Seaford Baptist Church

Rejection in Magadan

June 10th, 2009

Rejection in Magadan (Matthew 15:39-16:4; Mark 8:9-12)

Jesus makes the trip from the region of Decapolis to Magadan / Dalmanutha. Magadan was the name of a town, while Dalmanutha in Aramaic means ‘the harbor’ – so read this Jesus went by boat to the harbor of the town of Magadan. It was here that the Scribes and Pharisees confront Him again. This time there is a test request – give us a sign from heaven. Shepard writes:

There had been signs enough in the miracles of Jesus to convince an open mind, but these they had attributed to the prince of demons. Beelzebub. A sign from heaven would be different. If He would make a rainbow span the world, or like Joshua make the sun stand still; call down thunder or hail like Samuel, or fire and rain like Elijah; or if He would make the sun turn back like Isaiah, they would believe that the King-Messiah had come.

Umm, yeah. Right. So these religious leaders wanted something more than a healing, raising people from the dead, controlling nature, casting out demons, and feeding the masses so that they would know (and He would prove) that He was sent from God. Christ refused to give them another sign.

The reason for rejection of the person of Christ had nothing to do with miraculous signs – it had everything to do with their inability to interpret the signs they had been seeing. Jesus condemned them, for they had learned to interpret the signs of the weather but couldn’t interpret the signs from the One sent from heaven. They had swallowed the Kool-Aid and were blinded by their unbelief.

As Jesus had done before (when challenged to provide incontrovertible proof that would convince them) He told them the only proof that they would receive would the sign of Jonah.
By using the sign of the prophet Jonah, who was inside a great fish for three days, Jesus was predicting his death and resurrection (see also Matt 12:38-42). The Resurrection, of course, was the most spectacular sign of all. That sign would come, not in Jesus’ timing or in answer to the Pharisees’ demands, but in God’s plan. And when it occurred, even that sign would be dismissed by the religious leaders. Mark’s Gospel, however, says that no sign (at all) would be given because of their unbelief. Jesus was rejecting these leaders.

PROVE IT
Many people, like these Jewish leaders, say they want to see a miracle so that they can believe. But Jesus knew that miracles usually won’t convince hard-hearted people. Jesus had been healing the sick, raising people from the dead, and feeding thousands, and still people wanted him to prove himself. Do you doubt Christ because you haven’t seen a miracle? Do you expect God to prove himself to you personally before you believe? Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29 NKJV). We have all the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testaments, two thousand years of church history, and the witness of thousands. With all this evidence, those who won’t believe may be too proud or too stubborn. Don’t harden your heart.
(from The Life Application Commentary Series Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 by the Livingstone Corporation. Produced with permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.)

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Entry Filed under: Bible Study, Bryan Dunn