Mark tells us that Jesus chose his Apostles (Mark 3:14-19; cp. Luke 6:12-16) about the time he taught the Beatitudes to the multitude (Luke 6:17-23; cp. Mark 3:20). While Luke records the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17), Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount was delivered earlier, while Jesus was still on the mountaintop with only his disciples (Matthew 5:1; cp. Luke 6:17). So, the two, though similar in content, were delivered at different times on the same day to two different groups of people.
Notice, too, that when the multitude came together a second time (Mark 3:20), Jesus’ friends heard he was accused of being mad (Mark 3:21). To be mad in the context of Jewish society was to have a demon (John 7:20; 8:48, 52; 10:20). Therefore, Jesus was presently being accused by Scribes from Jerusalem (Mark 3:22) and by the Pharisees (Matthew 12:24) of being beside himself, casting out demons by the power of the prince of demons (Mark 3:21-30). Having been unable to accuse Jesus of any wrongdoing in any of their earlier confrontations with him, Jesus’ enemies now stooped to slandering him in an effort to prevent the multitudes from following after him.
This was the showdown! Nevertheless, it would be a faceoff that would last for three and a half years, the irrefutable argument confronting the undeniable sign. According to the scribes from Jerusalem, Jesus performed miracles through the power of evil, making him nothing more than a more powerful psychic or clairvoyant than those he expelled (Mark 3:22). When Jesus made his logical argument against them (Mark 3:23-30), they simply asked for a sign (cp. Matthew 12:38), but what sign could Jesus give that could or would convince anyone, if the very sign they asked for would, according to their slanderous accusations, be done through the power of the prince of demons (verse-22)? Therefore, Jesus gave them a sign, which no one could deny. Nevertheless, it would be a sign that would come too late for his enemies to receive him as their Messiah, while he was still with them in the flesh. The sign Jesus gave them was that of Jonah the prophet, the most successful prophet in Jewish history. Indeed, he is the only prophet that was believed, but the believers were gentiles. Therefore, Jesus pointed to the time Jonah was in his grave, the belly of the whale (Jonah 1:17; 2:2), and this would foretell the time Jesus would be in his grave, the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:39-40).
A showdown points to the climax, or the end of the matter. In the context of these things occurring during the Feast of Tabernacles, which is the final annual Holy Day period in the Jewish calendar, according to the Law (see Leviticus 23),[1] and Jesus’ ministry coming in the time of the end (Hebrews 1:2), Daniel’s Seventy Weeks Prophecy should also come into view to add clarity to this time, and it does. According to Daniel, the Messiah would, indeed, come, but he would also be cut off in the middle of the seventieth or final week of his Seventy Weeks Prophecy (Daniel 9:26-27).
Jesus pointed to that very event, when he gave the sign required by his enemies, who believed their argument rendered Jesus’ Messianic claims moot. He gave them the sign of the prophet, Jonah (Matthew 12:39-40). This period of time, the middle of the week, points to the time, times, and half a time that Daniel mentioned later (Daniel 12:7). The middle of the seventieth week would be 3 ½ days, which, according to the prophecy would be three and a half years, or 1260 days. Whether by coincidence or by plan, there are exactly 1260 days between the Last Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles (22nd day of the 7th month) and the Passover (Nisan 14) three and one half years later in the Jewish calendar. This, of course, points to when Jesus was crucified. Thus, the scribes’ and Pharisees’ unanswerable argument was met with Jesus’ undeniable sign.
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[1] See my earlier studies: Is It Unlawful to Speak on the Sabbath and The Clueless Multitude.
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