Matthew 12:38-50

Matthew 12:38-42 The scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign

The scribes and Pharisees demand a “sign” from Jesus.  What do they mean by a “sign”?

They are looking for something dramatic.

When I read this, I wonder what kind of sign they could possibly have needed that they didn’t already have.

Compare Matthew 11:2-6 to this passage.  What kinds of “signs” has Jesus already done?  What does the desire of these scribes and Pharisees to see a “sign” tell you about them?

Jesus describes the people of his time as an “evil and adulterous generation.”  He is using “adulterous” as a spiritual metaphor.  The Old Testament uses that metaphor – see, for example, Jer. 3:6-11 and Hosea 3:1-5.  When Jesus uses the metaphor of adultery, what is he saying about the scribes and Pharisees and those who share their skepticism about him?

When Jesus says he will be in the earth for 3 days and 3 nights, what is he hinting at as the sign he will give?

What is the story of Jonah?  To whom was Jonah supposed to be speaking the word of the Lord when he ended up instead in the belly of the whale?

What is the “sign of Jonah”?  How does Jonah’s story prefigure Jesus?

Jonah’s survival after three days in the whale prefigures Jesus’s resurrection. Also, Jonah’s calling to preach to the Gentiles (Ninevah) prefigures Jesus’s ministry to Gentiles, which we already saw in Matthew 8:5-13 and will see again in Matthew 15:21-38.

In what way was Jonah’s ministry a sign of love for the Ninevites, and how is that also a prefiguring of Jesus?

God loves those who are spiritually distant from him.  He cared enough about the Ninevites to send Jonah to them and Jesus cares enough about the scribes and Pharisees to continue to engage them and call them to repentance.  That the message conveys both God’s love and his call to repentance is a sign that the message is true.

Why will the people of Nineveh condemn Jesus’s generation?

The story of Solomon and the queen of Sheba appears in 1 Kings 10:1-13.  She comes to Solomon with questions.  She wants to find out if he is as wise as he is reputed to be. When she sees him in action, she recognizes his great wisdom and is deeply impressed by him.

Why will the queen of Sheba condemn Jesus’s generation?

Nineveh and Sheba were Gentile lands, not Jewish territory.  Jesus says these non-Jews will judge the Jews of Jesus’s time.  How does that add additional nuance and effect to Jesus’s denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees?

Sometimes, skeptics in our time seem to have “signs” they want from God before they might be ready to believe.  What might be some of those kinds of “signs” skeptics want in our society today?

Sometimes even people in the church seem to be skeptical about God’s role in their lives, always wanting more proof that God is really present and at work.  What kinds of “signs” do Christians sometimes want from Jesus in our time, before they commit more fully to him?

How can you try to gauge whether skepticism is genuine or disingenuous?

In what ways does our generation have advantages that might make us particularly worthy of judgment when we do not respond appropriately to Jesus?

Luke tells the story slightly differently (Luke 11:29-30).  He leaves out the 3 days and 3 nights part and says that Jonah (himself) was a sign to the people of Nineveh and Jesus (himself) is a sign to this generation.  If Jesus is the sign, what is he a sign of?  How is our generation missing that Jesus is the sign we seek?

Matthew 12:43-45 An empty house

This passage should not be analyzed primarily as a literal description of literal evil spirits.  It is a metaphor.  Recall that Matthew brings together related things Jesus said that he might not have said all at the same time.  Matthew is telling us about discussing involving evil spirits, so he places these words here.  Jesus referred to the scribes and Pharisees as an “evil generation” in verse 39 and he repeats that phrase here.  The focus is on the scribes and Pharisees, not on some unidentified evil spirits; the evil spirits are a metaphor.

In Luke, shortly after the discussion of Jonah (Luke 11:29-32), Jesus tells a Pharisee, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness” (Luke 11:39 NRSV).  That is another metaphor to get to the same point, which is about the things the scribes and Pharisees are focused on.

In what ways is the “house” of the Pharisees “empty, swept, and put in order” (Matthew 12:44)?

In what ways is the life of the Pharisees “clean” and yet still evil?

In what ways are we at risk of “cleaning” our “house” yet leaving it empty and exposed to bad influences instead of filling it with Jesus?

Does modern Christianity focus more on sweeping out sins than on what should take the place of those sins?  Explain.

