Monday after the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 7, 2022 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 16:1-12 (NKJV)
16:1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.
5 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”
8 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? 9 Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 10 Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up? 11 How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Devotion
In the previous chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, our Lord Jesus fed four thousand men. This sign was very similar to the way the Lord God sustained the people of Israel during their forty-year wilderness wandering by giving them manna to eat. This should have certainly pointed them to the fact the Lord Jesus is truly the Son of God, the Messiah. But it was not enough for the Pharisees and Sadducees, who instead demanded a sign from Heaven from the Lord Jesus. They were able to discern the weather from the signs in the heavens, but they were unable to see Who the Lord Jesus was while He stood before them working the works only One Who is God in the Flesh could do!
Thus, it was evident that Jesus is the true Savior of mankind. Yet, the greater sign of the true Savior had already been given in the sign of Jonah. Our Lord Jesus was in the belly of the tomb for three days after He suffered and died on the tree of the holy cross for the sins of the whole world, just as Jonah had been in the belly of the fish. On the third day our Lord rose again from the dead. He destroyed the power of death. It is to this sign alone that we cling in faith. For through faith in this sign we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Prayer: Almighty God, we beseech Thee, show Thy mercy unto Thy humble servants, that we who put no trust in our own merits may not be dealt with after the severity of Thy judgment, but according to Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
