In this final portion of our study of the Book of Jonah, we look at the comments of Jesus about Jonah. We look first at Matthew 12:38-41. Just before this passage, Jesus had healed “a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute.” The man could then speak and see, and the demon was cast out of him. The people were amazed and wondered, “Can Jesus be the Son of David?”- the promised Savior? The Pharisees claimed, though, that Jesus cast out evil spirits by the power of the devil himself. They rejecte...
In this final portion of our study of the Book of Jonah, we look at the comments of Jesus about Jonah. We look first at Matthew 12:38-41. Just before this passage, Jesus had healed “a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute.” The man could then speak and see, and the demon was cast out of him. The people were amazed and wondered, “Can Jesus be the Son of David?”- the promised Savior? The Pharisees claimed, though, that Jesus cast out evil spirits by the power of the devil himself. They rejected this miracle and many others that Jesus did, so that He could help people in need (Matthew 12:22-24).
Instead, the Pharisees wanted Jesus, in Matthew 12:38, to do some other kind of “sign” for them, according to their own wishes and desires. Jesus responded by saying that “it was an evil and adulterous generation” that demanded “signs” on their own terms (Matthew 12:39). It was a pattern that could be seen among the people of Israel in the wilderness wanderings and many other times in the Old Testament. Moses said of his people, “They have dealt corruptly with God; they are no longer His children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation” (Deuteronomy 32:5).
In Psalm 95:7-9, we hear the warning, “Today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts, as…. when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.” God’s people had seen so many miracles already in their rescue from slavery in Egypt and in the way God provided for them as they traveled to the promised land. Yet for too many of the people, it was never enough, They wanted more “signs” before they would trust and follow God as He asked.
This was the very kind of temptation that the devil gave to Jesus when He was in the wilderness in Matthew 4:5-7. The devil said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” from the pinnacle of the temple. Angels will surely take care of you; and what a great proof this would be to all the people who would see you rescued. Jesus simply replied, quoting from Deuteronomy 6:16, “It is written: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Jesus simply lived “by every Word that comes from the mouth of God,” as He also quoted to the devil from Deuteronomy 8:3. He listened to and followed His Heavenly Father and not the devil or anyone else. So, in Matthew 12:39, Jesus told the Pharisees that no sign would be given but the "sign of the prophet Jonah.”
As Jesus explained more, He clearly believed that the story of Jonah was a true story, from beginning to end. “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” (Matthew 12:40). Remember that we have already seen that this meant that Jonah was in the great fish for parts of three days and then was rescued. This was a prophecy pointing to Jesus, who was to die and be buried, but be raised to life on the third day. See passages like Matthew 16:31 and Luke 24:45-46. The death and resurrection of Jesus would be the central evidence, the sign of the completion of Jesus’ saving work for the world - not any other “sign” that people might want or demand.
Jesus went on to say that the people of Nineveh really did repent at the preaching of Jonah, by God’s mercy, just as the Book of Jonah said. They can rise up on the day of judgment in condemnation of the many people who did not listen to and believe the words and work of someone “much greater than Jonah” - Jesus, the Son of God, who did die and rise again to be the Savior of the world (Matthew 12:41). (We will talk about verse 42 when we look, in a moment, at Jesus’ comments in Luke, also.)
The religious leaders did hear what Jesus had said about dying and rising again, the sign of Jonah, as the center of God’s plan for Him, as Savior. They heard it often, and did plan to kill Jesus, but would not believe that Jesus could rise again. They were afraid, though, that some disciples might steal His body and pretend He had risen. Read their plans in Matthew 27:62-66. They could not stop the resurrection of Jesus, though. Read what happens in Matthew 28:1-4, and how they tried to cover up what really happened in Matthew 28:11-15. Their rejection of Jesus continued, no matter what, for too many of the people. And it continued on and still goes on today. (See other descriptions of a “faithless and twisted generation” in Matthew 17:17, Mark 8:31-33, Philippians 2:14-16, Acts 2:40, and Psalm 78:8, for example.)
