Jesus as Jonah

Introduction

I’d like to just for fun invite everyone to think of the most uncomfortable place that they’ve ever been stuck before. Do you have it firmly in mind? For me I think of this foolish time when some of the other guys from university convinced me that it would be fun to try and crawl through a stormdrain.

*Explain story*

That experience, though terrible, pales in comparison to our good friend Jonah. You’re probably quite familiar with the story, but I’ll give you the recap. Jonah was a Jewish prophet, whom God called to bring a message to the city of Ninevah. Jonah decided He didn’t want to extend mercy to the Gentile city in question so he tried to run away from God’s call. This did not work out well for him. While he was at sea God sent a storm and Jonah eventually admitted that He was running from God and that the way the sailors could avoid the storm was to throw him into the sea. As soon as they had done this a great sea creature came up and swallowed Jonah. He spent three days inside this creature until finally he prays and God makes the creature spit him back out.

After this Jonah begrudgingly proceeds to Ninevah and tells them to repent of their evil ways. Perhaps surprisingly, the people of the city repented prayed and fasted and God spared the city. So Jonah sulked, because he was hoping to see the city destroyed.

On the surface, it doesn’t really seem like Jonah would make a very good candidate for a type of Christ. Remember that we are looking at Prophecies about Jesus in the Old Testament, Christophanies where Jesus appears in preincarnate form in the Old Testament, and Types of Christ who in some way foreshadow who He is. Remember also that types aren’t always foreshadowing Jesus in a positive way, but sometimes they are the opposite of Jesus and sometimes they’re a mixed bag of good and bad. And note that although he comes off bad in the book of Jonah, Jonah is the one who wrote it. So at some point he must have had a change of heart. It also shows as a bonus correspondence between Jonah and Jesus that Jonah is humble because he wrote a book that only makes him look worse.

So why do we think that Jonah is a type of Christ? Well Jesus as much as tells us so in Matthew 12:38-42, which is our main text for today. For context, this comes just after two narratives about the Pharisees trying to catch Jesus breaking Sabbath laws, during which Jesus heals a blind and mute demon possessed man and a man with a withered hand. Let’s read on from there together.

Matthew 12:38–42 CSB

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching; and look—something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and look—something greater than Solomon is here.

By the way, for those who came to Bible study this past Thursday this should sound very familiar. Completely by coincidence our study was on Matthew Chapter 12 this week. Did not plan it that way, but it’s cool when it works.

Now before we get to my typical three points, I want to point out that when Jesus says that they are an evil and adulteress nation because they asked for a sign, remember that at this point in His ministry Jesus has already performed numerous signs in public. So it’s not like they’re simply asking for some evidence, they’re basically dismissing everything that He’s said and done up until this point.

It’s also important to know about the preceding and following signs because it gives a deeper meaning to the statement from Jesus that they would be given no other sign. Since He’s not saying He won’t perform other miracles there must be something particular and special about this “sign of Jonah” that He’s talking about. So let’s talk about the Sign of Jonah and what it means for disciples of Jesus today.

1. Unlike Jonah, Jesus comes to save us willingly

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Jonah was a bit hesitant to do the will of God. We read in Jonah 1:1-3

Jonah 1:1–3 CSB

The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their evil has come up before me.” Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.

Woops. That’s not really the reaction that God was looking for, was it? I can relate to the Father being a father myself in how frustrating it is to ask someone to do something and have them do the complete opposite of what you asked instead. It’s also quite foolish of Jonah to try to escape the Lord’s Presence. Perhaps He thought that The Lord’s being present in the Temple somehow limited His range of power in the world? He should have considered the words of David in Psalm 139:7-10

Psalm 139:7–10 CSB

Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me.

God is omnipresent. you can’t run away from God no matter how hard you try, and as we will see God showed Jonah this lesson the hard way.

Thankfully, this is one of the ways the Jonah contrasts with Jesus. Jesus didn’t need to be forced to come and save us. He didn’t try to run away from His mission to die for and redeem fallen humanity. Rather Jesus came because He and the Father loved us so much and wanted to save us. We read in Romans 5:8

Romans 5:8 CSB

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is as we will learn the same motivation that God had in sending Jonah to Preach to the Ninevites. In fact the reason Jonah flees is explained in the final chapter of Jonah, where he expresses his anger to God, saying in Jonah 4:1-3

Jonah 4:1–3 CSB

Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. He prayed to the Lord, “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Yikes. I’ve seen some retellings of the story of Jonah that make it seem like he was afraid that the Ninevites would reject him and attack him or something, but no, Jonah was afraid that God would have mercy on the nation!

