Monday of Week 6 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
11The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. 12And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13And he left them, and getting into the boat again he went across to the other side.
Commentary on Mark 8:11-13
The Pharisees, disturbed by what Jesus is saying and doing, demand a “sign from heaven” to indicate that his authority comes from God. He refuses to acquiesce to their request; they will not get a sign on their terms.
The irony, of course, is that Jesus’ whole life is a sign—a sign of God’s loving presence among us. In Mark, the ordinary people can see this clearly. Only the leaders and (in Mark) Jesus’ own disciples are slow to learn.
In the immediately foregoing passage, Jesus has just fed 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish. The signs are there in abundance, but the Pharisees cannot see because they do not want to see. Their blindness is a central theme to this part of Mark, as we shall see. We too need to be aware of our own blindness and our failure to see the signs of God’s love operating in our everyday lives.
