The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from Him a sign from heaven to test Him. He sighed from the depth of His spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." Then He left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other shore.

The pharisees’ request for a sign (v. 11) wasn’t unreasonable, because the Messiah was expected to give proofs of his mission. But the way in which their action is described suggests bad will. Perhaps their request for a sign had some relation to the promise of the contemporary Jewish pseudomessiah Theudas that he would divide the Jordan River and give his followers easy passage over it. In other words, the Pharisees were looking for a spectacular public display. Of course, they expected that Jesus would fail the test and thus lose popular support.

Jesus had been working miracles: Though the cures He worked were signs of His goodness of heart as much as of His power, that shouldn’t have detracted in any way from the divine value of these signs. But the Pharisees wanted things to be done in a manner that seemed good to them. When jealous and suspicious people tested Jesus and looked for some heavenly sign, Jesus sighed in the depths of His being (v. 12).

This sigh coming from deep within Him was a genuine human emotion. One of the keys to unwanted emotions is to not let them have power over us, to not allow them to take up our time and energy. Over and over people struggle with their unwanted emotions such as anger, impatience, discouragement, irritation, envy. It’s comforting to know that Jesus had some of these feelings. We can take our unwanted emotions into our prayer and entrust them to God.

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees’ suspicion, fear, and jealousy was to get into the boat again, go off, and leave them (v. 13).

SOURCE: "366 Days with the Lord," ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.