Monday July 24, 2017
The country in which Jesus lived was no backwater; it was the crossroads of the world. And the time in which he lived was a time of fervid enthusiasms and political meltdown. The people were looking for “signs and wonders.” There was a belief that the new age (the messianic times) would be ushered in with marvelous signs like those of the Exodus. People’s imaginations were on fire (as indeed are ours today!) for new things. This easily degenerates into a desire for entertainment. Rabbi Eliezer was said to have made rivers flow backwards, displaced trees, had voices come from heaven....
Naturally, people expected something similar from Jesus. “No sign will be given to this wicked generation,” he told them, “but the sign of Jonah!” Matthew seems to have interpreted this very fancifully, comparing the “three days and three nights” that Jesus was to spend in the tomb (factually inaccurate) with the three days and nights that Jonah spent in the whale’s belly. (Lk 11:29-32 does not make this comparison.)
Jonah himself was the sign to the Ninevites. Jesus is saying, “You are seeking a sign—I am God’s sign!
