Mark 8:11-13--The Pharisees Demand a Sign

Mark 8:11-13
English Standard Version
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The Pharisees Demand a Sign
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” 13 And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.

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The Pharisees come to Jesus and demand a sign in order to test Him (see Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and Deuteronomy 18:20-22.  These passages tell the Jews to evaluate and not necessarily believe every "sign" that they see because sometimes false prophets will be able to do signs too, but one of their tests is that if the prophet says he will be able to do something (a sign) and then cannot do it, his prophecy is not true.  So, the Pharisees want to see if Jesus will perform a sign on demand.

Jesus is exasperated because of how they have twisted the Scriptures that were meant to help them identify the real Messiah and reject the false teachers into letting the false teachers test the one who is the Messiah so they can try to kill Him.  Jesus asks why this generation seeks a sign (so many signs had already been shown to them, they didn't need to ask for anything more).  If they hadn't believed anything they had seen and heard already, they would not believe anything else that Jesus would do.  Jesus says He won't give them any more signs (until His Resurrection that is--which He calls "the sign of Jonah" when speaking to them in parallel passages).

After this, Jesua and His disciples got back in the boat and went back to the other side (the east side of the Sea of Galilee).  The disciples were probably a little tired of going back and forth like this, but Jesus was always in the perfect place at the perfect time.  He has an appointment with a blind man in Bethsaida in our next passage.