Watch Out For the Pharisees - Part One
LESSON
War, like misery, makes strange bedfellows, however, and here both the Pharisees and Sadducees appear side by side in their opposition to Jesus. That they are both here probably indicates that they were representing the Sanhedrin, which included both groups. So this was probably an official delegation. The narrative flow suggests that they were waiting in Galilee for Jesus, anticipating his return from the north, and that they confronted him as soon as he arrived. Matthew says that they wanted to discredit him by demanding a miracle that he either could not or would not perform.
1 'The Sadducees are not mentioned very often in the gospels. In fact, they appear at only three places: 1) at the baptism of John (Matt. 3:7); 2) demanding a sign of Jesus, which is what they are doing here (Matt. 16:1); and 3) posing their trick question about the resurrection (Matt. 22:23; also Mark 12:18, Luke 20:27). Earlier in Matthew (Matt. 12:38), it was only the Pharisees and teachers of the law (scribes), who asked Jesus for a sign.
STUDY QUESTION
- Explain the significance of Matthew 16.
- How did the Pharisees and Sadducees differ? For what reason did they come together?
REFLECTION
- Do we have religious leaders like the Pharisees and Sadducees today?
KEY POINT
- In chapter 16 Peter makes the single most important confession of faith in Jesus thus far in Matthew—”You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16).