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As soon as Jesus said farewell to the 4,000 people, “straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha. And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.” (v10-11) The Pharisees came to him with a bad motive again. They tempted him by asking him to show them a sign. Perhaps they harboured such an evil thought that if he failed to perform a sign, they could openly criticize and despise him. “And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.” (v12) He firmly refused to give them any sign. Discerning that the Pharisees were tempting him, Jesus would not allow himself to fall into their trap.
But why would he sigh deeply in his spirit (v12)? What’s wrong with demanding for a sign? See how Jesus responded to their request, which was recorded in Matt 16:2-3: “He answered and said unto them, ‘When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” Jesus feels sad for the Pharisees that they can tell the signs of the nature but cannot understand what the signs that Jesus performs mean to them.
Later in Mark 11:27-28, the religious heads keep on asking Jesus a question: “By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority to do these things?” They simply could not believe that his power came from heaven. Thus, any more signs to them are meaningless. In fact, Jesus has hinted before where his authority came from in several miracles. In Matt 12:22-32, Jesus cast the devil out of a person who became blind and dumb only because he was demon-possessed. When the Pharisees said that Jesus did it by the prince of the devils, he said very clearly, “If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” (Matt 12:28)
In another occasion, he healed a blind man from birth. That happened to be on Sabbath day. (John 9) When the man made the testimony before the Pharisees how he was healed by Jesus, the Pharisees refused to accept his testimony but criticized Jesus instead, “This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day.” (John 9:16) No matter how hard the man defended for Jesus, the Pharisees kept saying, “We know not from whence he is.” (John 9:29) Faced with the same miracle, the views of the Pharisees and the blind man are in two extremes. While the Pharisees insisted, “We know that this man is a sinner” (John 9:25), the blind man disagreed and refuted outrightly, “Now we know that God heareth not sinners…If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:31,33) At the close of the incident, Jesus commented in this miracle: “For judgment I am come unto this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.” (John 9:39) Since the Pharisees cannot figure out the implication of the signs that Jesus performs, they are spiritually blind. Later in Jerusalem, the Jews came to Jesus and said, “How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and ye believed not. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.” (John 10:24-26)
Paul pinpoints the wrong mindset of the Jews: “For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” (I Cor 1:22) He continues, “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” (I Cor 1:23-24) God’s soul-saving method has nothing to do with man’s desire for sign and wisdom, but pure faith. “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (I Cor 1:21) As a matter of fact, the awesome power of God is manifested via Jesus’ resurrection. Actually, prior to this incident of asking for miracle, Jesus has once responded to the scribes and the Pharisees by saying, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt 12:39-40) Coincidentally, in this incident, Jesus repeated the above response to the Pharisees (Matt 12:39) in Matt 16:4, right after the sign of feeding 4,000. His resurrection after being buried for 3 days and 3 nights not only demonstrates God’s power of resurrection on human beings, the more important message behind the miracle is that Jesus’ death on the cross for man’s sin manifests God’s love: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8) Jesus “sighed deeply in his spirit” due to their hardened hearts. Jesus knew very well that no matter how many signs he performed, they wouldn’t believe him anyway.
Without question, we all have a curious mind to see supernatural things and want to understand the reasoning behind them. However, just like the Pharisees, our curious minds can never be satisfied. Moreover, demanding a sign can at best satisfy our curiosity but it does not benefit us at all concerning our salvation and true repentance from sin. If we attempt to seek God’s miracles to satisfy our curiosity and claim that we will believe in Him then after seeing the miracles, we are actually deceiving ourselves with a wrong belief. Believing in God’s power but not in God’s love will not motivate a person to submit to God and quit from sin. Every time Jesus performs a miracle on the people, there is a good reason behind it—to get across the message of God’s love. In the case of feeding the 4,000, he did it out of his compassion. Miracle activated by compassion is the key thing that makes people comprehend the love of God. And then, they can gladly accept Jesus’ teaching of repenting from sins.