Tortilla Faith

Matthew 16:1-4

Wow, dad always said that the only thing you can count on is that history will repeat its self, and very few learn from history.   Jesus has just come off the mountain and now is in the region of Magadan.   Now, you will find that we know almost nothing at this time of that region.  In fact, in Mark’s account of the same Scripture we have the area called Dalmanutha.  It may be the same place, but this I do know it was a real place where Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus because they wanted a sign from heaven.

Are you waiting for a sign from heaven before you go forward with your allegiance to Jesus?  If so you are in a large group of folks, we often have the sighting of Jesus in a tortilla, or in a cloud, but those same people often are ignorant of Scripture, they have tortilla faith, but that faith will last about as long as the tortilla, then they are looking for a new sign.  What should you and I take away from Matthew 16:1-4, that was true when Jesus walked this earth and now?  Many of us can tell the weather better by looking at the sky than the person who proclaims to be expert on the nightly news.  Look at what Jesus tells these religious dudes; “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.”

You may wonder, why would Jesus use that approach with these very pious men?  Let’s look at the rest of the message, and are we not living in an around the same kind of people, maybe you and I have been blinded to the culture we live in because it has been there for so much of our lives.  These are the words of Jesus, for then and for now; “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

If you turn the pages of your Bible back to Matthew 12:39b-42, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”

Do you understand that these are not my words, the words in red are the very words of our Creator, our Lord, so if you have tortilla faith, go back to the Scriptures and read what Jesus has to say about Himself, His Father and the Holy Spirit.  Ask Him to place in your heart the ability to believe that Jesus tells the truth, to believe that Jesus is Truth.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice