But what about the other signs? They are not for unbelievers. The pagan world of the time was, as we have said, a world of miracles and miracle-lovers. Those popular miracles were of the type calculated to excite awe in all beholders and stir up general public interest. Of this type of miracle the Lord strongly disapproved. Not only did he repeatedly instruct those who had been the beneficiaries of his miraculous powers not to spread the news abroad, but in every instance where he was asked for a sign, he rebuked the askers and quickly withdrew from the scene.
Father Garrigou-Lagrange in his recent treatment of the subject, defending the thesis that the purpose of miracles was to prove the divine origin of the Christian religion “by most certain signs accommodated to the intelligence of all,” cites the instances in Matthew 11:4 [Matt. 6:1]—6 and Luke 7:18 [Luke 5:16]—23 where the Lord answered John the Baptist’s question as to whether he was the Messiah by referring him to the miracles he had done.1 But a personal message to his friend and relative John, a righteous man and a believer all his days, can hardly be construed as a policy for converting the heathen; and here John does not ask for a sign—he is ready to take the Lord’s word for it. The powerful rebukes administered by the Lord to those who sought signs, Lagrange explains as applying only to the Pharisees, “who were always seeking new signs after they had had other signs.” Yet we also read (Luke 11:29 [Luke 8:14]): “And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign.”
Speaking to the whole multitude, he condemns the whole sign-seeking generation. The Lord says those who seek a sign will receive a sign—but it is not the sign they want, it is the sign of Jonah. When the Pharisees asked him for a sign, “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. And he left them” (Mark 8:12 [Mark 4:17]—13). And yet there were signs all around them, but only those who believed could see them—the signs only follow them that believe: “O ye hypocrites,” said the Lord to the Pharisees and Sadducees asking him for a sign from heaven, “ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed”
Healing the Deaf & Blind; the Leaven of the Pharisees
The Pharisees and Sadducees demand a sign from heaven; Jesus answers that they can read the sky but not the signs of the times, and no sign will be given them but the sign of Jonah. Crossing the lake, he warns the disciples against “the leaven of the Pharisees,” which they take for talk of bread until he presses them: do you not yet understand? Then at Bethsaida he heals a blind man in two stages (“I see men as trees, walking”) until he sees every man clearly.
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1The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and testing Jesus, desired of him that he would show them a sign from Heaven. 2And he answered and said unto them, When it is evening you say, It will be fair weather The weather is fair, for the sky is red; 3and in the morning you say, It will be foul weather today The weather is foul today, for the sky is red and overcast. O hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot tell the signs of the times. 4A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he left them and departed.
5And when his disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 6Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 7And they reasoned among themselves, saying, He said this because we have taken no bread. 8And when they reasoned among themselves, Jesus perceived it. And he said unto them, O you of little faith, why reason you among yourselves because you have brought no bread? 9Do you not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? 10Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many baskets you took up? 11How is it that you do not understand that I spoke it not unto you concerning bread, that you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12Then understood they that he bid them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
11And directly he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the ports of Dalmanutha. And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from Heaven, testing him. 12And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, Why does this generation seek after a sign? Truly I say unto you, there shall be no sign given unto this generation save the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so likewise shall the Son of Man be buried in the bowels of the earth. 13And he left them, and, entering into the ship again, he departed to the other side.
14Now the disciples multitude had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. 15And he charged them, saying, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. 16And they reasoned among themselves, saying, He has said this because we have no bread.
17And when they said this among themselves, Jesus knew it. And he said unto them, Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Neither understand? Are your hearts yet hardened? 18Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember 19when I broke the five loaves among the five thousand? How many baskets full of fragments did you take up? They say unto him, Twelve. 20And when the seven among the four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up? And they said, Seven. 21And he said unto them, How is it that you do not understand?
22And he comes to Bethsaida. And they bring a blind man unto him and implored him to touch him. 23And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when he had spit upon his eyes and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw anything. 24And he looked up and he said, I see men as trees walking. 25After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up, and he was restored and saw every man clearly. 26And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town nor tell it what is done to any in the town.
A Wicked and Adulterous Generation Seeks a Sign
The Sign Seeker
Jesus gives the sign-seekers nothing but the sign of Jonah. Joseph Smith, who met sign-seekers often, taught the same principle as a fixed law, and told of one such demand answered in Philadelphia.
Discourse, 9 February 1843, Nauvoo · History, 1838–1856, vol. D-1, 1466 (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 278; History of the Church 5:268) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗When I was preaching in Philadelphia, a Quaker called out for a sign. I told him to be still. After the sermon, he again asked for a sign. I told the congregation the man was an adulterer; that a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and that the Lord had said to me in a revelation, that any man who wanted a sign was an adulterous person.
“It is true,” cried one, “for I caught him in the very act,” which the man afterwards confessed when he was baptized.
Whoever Seeks a Sign
Instructing the Twelve before their mission to England, Joseph Smith laid the principle down as eternal: the demand for a sign is itself the mark of an unfaithful heart.
Discourse, 2 July 1839, Montrose, Iowa · Willard Richards Pocket Companion (Words of Joseph Smith) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Also recorded in as reported by Wilford Woodruff (a); as reported by Wilford Woodruff (b).
The principle is as correct as the one that Jesus put forth in saying that he who seeketh a sign is an adulterous person; and that principle is eternal, undeviating, and firm as the pillars of heaven, for whenever you see a man seeking after a sign, you may set it down that he is an adulterous man.
The Signs Follow Them That Believe
Nibley turns the demand inside out: whenever people asked for a sign, the Lord walked out on them. The signs were all around, but a sign is given to faith, never to its opponents, and the only sign the sign-seeker gets is the one he does not want, the sign of Jonah.
Ellipses mark omissions within Nibley’s own text.