Sermon Tone Analysis

“Warning” - the sign read.

“Road Closed Ahead.”

I read and saw the sign, but my teenage curiosity and a little bit of stubbornness didn’t believe it.

After all, I was in my first pickup, I had 4 wheel drive, a full tank of gas, and nothing but time on my hands.

It was a class four road in the Groton state forest.

I knew where it would end up if it was passable, and I knew how to get home from there another way if it was too rough.

So i started down the road.

I got a few hundred feet and didn’t see anything unusual, so I kept driving.

1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, a mile - and as I drove, the road got narrower and narrower, but all was going well so I kept going.

Well, about 2 miles in, that sign that I had read earlier began to mean something.

It was late spring to early summer, and the spring runoff had washed away a portion of the road about 10 feet across and 4-5 feet deep.

No way around and no way through, at least not with a truck.

So i was forced to turn around - except I couldn’t.

The road was so narrow and my truck was not small, so I had to back up for what seemed like an hour.

It might have been.

But I had learned my lesson.

The signs mean something.

Up until this point in Matthew, we have seen Jesus do many many signs, miracles, and works.

We usually use that one word “miracle,” but interestingly, there isn’t a word in the Gospels that correlates perfectly with our word for miracle.

The three words in the New Testament that describe what we call miracles, are wonders, power, and signs.

Of all those, the word “sign” is probably the most common.

In the Gospel of John, that is especially the most common one used.

One of the first places it comes up is in Jesus conversation with the man named Nicodemas.

Nicodemas had the right idea - the signs that Jesus was doing were significant.

That is, they showed something.

We have seen the signs in the text.

Healing blindness, opening deaf ears and mute mouths.

Restoring mobility to the paralyzed, healing blood-disorders, cleansing leprosy, even raising a dead girl.

In Matthew 12, in all this controversy happening with the scribes and pharisees, it all began with the healing of a man on the Sabbath, and it continued with the casting out of a demon which caused the Pharisees to accuse Jesus of doing that by the power of Satan.

So when we come to verse 38, it is interesting that they ask Jesus for a “sign.”

A sign, to point something out.

A sign, to show them something.

To convince them.

But as we read, we realize that they were really not interested in being convinced at all.

They really weren’t interested in paying attention to any sign.

Sign’s always point to a greater reality.

That canyon in the dirt road that I came across was much more meaningful to me as a teenage driver than the sign that said “road closed.”

But, the sign was still true and important, and ignoring it caused me a lot of frustration.

The same is true with jesus, the signs he did, and the signs that he points to in this passage.

They were real, true, and important, but they were not signs unto themselves.

The miracles were not wonders for the sake of wonders, they were showing something.

But many willingly missed it.

They ignored the signs, and by doing so, missed the Jesus that the signs pointed to.

A sign always points beyond itself to something else.

To see Jesus’ signs but miss Jesus is to miss the greatest thing possible.

1. Something Greater - Vs. 38-42

The pharisees were religious leaders, and the scribes were religious experts - experts in the Torah.

They come together here, as we often see them, to make this challenge.

Jesus has asserted himself to be something significant - something special.

Already in this chapter alone, he has said that he is Lord of the Sabbath, greater than the Temple, and that by his works the Kingdom of God has come.

Those are remarkable claims - claims that, in the minds of these Scribes and Pharisees, needed further proof.

They had seen signs - as we have already mentioned.

What were they looking for?

“A sign from you” is the specific request.

That is, they wanted specific proof that Jesus was who he said he was.

Specific proof, not just that miracles were happening, but that his claims to be God’s promised one were legitimate.

In Mark and Luke’s record of this account, we see that they asked this question to “test” Jesus.

It seems from that indication, that they were not looking at all to believe, but rather to disprove.

What sign would they desire?

Would any do the trick?

Well, it wouldn’t matter - because Jesus quickly refuses to accommodate them based upon their attitude and their heart condition.

“Evil and adulterous.”

Was Jesus saying they were evil based on their request?

Simply because they asked for a sign?

No, It doesn’t seem so.

After all, many times in the Old Testament God gave signs to his people.

He gave the sign of the fleece to Gideon.

He have the rainbow to Noah.

He gave the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night to the Israelites leaving Egypt.

He gave the many wonders worked through Elijah and Elishah.

Is it inherently wrong to desire something from God to confirm our faith?

We receive these confirmations in prayers answered, in sickness removed, in people coming to know Christ - all these are signs that God is working.

There is nothing wrong in rejoicing to see the work of God and confirm his faithfulness and our faith.

But that is apparently not what this group was after.

Their request was evil because, as Jesus has already stated back in verse 34-35, they were evil at heart.

Their intention was not to believe and have their faith strengthened - their intention was to doubt and to have their hatred confirmed.

“Adulterous’ isn’t tied here to any scandal of marital unfaithfulness on the part of these men, but rather it is spiritual adultery.

They had left their first love.

By their response to Jesus, it became apparent that their hearts were far from God.

Like the story of Hosea, who God called to marry an unfaithful woman to show how Israel was unfaithful to her God, so this generation, while holding an appearance of Devoutness, was evil and adulterous within.

Christian, rejoice when God does something to confirm your faith - but never demand a sign from God, and never take the stance of “disproving” God by lack of signs.

He owes you nothing.

And Jesus owed these people nothing.

He did, however, offer them something.

The sign of Jonah.

The story of Jonah is a fascinating one - one that was a testimony to the Jewish people of God’s deliverance.

Most of the references to Jonah in the Jewish writings around Jesus’ time say little about Jonah’s preaching and nineveh’s repentance, and mostly had to do with Jonah’s time in the belly of the fish and being saved from that.

So when Jesus said “Jonah” the thought would have been immediately to that part of the story, the part where Jonah was in the fish for 3 days and then spit upon dry land.

Jesus takes that part of the story, and gives them the sign - the Son of Man will be in the ground for 3 days.

Now, a sidebar to clarify the statement of 3 days and 3 nights.

In Jewish language and counting of that day, it was the norm to count any part of the day as a whole day.

The saying “3 days and 3 nights” referred to 3 different calendar days, not necessarily meaning 72 complete hours.

This has been a bit controversial over the years, because this is referring to Jesus resurrection - in which he was in the grave, not for 72 complete hours, but on 3 calendar days.

These conundrums come up when we seek to apply out modern and western standards to Ancient Mid-Eastern language.

A couple examples show how the terms could be used interchangably.

Specifically talking about the resurrection, Matthew says in one place

and in another place

So we have three phrases, that in our ears, say three different things - but clearly are intended to convey the same thing.

Three days and Nights, after three days, and on the third day were synonymous to Matthew’s audience.

With that out of the way, Jesus is prophesying here unambiguously about his resurrection.