Luke 11:17

Reading Response

What word did the Lord reveal to you this week?

Walk with me through the structure of Luke and where we’re at.

I’m going to walk through and I want you guys to call out what strikes you.

Luke 1-2 Introduction

Luke 3-9 Jesus and his Mission

Luke 10-19 Jesus on the Way to Jerusalem

Luke 19-23 Jesus in Jerusalem

Luke 24 The Conclusion

We’re working up to and through the turning point - from calling an unlikely people - toward the sacrifice.

We just finished a section on the transfiguration, where we see Jesus prepared for the sacrifice

Luke 9:28–31 ESV

28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure (Exodos), which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

We see Jesus reach the point of readiness (8th day) where his time comes to become a sacrifice and experience the cutting away of the flesh circumcision. We see him experience a mountaintop moment with God where the barrier between heaven and earth become thin.

We also see this take place in historically pagan and evil places, possibly as part of his “triggering” of the enemies and powers to lead to his sacrifice.

Who else had an amazing mountaintop moment with God during an exodus?

What happened when he came down off the mountain?

He’s confronted with the Idolatrous, Faithless generation he is called to lead at the Golden calf.

Should we expect to see some of those same things happen here

The disciples are rebuked for lack of faith:

Luke 9:37–41 “37 On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. 38 And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. 40 And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” 41 Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.””

They are called out for not understanding his death

They argue about who is the greatest

They tried to stop people working on the same team.

Then we reach the turning point

Luke 9:51 ESV

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

We now start to see a transition where Jesus is now laser focused on driving towards his death. He also starts to prepare his disciples for what is to come and the type of message they will carry.

Emphasizes the cost of following him

Sends out 72 to represent mission to the nations

Parable of the good Samaritan emphasizing spread to nations and kindness to outsiders

Mary and Martha ? Activity vs Relationship - how does it fit?

Teach us how to pray - preparation for the sacrifice?

Casting out demons and the strong man? - the supernatural realm truth of the mission to the nations.

Unclean spirit - hint of the future state of Israel as the mission proceeds out to the nations?

Sign of Jonah

Luke 11:29–32 ESV

29 When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30 For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Luke 24:44–47 ESV

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Questions based on immediate response to the reading:

What does Jesus mean by the sign of Jonah?

How does Jonah impact his summary of the OT and its profile of the Christ?

Layer 1

As Jonah became a sign to Nineveh, so the son of man will be a sign to this generation.

Jesus speaking to a generation that has given itself over to a hard heart and refuses to believe.

Jesus points out that the story of Jonah and what it represents is really about him.

Jonah adds to the MESSIANIC PROFILE or the big picture story that the OT is telling.

Jonah reinforces the theme of the interceding prophet who goes through “death” because of the sins of other people leading to repentance and forgiveness or turning away of the wrath of God

Noah’s sacrifice

Abraham’s intercession for lot

Moses offered his life in intercession on the mountain for Israel.

Exodus 32:31–34 ESV

31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

Jesus is highlighting the theme of the interceding prophet that gives his life for the people, a theme that is touched on in Jonah in a unique way that is directly applied to Jesus. He fulfills this theme from moses

Layer 2

3 days 3 nights

Where does Jesus get the idea of rising from the dead on the third day from the OT?

There is a consistent image associated with 3 days and 3 nights in the OT and in ANE literature.

1 Samuel 30:12 ESV

12 and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

Hosea 6:1–2 ESV

1 “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.

Associated with a test that brings you to or near to death, and associated with an ominous journey.

The Israelites’ journey from Egypt through the waters to Mount Sinai was to take three days (Exod. 3:18, 5:3, 8:27, 15:22).

The first three-day journey in the Bible is Abraham’s journey to Jerusalem to sacrifice Isaac (Gen. 22:4)

Jonah uses a common ancient concept of the 3 day descent into death, but he is actually rescued from death in an ironic and surprising way through a beast we would assume would kill him.

Jonah adds to our OT portrait of the anointed one the concept of a 3 day journey through death with a surprising twist that results in salvation.

Jesus referencing Jonah is associating himself with a coming ominous journey to death that will involve a 3 day period.

Layer 3

Jonah as and inversion or an anti-Moses prophet who symbolizes Israel’s grand story and their rejection of the Mission to the nations

Does Jesus comparison to Jonah actually work?

Who’s the hero of Jonah’s story? Everyone but jonah! Think about the characters in the story.

Pagan sailors - in the end repent and make vows and sacrifices to YHWH.

Ninevites - repent in ashes and turn from their ways

The fish (rendered monster in the LXX) (drawn as a dragon in early tradition) - the forces of nature and chaos monsters obey God

Even the cows in Nineveh repent.

Jonah - doesn’t even repent in the belly of the fish

2 Kings 14:23–25 “23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 24 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.”

