21 February 2024 Luke 11:29-32
They wanted a sign from heaven.
Even while Jesus was casting out a demon, the Scribes, Pharisees and Elders of the people were demanding from him a sign (Luke 11:16).
Jesus said, “Nothing but the sign of Jonah,” but what exactly is the sign of Jonah? Matthew thought it was the time Jonah spent inside the whale, a sign of the crucifixion and resurrection. Luke is a little more vague, saying it has something to do with Jonah preaching and people repenting. At least that’s the way it would have sounded to most of the people. But the Scribes, Pharisees and Elders of the people no doubt had read the book of Jonah, and knew Jesus’ message was a good bit sharper than that.
Jonah was a prophet ordered by God to go to Nineveh, and he didn’t want to have anything to do with being a prophet. God told him to go one way, he went the other, boarding a ship for Tarshish, “away from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3). A storm arose, and Jonah knew it was because of his disobedience. The crew threw him into the raging sea. The sea calmed down, and Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. Inside that great fish, however, Jonah did not pray for salvation, but instead sang a song of Thanksgiving: “Thank God! I am still alive, and I really don’t have to go to Nineveh, not inside this fish!” (cf. 2:1-9)
Whereupon the fish barfed Jonah back up onto the beach, and God repeated his instructions to go and preach repentance to the gentile city. So, Jonah slouched off to Nineveh, the most reluctant prophet in the entire Old Testament.
Arriving at Nineveh, Jonah began preaching in the suburbs, and the people repented on the spot. The king heard, and he repented on the spot. God saw all this repentance, “and changed his mind about the calamity he said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it” (3:10).
Jonah was furious. “I knew you would do this,” he said. “I said to the people you would destroy them, but no. They repent a little and you change your mind. Now I look like a complete idiot. I was better off inside the fish!” (cf. 4:1-3). He went to the city limit and sat down for a good pout. God made a bush grow up to provide shade for him, but after only a day the bush withered, and it got really hot. In an act of supreme sulkiness, Jonah said, “Oh, I wish I were dead!” (4:9).
God was still gentle with his petulant prophet, and asked gently, “Jonah is it right for you to be mad about the bush? You didn’t plant it, or make it grow, and it came and went in a day. What about the people of Nineveh, Jonah? Shouldn’t I care about them? There are 120,000 of them, I made them all, and they have no idea what they are doing. Yet at one word from you they repented. You don’t love them, you don’t even like them, you wanted them all dead, and they all repented, even the king. Imagine what they might do if you loved them just a little. Jonah?” (cf. 4:9-11).
And that’s where the book ends. That is the sign of Jonah.
Jesus said to the Scribes, Pharisees and Elders of the people, “You don’t love the people. You don’t even like them. They don’t know what they are doing, but they show you respect. They are doing their best. I love them, and evil spirits run for their lives. I love them, and their diseases give up. I teach them, and they start to love each other. Imagine what they might do if you loved them just a little. Are you listening?”
The Scribes, Pharisees and elders of the people had read the book. They knew – that’s the sign of Jonah.
Imagine – love them just a little.
Are you listening?
Komentāri