Contrast that with the attitude of Jesus. Jonah just had to go speak to the Ninevites, Jesus had to suffer and die, and knowing that caused Him great anguish as evidenced by His prayer in the garden of Gethsemene when He prayed three times for the Father to take it away from Him if possible. Nevertheless He persevered, in the words of Hebrews 12:2

Hebrews 12:2 CSB

keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

So who are we disciples going to emulate? Should we be like Jonah who did everything in his power to avoid the call of God on his life? By no means! Let us instead be like Jesus and even if God asks everything of us do it willingly for the joy set before us, that we will one day share in the glory of Christ in the New Heaven and New Earth.

2. Like Jonah, Jesus spends three days dead

Now we get to the heart of why Jonah serves as a type of Christ: they both spent three days dead, or at least as good as dead. The difference is that Jonah did so as a consequence of his own sin and rebellion, as opposed to Jesus who spent three days in the heart of the earth for the sake of our sins and rebellion. Let’s go back to the book of Jonah and read Jonah 1:17

Jonah 1:17 CSB

The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Now I’m no scientist, but there’s a good chance that if you’re inside the belly of a great fish for three days, you’re probably going to die. That’s what usually happens to things that get eaten alive. Not only is he inside the stomach, but also presumably deep underwater. I don’t think there’s much oxygen in the stomach of a great fish. So one of two things happened, either God miraculously intervened to preserve Jonah’s life, or Jonah died and was brought back to life. Let’s look at Jonah’s prayer after this to see what we can make of it. This is Jonah 2

Jonah 2 CSB

Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish: I called to the Lord in my distress, and he answered me. I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol; you heard my voice. When you threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas, and the current overcame me. All your breakers and your billows swept over me. And I said, “I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look once more toward your holy temple. The water engulfed me up to the neck; the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. I sank to the foundations of the mountains, the earth’s gates shut behind me forever! Then you raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God! As my life was fading away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, to your holy temple. Those who cherish worthless idols abandon their faithful love, but as for me, I will sacrifice to you with a voice of thanksgiving. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

It’s interesting that the language that Jonah uses sounds like he died and was brought back to life. He says that he went down to Sheol, which is the place of the dead. Then he says that God lifted him “out of the pit.” He wasn’t literally in a pit, so he must mean this as a metaphor and typically “the pit” was a metaphor for death in Hebrew culture. So I contend that one of two things is happening here, either Jonah actually died and resurrected as a foreshadowing of Jesus, or God inspired this prayer as a foreshadowing of Jesus.

In the case of Jesus He wasn’t fleeing God and needing to be disciplined and redirected, rather HE was taking on the discipline of the sinful people He came to save. But in the context of our passage in Matthew Jesus isn’t talking specifically about the resurrection as payment for the penalty for sin. In this case specifically He’s talking about “the sign of Jonah.” The Pharisees have asked for a sign from Jesus to prove that what He is teaching is true, and the resurrection is the sign that He provides them with. He basically predicts His resurrection and calls it the proof of His teaching. This is why the resurrection is so important.

If you can prove the resurrection, you can prove that what Jesus said is true. Then if we can show the reliability of the gospels as accounts of what Jesus says than we also get statements of Jesus backing up the inspiration of the Old Testament as Holy Scripture, and then we have the apostles whom Jesus commissioned as being the authority for what consitutes the word of God thus making the gospels inspired, and Peter calls the letters of Paul Scripture. So from the resurrection we get a clear path to the entire Christian doctrine being true.

So do we have good reason to believe that the resurrection really happened? I’m glad you asked, because yes we absolutely do. I’ve probably mentioned this before from the pulpit but I hope to mention it a lot so that eventually everyone in this church will have it memorized. There are a few historical facts that almost everyone agrees on:

Jesus was Crucified under Pontius Pilate

Jesus was buried in the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea

Jesus’ female disciples discovered the tomb empty

Multiple people on multiple occasions claimed to have seen Jesus after His death

The disciples after being scattered at the crucifixion suddenly became bold proclaimers of the resurrection even in the face or persecution and death

Individuals who rejected Jesus’ message during His lifetime radically transformed into zealous teachers of the resurrection, including Saul the persecuter of the church and Jesus’ sceptical brothers

Every explanation of these facts fails except the simplest one: Jesus actually rose from the dead just like He said that He would.

