A HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS

LL. Christ’s Withdrawal From Relentless Unbelief

(Matthew 15:39-16:4; Mark 8:9b-12)

I. Introduction

A. Hostility from Israel’s religious leaders had led Jesus to go north to Phoenicia, so when He left there, He still kept away from the religious leaders by going southeast to Decapolis east of the Sea of Galilee that was highly populated by Gentiles, Mark 7:31 (J. D. Pentecost, The Words and Works of Jesus Christ, 1991, p. 243-245).

B. However, when He eventually returned to predominantly Hebrew-run Israel, the nation’s religious leaders met Him and sought a sign from heaven that He was the Messiah sent from heaven that they might believe in Him.

C. Their relentless unbelief was met by Christ’s condemnation and withdrawal from them, and we study Matthew 15:39-16:4 and Mark 8:9b-12 on this event for our insight, application and edification (as follows):

II. Christ’s Withdrawal From Relentless Unbelief, Matthew 15:39-16:4; Mark 8:9b-12.

A. When Jesus finally arrived back in mainly Hebrew-inhabited Israel at Magdala (or “Dalmanutha” in Mark 8:10b where that word in Aramaic means “the harbor,” Dalmanutha being the harbor of Magdala, Ibid., p. 246-247), the Pharisees and Sadducees from whom He had withdrawn from Israel to Gentile dominated lands came to test Him, asking Him to show them an attesting miracle from heaven, Matthew 15:39-16:1.

B. The nature of this test becomes obvious when we consider the previous context of Matthew’s Gospel:

1. Back in Matthew 12:38, certain of the scribes and Pharisees had asked Jesus to perform an attesting miracle to prove His identity as the Messiah. That request had followed the Pharisees’ charge that though Jesus was indeed casting out demons, He was doing these miracles by Satan’s power, Matthew 12:24.

2. Jesus had condemned their charge, showing how irrational it was for Satan to cast out his own demons and thus to destroy his own rule (Matthew 12:25-26) and stating that His critics were slandering the Holy Spirit by Whose power Jesus was actually performing His exorcisms (Matthew 12:27-32).

3. Thus, Jesus had said that no attesting miracle would be shown to that evil and spiritually adulterous generation except the sign of the prophet Jonah, that as Jonah had been three nights and three days in the belly of the fish, so would the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the earth, Matthew 12:39-40.

Jesus thus referred to the sign of His burial and resurrection that would certify His identity as being One Who was sent from God and thus to be believed as to His Messianic claims, cf. Romans 1:3-4.

4. Consequently, with Israel’s religious leaders not having considered how Christ had performed many attesting miracles of being Messiah and God by the way they fulfilled Old Testament prophecy (cf. Isaiah 35:4-6a; 61:1-2a), they had concluded that Jesus was performing His miracles on earth by Satan’s power.

5. When these religious leaders then came to Jesus in Matthew 16:1 to ask Him to show them an attesting miracle from heaven, they had changed their initial request of showing them an attesting miracle by asking for a miracle from heaven that in their mind would unquestionably come from God and not Satan!

C. Jesus replied that his questioners who asked for a miraculous sign from heaven could read the natural and obvious signs in the heavens that predicted the weather, but they were unable in their spiritual blindness to read the signs of the times that were also obvious, Matthew 16:2-3. Those signs included “John’s preaching, Jesus’ teaching and works, Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks” that pointed to the date of Messiah’s formal arrival in Jerusalem in presenting Himself as the Messiah (Harold W. Hoehner, Chron. Aspects of the Life of Christ, 1979, p. 115-139) “ – all should have been significant factors to the discerning” (The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 1971, p. 958).

D. Thus, since Jesus had previously refused to give these leaders another sign except the sign of Jonah, He replied to their entrapping effort by wisely repeating that message rather than being entrapped into performing a miraculous sign from heaven in violation of the Father’s will. He stated that no sign would be given to that evil and spiritually adulterous generation except the sign of Jonah (Matthew 16:2a, 4a). He then withdrew from the religious leaders, leaving the harbor of Magdala where He had just landed for another port on the Sea of Galilee, Matthew 16:4b; Mark 8:13.

Lesson: Jesus responded to relentless unbelief by withdrawing in holiness from those who expressed it.

Application: (1) May we believe God’s Word when it is given to us lest we reach the point where God Himself refuses to give us any more of His Word to our own loss of blessing and reward. (2) If we face relentless unbelief in God’s Word from others we seek to disciple, may we like Jesus withdraw in holiness from those who express it.