Mark 8:11-13 (NIV): The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.” Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.
The Pharisees prided themselves on being loved by God because of their righteousness, and on being close to God. Yet the best of them could do no miracles. Despite their great learning and their great piety, they were missing something that this simple preacher of God’s kingdom had in abundance: power.
By the time they came to Jesus demanding a miracle to prove His authority to teach the things He was teaching, Jesus had done literally thousands of miracles, including casting out demons, healing the sick, feeding multitudes (twice!), and even raising the dead. And some of these same Pharisees had already seen many of them.
What those Pharisees were demanding was that Jesus would show them a miracle of their choosing – that He perform what they demanded as proof of His Messiahship. If He would do that, then they would take that into consideration as they debated just who and what He was.
But Jesus was not a street magician who performed tricks for the amusement of an audience. Nor was he a professional worker of miracles, a manipulator of people or of nature, who could do what He wanted whenever He wanted. Jesus was God in the flesh; not just the Messiah, but the Lord Himself. He was not to be ordered about, but listened to and obeyed. And Jesus worked only as the Father directed (John 5:9); never at the whims of people.
The Pharisees were actually being disingenuous here, as they were in most of their dealings with Jesus. If they really needed to see a miracle to believe in Him, any of the thousands that He had already done would have sufficed. But, as Jesus Himself pointed out, if these men would not believe what their own Scriptures said about Jesus, even so great a miracle as someone rising from the dead wouldn’t convince them (Luke 16:31). And this was proven to be absolutely true: after Jesus did rise from the dead, most of the Pharisees still refused to believe in Him, and even concocted a lie to keep others from believing (Matthew 28:11-15). So, at this point, Jesus simply refused to play into their hands by catering to their desires for more “proof,” and He simply walked away.
Father, even today many still clamor for “proof” that You are real, or that Jesus really was God in the flesh. Your testimony, and the testimony of eyewitnesses contained in Your Scriptures aren’t enough for them. Nor is the current testimony of those whose lives have been transformed by Your power and love. They demand a sign of their own choosing, or they refuse to believe. But You are still not in the business of catering to the whims of stubborn, unbelieving hearts. You have set the evidence of who You are, and of what Jesus has done all around us, if only we are willing to see. Amen.