Matthew 12:38-41 NLT
[38] “One day, some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.” [39] But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. [40] For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. [41] “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.”
Jonah’s story is intriguing. It has hidden lessons that casual readers will not easily recognise. Why is it included in Scripture? Why did Jesus quote it as a sign of His own death and resurrection?
We know the story well from Sunday School days. God instructed Jonah to go to Nineveh with a message of inevitable coming judgment. Nineveh represented a cruel and godless nation that had caused great harm to Israel. It should have pleased Jonah to tell them of their fate.
Instead, Jonah fled in the opposite direction, as far from Nineveh as he could go. Why? Deep in his heart he knew that, if the people of Nineveh repented, God would forgive them. If he didn’t deliver God’s message, God would judge them without mercy.
God was so determined to give Nineveh a chance that He stopped Jonah in his tracks, got him off the boat and sent him back, via a big fish, in the direction of Nineveh. Jonah must have been so traumatised that he had no option but to obey, albeit with great reluctance… as the story unfolds.
What did he look like when he came out of the fish? We can only speculate. Was he so bleached by the fish’s digestive juices that he appeared as a ghost to the Ninevites?
Whatever his appearance, they listened and repented to a man. Even the animals were forced to participate in their expressions of repentance.
Jonah was incensed. Just as he thought, God forgave the people of that city and let them off the hook. Jonah sat outside the city and sulked, watching hopefully for sign of God’s judgment to fall on Nineveh.
In the interim, a little scene played out on the hillside where Jonah sat, between him and God, an object lesson for the rebellious prophet. It was scorching hot, a Middle Eastern summer. God mercifully and miraculously grew a plant to provide shade for His perspiring servant.
Jonah was grateful for the shade until a worm ate through the stem and collapsed the plant. Once against, the prophet sat in misery and discomfort to watch what God would do. He was angry with God for treating him cruelly. He was upset about the plant that came and went so quickly.
The story ends, with an unanswered question.
Jonah 4:10-11 NLT
[10] Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. [11] But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
Yes, or no, Jonah? No reply! Case closed!
So, how does this story fit with Jesus’ death and resurrection? The answer seems obvious. Jonah was entombed inside a great fish for three days and three nights, apparently dead, but he came out alive with a message of judgement (and redemption – implied) for a whole city. Jesus would be entombed in a burial cave, really dead, for three days, and three nights, but He would also come out really alive, to bring redemption to the whole world. No wonder Jesus declared that, “A greater than Jonah is here.”
Is that all to the message of the story?
We understand that God used natural means supernaturally, to redirect His prophet.
We understand that the sight of Jonah and his message shocked the people of Nineveh, albeit temporarily, into a change of heart.
We understand that God responds to repentant hearts with grace,
no matter how bad they are.
What does this have to do with the context of the story?
The religious leaders, scribes and Pharisees, masters of unbelief, were, once again, on Jesus’ case. No matter what He said or did, they refused to be convinced that He was who He said He was. They refused to examine the evidence. Once again, for the umpteenth time, they demanded a sign.
So, Jesus gave them a sign which, unlike the Ninevites, they would reject to their own doom. How strange, that godless pagans repented when they saw and heard one sign from a prophet, but the religious leaders of God’s own people utterly refused to repent after seeing and hearing many signs from the Son of God Himself!
Does this story speak to us today?
God extends His grace to all who repent, no matter what culture, colour or creed. His message is clear and simple. Turn away from your life of sin and believe in Jesus.
His message is the same to His own people who have piled so much on top of the simple story of Jesus’ death and resurrection that its simplicity has been lost under the burden of theology and tradition.
Repent, return to the ancient way, is His call to us today. Despite our opinions and prejudices, His way is still the same. Repent, return, and follow Jesus. He extends mercy and forgiveness to everyone who repents regardless of who and where they are.
The sign of Jonah? Not only did Jonah’s ‘burial’ in the fish for three days and nights provide a parallel for Jesus’ own death and burial for three days but also God’s mercy to the Ninevites points to His mercy to all people through the death of His own Son.
God takes no delight in the death of sinners. Even His warnings are forerunners of mercy. His mercy to undeserving sinners peaked at the cross and was cemented at the empty tomb. Hence His question to which Jonah had no answer…
“Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
Jonah 4:11 NIV
[11]”And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”