The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.

Matthew 16:1 – 4

It was not the Phoenicians whom he just visited who questioned who Jesus is, the religious leaders of Israel did.  Matthew notes that the two parties, Pharisees and Sadducees, came together to question Jesus.  I doubt their sincerity when they asked Jesus to show them a sign from heaven to confirm who he is.  I wonder what they were thinking.  Were they blind to what was happening, that Jesus was healing people in the towns and cities of the Land?  Maybe they considered him a miracle worker, here today, gone tomorrow.  Jesus did not fit into their theology!

I also wonder what they would have done had they heard a voice from heaven, as John the Baptist did, that Jesus is the Lamb of God.  They had no desire to believe.  Their religious system was in place – the way to please God is through complete obedience to the law of Moses (Pharisees) or by mythologizing the law (Sadducees) thus making it highly irrelevant.

I find that this spirit of unbelief is thriving today.  The Jesus that many in Christendom, so to speak, believe in is rather inconsequential.  He continues to tantalize and is there in the sub-conscience and in our history but is not seen as the one who is establishing his kingdom among mankind, Jesus Christ the King.  Poor Jesus can do very little for people who coddle him but do not submit to him as King of kings, and Lord of lords.

Unbelief does not amaze me, but faith does because it is so “strange.”  I need to remind myself that I am a believer, and that makes all the difference.  He is my Lord and Savior, his people my family on the earth!  This sets me and people like me apart.  Why should we expect our culture to understand us?  We are pilgrims here, our citizenship is in heaven!