Notice also how the religious leaders asked again that Jesus show them a “sign from heaven” in Matthew 16:1. Jesus reminded them that they could predict weather conditions, but could not see the real “signs of the times,” and told them again that the only sign they would see would be “the sign of Jonah” (Matthew 16:4). God had already given a sign from heaven, long ago, when the star appeared that led the wise men to Jerusalem. The chief priests and scribes had been there and had helped identify Bethlehem as the predicted place of the birth of the coming Messiah, the Christ. But it seems as if none of them bothered to go with the wise men and find out more about this amazing sign of the star or to see what child had been born. The leaders only wanted to do things their way and ignored everything else. (See Matthew 2:1-12.)
Turn now to Luke 11:29-32, where Luke tells also in his Gospel that there would be no sign but “the sign of Jonah” for the “evil generation” in which Jesus lived. Jesus added that Jonah himself was “a sign to the people of Nineveh,” who repented at his preaching. In the same way, Jesus Himself was “a sign to His generation” and to all generations, especially through His death and rising again to life, just as the Book of Jonah predicted.
Luke also tells that Jesus gave the example of “the queen of the South” - a reference to the queen of Sheba. Read in 1 Kings 10:1-10 how she came to visit King Solomon and was amazed at his knowledge and wisdom and was also amazed at His God, the God of Israel. She could tell that the Lord was a Lord of love for His people and concerned about justice and righteousness and wisdom for them. If she could learn so much from Solomon, Jesus asked, should not the people of Israel learn from and listen to Jesus, who is much greater than Solomon?
Look also at John 2:13-22. Very early in His ministry, Jesus had “cleansed” the temple, chasing out the sales people and money changers. Right away, people were demanding that Jesus show them a “sign” to give evidence that He had the right to do this “cleansing” (John 2:18). Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). They did not understand that He was talking about “the temple of His body.” Even His disciples did not understand what He meant until after His resurrection. But wasn’t He talking about the same thing that the “sign of Jonah” meant -that central to His whole ministry was His dying and rising again, just as the sign of Jonah signified?
See Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. “The Word of the cross is the power of God for us who are being saved” (v.18). “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek (human) wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified” (v.22-23). The death of Christ to pay the penalty for our sins was essential for the saving plan of God. “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:3. Equally important is the fact that “He rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4). We need the whole of the sign of Jonah, and Jesus provided it all for us, in His love for us. Jesus is our hope and joy, in all that He did for us.
A few last thoughts, as we close our study of the Book of Jonah. The three questions God asked Jonah in Jonah, Chapter 4, are worth our pondering about ourselves, too. When God provided a plant for shade for Jonah and then chose to take it away, in His wisdom, Jonah was angry. God simply asked, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?”
Jonah was only angry because he had lost the personal benefit of that plant. Do we sometimes also put too much emphasis on things that we like that are really not so important and miss things that are much more important for us?
Jonah was especially misunderstanding the mercy of God. When God asked him, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah was particularly angry about God’s mercy for certain groups that Jonah did not like and that he felt were not deserving of mercy. But who is deserving of mercy? Do we deserve it because we are somehow better than others, even though we have our own sins and failings in our lives, too? Can we want God’s mercy for us, but want to deny it to others? God wanted Jonah (and us) to think, as He asked the third question, “Should not I pity Nineveh” also and all the people there?
Ultimately, we all have hope for our future and for eternal life only by the mercy and forgiveness and grace of God, earned for us by the perfect life of Jesus in our place and His death on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, and His mighty resurrection, in victory over sin and Satan and death. “Grace” means undeserved love and favor, and John reminds us, “From the fullness of Jesus, we have all received grace upon grace”
(John 1:16). Even faith in Jesus itself is “the gift from God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). And clearly, God wants not just us who now believe to have faith in Christ. We are very grateful that we have been brought to that faith; but “God our Savior desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
We must try to keep all this in mind, even as we need to speak out against evil in Ukraine and so many other places in the world, including Yemen. (I read this week that many scholars think that the Queen of Sheba, about whom we heard in this study, came from what is now Yemen, and where there has been terrible civil warfare for years.) Sin is sin, and we cannot approve of it; and there will be be judgment for those who reject God and His will, as did later happen to many in the Assyrian empire and Nineveh when they turned away from the Lord. But we speak, always knowing that we are simply forgiven sinners ourselves, through Christ Jesus. And we try to hope for a merciful outcome, over time.
