The Sign Of Jonah
THE SIGN OF JONAH
MATTHEW 12:38-50
Jonah’s generation, and the Queen of Sheba, did better than the Pharisees. They repented through listening to God’s word, they valued it. And One greater than even Solomon is right here.
The “sign” which the scribes and Pharisees sought must have been something different from the works of healing and exorcism which Jesus performed. These could be explained away as wrought by demonic power; they wanted some sign that would compel recognition that Jesus was sent by God—perhaps such a sign as he refused to give when he was tempted in the wilderness (4:5-7). Such a sign, were it possible, would leave no room for faith. The “sign of Jonah,” which alone they would be given (12:39), is interpreted here in terms of our Lord’s resurrection (12:40). The Ninevites who repented when Jonah came to them from “the belly of Sheol” (Jonah 2:2) would be in a position to condemn the unbelief of Jesus’ contemporaries at the last judgment (12:41), as also would the Queen of Sheba (12:42). The “something greater” than Jonah or Solomon (12:41-42) is the kingdom of God, present in Jesus’ ministry (cf. “something greater than the temple” in 12:6).
The parable of 12:43-45 implies that the communities which had benefited temporarily from the ministry of Jesus would be in a worse state afterwards than they were before because they did not respond to it in wholehearted repentance and faith. “This evil generation” (12:45) recalls the language used in the Old Testament of the wilderness generation (Deuteronomy 1:35, etc); its additional characterization as an “adulterous” generation in 12:39 implies its unfaithfulness to God.
The incident of 12:46-50 emphasizes not only that earthly relationships must give way to the demands of the kingdom of heaven (cf. 10:37) but also that Jesus’ true family comprises all who, like him, do the will of God, and that means in the first instance those who had abandoned the synagogue order and all that went with it in order to form his new community (cf. 12:15). The “brothers” of Jesus are named in 13:55.
Study Consider the relationship of Jesus to his mother.