So the “sign of Jonah” continues to be the best evidence even today that Jesus is who He says He is and that the words of His mouth are the very words of God. This is why we as disciples of Jesus should share the same faith and zeal of those apostles and go out proclaiming in confidence that Jesus died for our sins and rose again in victory and will one day return to create a new heavens and new earth and share His glory with His followers for eternity.

3. Like with Jonah, the proper response for those who hear the message is repentence

Have you ever heard the quote from Jesus “To whom much is given, much is expected”? It’s a good bit of wisdom. Let’s take a look at the wider context of this statement in Luke 12:42-48

Luke 12:42–48 (CSB)

The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible manager his master will put in charge of his household servants to give them their allotted food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and starts to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, that servant’s master will come on a day he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know.

He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will and didn’t prepare himself or do it will be severely beaten. But the one who did not know and did what deserved punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected.

So in context when Jesus is refering to people being given much He is referring to much knowledge, which we know that true knowledge comes from the revelation of God Himself. It’s for this reason that in more than one place in the gospels Jesus talks about people being judged differently on judgment day depending on how much access to truth that they had, and why we can be assured that there is mercy and grace for children too young to know the gospel as well as others for one reason or another who are incapable of understanding.

This is also why Jesus says what He says in Matthew 12:41

Matthew 12:41 CSB

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching; and look—something greater than Jonah is here.

The men of Nineveh only had a small glimpse of God’s revelation in the form of the message of Jonah, but they quickly repented of their sins and humbled themselves. We read in Jonah 3:3-5

Jonah 3:3–5 CSB

Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord’s command. Now Nineveh was an extremely great city, a three-day walk. Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least.

So Jonah was preparred to spend three days preaching the coming destruction of Nineveh, but on day one all he says is that Nineveh will be destroyed in 40 days and immediately the people believed and repented. Let’s read on Jonah 3:6-10

Jonah 3:6–10 CSB

When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he issued a decree in Nineveh: By order of the king and his nobles: No person or animal, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing. Who knows? God may turn and relent; he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish. God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—so God relented from the disaster he had threatened them with. And he did not do it.

In the words of Jonah himself God is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love, so he forgives the sinful nation of Nineveh when they humble themselves and turn from their evil ways. This should be cause for celebration, but as we see Jonah instead grumbles because he didn’t think that the Ninevites deserved forgiveness.

So really in the end the Gentile nation of Nineveh are our real rolemodels in the book of Jonah. They did the right thing and repented at the word of God. Contrast this with the attitudes of the Pharisees that Jesus is rebuking in Chapter 12 of the book of Matthew. See the reason Jesus was so upset with the Pharisees is because they were given so very much. Pharisees were experts in the Scriptures. In order to even train under a Rabbi a young boy had to completely memorize the first five books of the Bible, and among those who did study under rabbis none were as zealous as the Pharisees. Many of them would have memorized close to the entire Old Testament along with memorizing all of the Talmud, which is commentary on the scriptures and is over 5000 pages long. They had no excuse in their refusal to recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

Likewise in the modern day we also have a plethora of bible knowledge available at our fingertips, and we are on the other side of the amazing sign of Jonah in the Resurrection that Jesus provided for us. We have been given much, and from us is expected much devotion and faithfulness to Christ.

Conclusion

So knowing these things, what are we as good disciples of Christ to do? Well we must follow the example of our master Jesus and go willingly to do the ministry that God has called us to. We all need to reflect and pray and ask God to show us how we’ve been avoiding His call on our lives and how we can better serve Him in love.

We can also have confidence in the resurrection as the ultimate sign of the truth of the gospel and the hope of our own future resurrection, and share the truth of the resurrection with others so that they might now that Jesus is Lord and that He died in love for them that they might through Him have eternal life and hope.

We can also repent at the message of Jesus, and know that much is expected of us as recipients of so much of God’s truth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded us.

Be better than Jonah, and chase after the better Jonah, who is Christ.