Mark 8:11

And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, trying him.

JESUS REFUSING TO PERFORM THE SIGN DEMANDED BY THE PHARISEES

This verse shows that Dalmanutha was on the western side of Galilee, for Jesus was back in the territory of his old enemies who immediately confronted him and demanded that he show them a sign "from heaven." Such a sign they had already received when God himself spake out of heaven upon the occasion of Jesus' baptism, saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." What they no doubt meant, however, was some celestial display of gaudy and spectacular power totally lacking in moral value. Those hypocrites who found such miracles as feeding the multitudes, healing all manner of diseases, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, and raising the dead, to be in some manner insufficient, betrayed in this demand their own impenitence and spiritual blindness. By demanding some other type of wonder than the miracles our Lord had so generously performed among them, they were arrogating to themselves the right to decide the kind of proof Christ should provide regarding his divine Messiahship. There was no chance that Jesus would yield to such arrogance. The mighty prophets of the Old Testament had outlined the wonders that would occur when the Messiah came, and Jesus followed that pattern perfectly. The Pharisees were demanding some other kind of proof, but in so doing, they placed themselves at variance with their own Scriptures for which they pretended such great respect. See my Commentary on Matthew, pp. 237-38.