Matthew 12:46-50 “Who are my mother and brothers?”

Matthew has been leading us through a long segment of his Gospel that has focused on opposition to Jesus and the fundamental choice that each person must make.  Now he brings it home.

Where are Jesus’s family – his mother and brothers – as he has been contending with the Pharisees?

Protestants take the word “brothers” literally.  The Catholic Church has always maintained that Jesus’s mother Mary was a virgin throughout her life and that “brothers” here is to be interpreted as “relatives”.  There is one theory that would make them step-brothers – sons of Joseph from a prior marriage; but there are also arguments for considering them to be his cousins.  No one other than Jesus is ever referred to in the Gospels as a child of Mary.  Two of the men referred to as “brothers” of Jesus in the Gospels have the same names as the sons of another “Mary” named in Matthew 27:56, whom John 19:25 suggests might be the sister of Jesus’s mother.  Catholics also argue that when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he would not have entrusted Mary to John if she had other sons.  And in both the Old and New Testaments, “brother” is used for a variety of relationships, figurative and literal, especially because the Hebrew did not have a word for “cousin”  (Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, Matthew 12:46 fn., pp. 29-30).  This is not a question that can be resolved in a small-group Bible Study.  If different members of the group disagree, it is best to note that the Body of Christ is divided on this question and that we should not let it divide us from learning together from the Word of God.  We don’t need to resolve that issue to gain important lessons from what Jesus says here.

What question does Jesus ask, and how does he answer the question?

According to Jesus, who are his mother and brothers?  What do they do that makes them his mother and brother (or sister)?

Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven – i.e., whoever does the will of God – is a brother or sister of Jesus.

What does genuine commitment to Jesus look like in our day?

What challenge does this passage present to you?  What might God be asking you to do that you are currently not doing?

Let’s look back over this entire chapter.  There is a progression in the Pharisees’ opposition to Jesus.  They move from:

• watching him with suspicion (12:1-8, where they object to the disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath), to

• trying to entrap him (12:9-14, where they ask him if a cure at that moment would be permissible), to

• plotting to kill him (12:14), to

• impugning his character so that there would be a pretext for eliminating him (12:22-32, when they accuse him of acting by the power of Satan), to

• demanding a sign to discredit him (12:38), as though he hasn’t already provided a multitude of signs.

Looking over the whole chapter, how does Jesus respond to the growing opposition to him?

My Bible Study group saw all of the following: determination, refutation, defiance, warning, and invitation.  You may see other things.

Take a step back and consider this:

St. Francis of Assisi had an interesting perspective on Jesus’s statement on his mother and brothers, and he connected it to Matthew 5:16, where Jesus tells us to let our light shine.  Francis said that “we are brothers, when we do the will of His Father, who is in heaven (cf. Mt 12:50); mothers when we bear Him in our heart and body (1 Cor 6:20) by love and by a pure and sincere conscience; we give birth to Him through holy work, which should shine upon others as an example (cf. Mt 5:16)” (Francis of Assisi, “Letter to the Faithful II,” . The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi, Parts I & II, translated from the Latin Critical Edition by Fr. K. Esser, O.F.M., http://www.liturgies.net/saints/francis/writings.htm).

The first part of this quote is a restatement of what Jesus said in Matthew 12:50: we are brothers of Jesus when we do the Father’s will.  But in what sense might we also be Jesus’s mother?

Francis offers a beautiful, poetic insight: First, like a mother, we bear (i.e., carry) Jesus in our heart and body, like a pregnant woman carries her child, with love and a pure heart.  Second, we figuratively give birth to Jesus when we do the “holy work” that shines the light of Christ to others.  When we give a tangible embodiment of Christ to others when we let Christ show forth in our actions.

Jesus is very clear that it is our doing the will of God that makes us his mother and brothers, and Francis sees us doing that not just as an act of obedience but as an expression of love that gives of ourselves to bring the work of God to life – to give birth to God’s work in our world.

How might your perspective and attitude change if you saw your willingness to do the will of God, your willingness to do the work God calls you to, as being an opportunity to give life to God’s work, to give birth to something new by your work?

Is there somewhere right now where you need to make a decision to do the will or work of God in some way?  In what way might God be calling you to give birth to some new action on that will allow God’s light to shine through you?