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| Archbishop Averky (Tauchev) Explanation of the four Gospels IntraText CT - Text |
No sooner than the Lord stepped off the boat, when the Pharisees and Sadducees approached Him, evidently waiting especially for Him. Normally, the Pharisees (conservatives) and the Sadducees (liberals/free thinkers) were hostile toward one another. Now, they were united in one spirit against the Lord. Hypocritically and insincerely, they ask Him to show them such a sign from heaven that would serve as definite proof to them and the rest of the people, of His Divine worthiness as the Messiah. Being convinced that the Lord will refuse them, they wanted to use this as another reason to proclaim to the people that because Jesus cannot give them a sign, He cannot be the Messiah. In a stern response to the Pharisees, the Lord calls them hypocrites, because while knowing how to judge the oncoming weather, they don’t want to notice evident signs that witness as to His Messianic worthiness. And again they were told that no signs will be given them, “except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Mat. 16:4).
Not wishing to continue conversing with hypocrites, the Lord, having just arrived on this side of the lake, got back into the boat with the Apostles and went back. This hasty event didn’t give the Apostles an opportunity to replenish their bread supply. Meanwhile, saddened by the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and wanting to caution His Apostles on comparable destructive conditions, the Lord said: “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Mat. 16:11). Saint Mark replaces the word Sadducees with another — “Herod’s,” which doesn’t change the meaning of the phrase, inasmuch as Herod-Antipas belonged to the Sadducee sect. However, the Apostles didn’t understand the Lord’s warning, deciding that the He was chastising them for wasting the opportunity of obtaining bread. The Lord then truly chastised them — for their lack of faith, for their lack of understanding and their forgetfulness, having reminded them of the two miracles of feeding thousands with a few loaves. Only then did the Apostles realize that the Lord was warning them of the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ teachings.