The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.  He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’  And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.  An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees were the ones most admonished by Jesus.  Here they are asking Jesus to perform some wonder.  They treated our dear Lord like a circus act.  They weren’t interested in hearing the true message.  But they didn’t realize those wonders that Jesus performed fail to ultimately satisfy.  They would have kept returning again and again.

Just so, in prayer so many people seek the consolations of God, instead of the God of consolations.  They want the Lord to enter into their prayer with “signs and wonders” whether they be intellectual insights, feelings of comfort and peace or even goosebumps.  And they feel as though if they are not “experiencing” something they are not praying! 

Jesus called the Pharisees and Sadducees “evil and adulterous.”  What are the characteristics of someone who is adulterous?  They leave that to which they have dedicated their heart and seek satisfaction elsewhere.  Just so, a person becomes adulterous in their faith life when they leave their true portion – belief in the Son of God – and go seeking after consolations they can sense.

“No sign will be given them except the sign of Jonah.”  Jesus, of course, is likening Jonah’s experience in the belly of the whale that spews him on land after three days to his own imminent death and resurrection.  This, then, is the true portion of the person of faith: unadulterated belief that Jesus came among us as the Son of God and our savior, suffered, died and after three days rose again.  He was seen by many and it is their testimony that has been handed down to us who believe.

May this belief be our life’s portion, O Lord.  May we not neglect the true and natural love of our heart by creating false idols that we think will satisfy us.  They never do, of course, but we try and try and try again, thus losing sight of you, our true and everlasting peace.