The Sign of Jonah

Introduction

How many of you have been in a witnessing conversation, or any conversation about God, and someone challenges you for a sign? “If God really exist, why won’t he just appear to me? Why can’t he just appear for me and give me a sign? Would that be so hard for an omnipresent all powerful God to do?” Perhaps you have an answer prepared for this challenge and you point to the creation around you that, according to Psalm 19, is always proclaiming the glory of God. Perhaps you didn’t bother to answer the arrogant challenge, and perhaps you were stumped and didn’t know what to say. This challenge is one of the oldest in the book of skeptical challenges to God, and also one of the easiest to answer: why should he? Why would the Lord of all things bother to prove his existence to a tiny little human like you? God’s revelation is not something to be demanded with pride, it is something to be sought and treasured with humility.

In Jesus day he was challenged by the Pharisees for a sign. Although Jesus’ ministry was marked by supernatural wonders and miracles, the Pharisees want a kind of sign that is subject to their own judgement rather than God’s grace. They want to be in charge to judge the ministry of the Christ. Jesus calls them an evil and adulterous generation and gives them a sign they are not happy with, the sign of Jonah.

An Evil Generation Seeking a Sign

But what is this sign? Both Matthew and Luke mention Jesus’ famous comparison with Jonah. What is this sign and how does it help us understand the story of Jonah and understand Christ’s own ministry and the Gospel itself.

The Pharisees, rather than humbling themselves before Christ’s teaching, demand a sign so as to justify themselves after Jesus had accused them of the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

“Evil and adulterous.” The only people who demand signs of God are the kind of people who are full of pride and unwilling to submit to their creator. They are evil because they are rebels, and they are adulterous because they worship themselves and are more concerned with self-preservation than glorifying God.

“No sign will be given.” Christ explicitly promises that a sign will not be given to those who have such evil hearts.

Later we are told that this generation that asks for a sign will be condemned by gentiles who never asked for a sign, but simply believed the Word of God through the preaching of Jonah and the wisdom of Solomon. God is pleased by those who make much of the revelation given to them and he is most angry with those who take the revelation they have and demand more without putting what they have into practice.

The Sign of Jonah: What is it?

The one sign Jesus does give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. This is what we want to focus is, because it is important for us to understand exactly how Jesus is comparing himself to this prophet and how that acts as a sign.

This is a sign for unbelievers.

The connection with Jonah is metaphorical, not a direct comparison.

Death is not the focus, rather the three days and nights under the sea/in the whale and the miraculous return in order to bring legitimacy and power to their message of repentance.

Luke 11:30 ESV

For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

So when we look at Matthews account and Luke’s account together, we see that the sign of Jonah was one that involved him coming up out of the fish as a sign to the Ninevites for his preaching.

What is the sign of Jonah?

His ‘resurrection’ from the fish.

His preaching.

Essentially, Christ is saying that they will be given the same sign that the Ninevites had from Jonah, except on a much greater scale. The Ninevites prove that such a sign is enough for even a hostile Gentile nation to repent and thus is more than enough for these teachers of Israel.

One Greater than Jonah

The sign given to the Jews of Jesus day is much greater than that given to the Ninevites.

The Sign is greater. Rising from the dead is a greater sign than emerging from a fish.

The Message is greater. While Jonah’s message will be a message of judgement only, Jesus gives the offer of eternal life and freedom from sin in him.

The preacher is greater. While Jonah did trust God in the fish, he was still a sinner. His faith would shake and blow over when God showed mercy on the Ninevites and he would wish for the destruction of his listeners, not their salvation. Christ is a loving preacher who is harsh to the proud in heart, but gentle to the humble. He preaches a message of salvation and spills his own blood for his enemies and their sins.

To demand a sign from God is a display of unbelief.

It puts ourselves in a position to judge God, as if he owes us a sign in order to earn our belief.

It acts as if we have not been given the greatest sign we could possibly have, the coming, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. The fact is, there is no greater sign and if that is not good enough for them, nothing will be.

Luke 16:29–31 ESV

But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

If this was true of Moses and the prophets, how much more the Christ, a better leader than Moses and a better revealer of God than the prophets?

The resurrection would be the ultimate display of Christ’s legitimacy, and the Pharisees would reject it. There is no sign they would accept.

Likewise, any proud, worldly person who demands a sign from God would not accept any, for they will not accept the resurrection of Christ.

Conclusion

Are you seeking for a sign? Are you looking for the proof and assurance that God is who the Bible says he is and that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of our Souls?

You must come in humility, knowing that God owes you no such sign.

You must look to Christ in faith as God’s ultimate sign.

You must join him in dying to yourself and your sin. Only then will you be raised with Christ and see the sign of his salvation and resurrection in your own life and heart, and this will be a greater sign than any other you could possibly experience.