And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.’
In this retort to the Pharisees and in Jesus’ later scolding of his disciples, (“Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?”) we see him uncharacteristically exasperated. And the disciples do seem a little obtuse when they miss Jesus’ warnings about the “yeast of the Pharisees.” To our ears they sound foolishly distracted by the mundane problem of having enough bread for their boat trip.
A “sign” is physical evidence of God at work. We all wish God would be a little more obvious about the presentation of the kingdom of heaven. What if the bread of heaven rained down on Haiti or the hospitals abruptly discharged their miraculously revived patients?
But Jesus was more concerned with the yeast than the bread. The yeast works quietly from within, transforming the entire loaf. The yeast was fermenting in the hearts of the disciples, who were unaware of the spiritual drama around them. Yet the author of this Gospel saw the connection between signs and yeast, because in the next story about healing, Jesus warns the blind man who could now see, “Do not even go into the village.” No public performance this time. He would not give in to the demand for signs.
Bill Tucker
Reprinted with permission of the author from https://lentenblog.wordpress.com/page/2/ March 17, 2010 by ypsilantibill
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