Prophet who prophesied in support of an evil king whose words were later reversed

Rebellious and Jealous of the unlikely chosen

Hates God for his loving character (hesed - faithfully fulfilling obligations of a covenant)

Inverse of the faithful prophet who intercedes on behalf of others. He proclaims that he serves God with his words while doing the opposite with his actions. He tries to run to a selfish death instead to avoid giving his life to God’s mission, while the true prophet offers his life for the people.

What was Israel’s mission and purpose?

Bless the nations - through the torah and the messiah.

What do prophets do?

Speak Gods words

Demonstrate what will happen to the people symbolically. We see prophets live out messages as forerunners symbolically of nations.

Jesus is the ultimate picture of this (Servant songs in Isaiah) as the things said about the people and the prophet blend seamlessly.

What happens to Jonah can be seen as a microcosm lived out in one person of the whole of Israel’s failed history

Rejection of the mission to the nations and a turn inward.

A turning to rich neighbors for support (solomon brings ships from tarshish for their gold)

Swallowed up by sea beasts “Tanin” - stock word for sea monster is applied to Egypt and Babylon metaphorically.

Ezekiel 29:3 NASB95

3 “Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, The great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, That has said, ‘My Nile is mine, and I myself have made it.’

Jeremiah 51:34 NASB95

34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me, He has set me down like an empty vessel; He has swallowed me like a monster, He has filled his stomach with my delicacies; He has washed me away.

Through a shocking surprise 3 days death - Israel delivers blessing to the nations even though they are unwilling

This makes sense in light of a compilation of the books and them taking their final form during the exile, where some brilliant bible nerds could see Jonah’s story as a commentary on Israel’s failure.

Jesus could use this layer of meaning in the Jonah story to highlight the historical position that he finds himself in. Israel is continuing to behave like Jonah and continues to turn inward more and more, rejecting God’s outward global purposes. This reinforces his point about the evil generation. They are so self-righteous that the become naval gazing, self focused, slowly devolving away from true humanity towards a self-centered toddling immaturity and stiff necked obstinance.

Layer 4

Jonah and Israel as the Older Brother

The book of Jonah is playing around with and inverting a common theme in the OT. That is the theme of the prophet of God interceding for the “city of blood.”

The city of blood is a city that becomes consumed by violence and hatred of others and through that becomes aligned with supernatural evil.

This theme starts with the original older brother Cain.

Cain and Abel offer sacrifice, The unlikely younger brother is blessed, Cain becomes violently angry and causes the death of the younger, he is punished and he runs away to the east where he builds a city. That city eventually breeds all sorts of violence and evil. Becoming a city of blood, the outcry of which rises to God.

Genesis 4:16 ESV

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

We talked already about Abraham and his intercession for Sodom.

With Jonah we see all of this flipped around. The one we expect to be a prophet who intercedes on behalf of the wicked constantly begs God to destroy them. Instead of an intercessor he becomes the accuser.

Through his self-righteousness Jonah takes on the role of the older brother, becomes like Cain, and is controlled by the snake.

Jonah 3:10–4:5 ESV

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

This passage also reuses an uncommon phrase from the exodus.

Exodus 14:10–14 ESV

When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

So Jonah’s behavior here calls up the behavior of Cain and all the other older brothers in Israel’s history. It also calls up the unbelieving nation who would rather be slaves to a powerful nation (swallowed up by a sea monster) than follow God fully.

Jonah, through self-righteousness and pride of his place, has become both the jealous older brother who runs from God to the wilderness to create his own refuge, and the one who is more comfortable in subservience to nations and powers than following God’s true mission.

The author is inviting us to compare the Nation and the Prophet in our mind.

We can See that Israel (because of the great promises given to them) through their history had done the same thing, and by Jesus time they had become a generation of Older brothers who were more comfortable being swallowed up by the nations (aligning and working with Rome) than obeying their true call to the nations.

The scribes and pharisees were the ones asking for a sign. When they grumble again in chapter 15 Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son.

Luke 15:25–32 ESV

25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

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Jonah has at least these 4 layers of meaning in Jesus Quotation.

Jesus death will be a death of the interceding prophet .

He will go on a 3 days type of Journey through death.

Though Israel thinks they are Moses, they are really the inverted and self-focused prophet Jonah. Fighting against God’s mission to the nations.

Through this self-righteousness Israel has become the stubborn and rebellious Older Brother jealous of the unlikely chosen who will violently kill him.

Jesus death and 3 day journey will come from this stubborn and rebelious people despite their stubbornness and save/bless/ overthrow, turn over the nations.

Application - Who are we more likely to become? Through national heritage and pride of place we are more likely to be the older brother who rejects the mission to the nations and gets comfortable being swallowed up by governmental power.

Refiner - reveal our hearts.

Our greatest fears as the American Church should be OBS (older brother syndrome) and being swallowed up by the great sea monster of empire.

In those things we become blinded to the true mission of Christ and the radical way that he calls us to treat, love, preach to and become brothers with the unlikely.