When the Search for Evidence Is Not Honest

Read Matthew 16:1-12

      Matthew tells us that Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus to “test him” (16:1), using the same word he used to describe the devil’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (4:1).  In both cases, the testing was done with an intention to produce failure.  They did not hope to see a sign that would inspire belief, but to demonstrate to everyone that Jesus could not perform one. 

      Jesus refuses to entertain the false request – for those willing to believe, ample evidence has already been given, all pointing to the conclusion that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah.  Only one more sign will be added – the sign of the prophet Jonah, that is, the sign of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (12:40). 

      Then Jesus says a curious thing to his disciples.  “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees,” a warning at first misunderstood until they realized that he was talking about “the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (16:12).  Its effect, like leaven (or yeast), is entirely corrupting, Jesus warns. 

      The curious thing is that the Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed with each other on so many things, the Pharisees emphasizing “the traditions of the elders” and the Sadducees accepting only the Torah as authoritative.  Until Jesus appeared, the two parties were vehemently opposed to one another.  But now they are united by their common opposition to Jesus, and in this most crucial of all doctrines theirs was a single “teaching” and a single “leaven” of unbelief. 

      Watch out for unbelief – it poses sometimes as unanswered questions and unmet demands, and so pretends to be open and reasonable.  But it is an unreasonable and closed-minded commitment to unbelief, which no “sign” can overcome, and no “answer” dispel.