles 30:17-20 … there were many in the congregation that were not hallowed; therefore the Levites had the charge of the slaughtering of the passover-lambs for every one not clean, to hallow them unto Jehovah. For a multitude of the people, many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, and they ate the passover otherwise than it was written.
Pay attention: This is the Passover, arguably the holiest feast of Israel!
But Hezekiah prayed for them saying, Jehovah, who is good, forgive every one that has directed his heart to seek God, Jehovah the God of his fathers, although not according to the purification of the sanctuary. And Jehovah hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
They broke the Law… and yet Jehovah forgave them. Why?
Because Hezekiah knew whom to ask for Mercy.
God has always been a God of Mercy.
Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what [that] is—I will have mercy and not sacrifice; for I have not come to call righteous [men] but sinners.
That was the Love of God that Jesus came to proclaim. From the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, He proclaimed that the poor, the humble, the downtrodden are all blessed by God the Father.
Why? Because this world will never bless them. The powers of this world would rather sweep them under the rug, pack them away where they don’t have to see them, blame them for their misfortune (and ours) … rather than reach out to help them.
But God has proclaimed He is their Father:
Psalm 68:5-6 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God maketh the solitary into families; those that were bound he bringeth out into prosperity: but the rebellious dwell in a parched [land].
So, where do you stand: For Justice or for Mercy?
I know we all have free will. God is not going to force me to Love. And if I want to claim that my hard-hearted attitude is backed up by God’s law, He is not going to silence me… but I will reap what I sow. That is what Jesus promised…
Matthew 25:41-46 Then shall He (the King and Judge of the whole Earth) say also to those on the left, Go from me, cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I hungered, and ye gave me not to eat; I thirsted, and ye gave me not to drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye did not clothe me; ill, and in prison, and ye did not visit me.
Then shall *they* also answer saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungering, or thirsting, or a stranger, or naked, or ill, or in prison, and have not ministered to thee?
Then shall He answer them saying, Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as ye have not done it to one of these least, neither have ye done it to me. And these shall go away into eternal punishment, and the righteous into life eternal.