13 February 2023 – Mark 8:11-13
The Pharisees, angered by what Jesus is saying and doing, demand some sign from heaven to prove that his authority comes from God. Jesus refuses to agree to their request, in fact, on their terms they will receive no sign.
Obviously Jesus’ whole life is a sign, a sign of God’s loving presence among us. In Mark, ordinary people see this clearly, only the leaders and even Jesus’ own disciples are slow to understand it.
The Pharisees do not ask, they demand a sign. What they have seen or heard is not enough, they are not satisfied with any hint or tale. Not at all! They belong to the category of those who do not allow themselves to be deceived by swindlers. That is why they ask to see clearly, they want to see “a sign from heaven”. Jesus carries out his mission in an unfavourable context, indeed, one laden
of hostility. The evangelist places this discussion with the Pharisees just after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes to show his readers that the Pharisees are blind and deaf. They do not seek dialogue, it is enough for them to challenge the Rabbi of Nazareth.
Come to think of it, it is the same temptation Jes us felt in the wilderness: “If you are the Son of God, say that these stones may become bread” (Mt 4:3). In the words of the Pharisees Jesus feels the dark shadow of the evil one. A speciality of the devil is to instil distrust. On the surface it is a reasonable demand: “If you claim to be the expected Messiah, you must prove it”. The same demand will be made of him when he is on the cross: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” (Matt 27:41). In these words there is not the humility of one who seeks, but the arrogance of one who demands. Faith, on the other hand, generates a bond founded on trust.
Moreover, when the Jews of Jesus’ time, as well as Christians now, ask – in one way or another – for a sign, what is done is to ask God to act in accordance with the way we believe is right, that is, with our way of thinking. And God, who knows and can do more (and for that we ask in the Lord’s Prayer that ‘his’ will be done), has his ways, even if it is not easy for us to understand them. But he, who lets himself be found by all who seek him, if we ask him for the gift of discernment, will make us understand what his way is and how we can recognise his signs today.
For good workers…
We too, aware of our blindness and inability to see the ‘signs’ of God’s love at work in our daily lives, must ask for the grace to see and understand them.
P JOBY KAVUNGAL RCJ