Matthew 12:38-42 Recap
This past Sunday Michael took us through Matthew 12:38-42 and the implications of Jesus proclaiming He will give the sign of Johnah. It is an interesting exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees, who were just angered with Him healing a man on the Sabbath. Let’s look more at this exchange and see what else is going on here.
Matthew 12:38–42 (ESV) The Sign of Jonah
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
This is a weird exchange coming after the previous controversies on the Sabbath and the healings, where the Pharisees blasphemed and said that this has to be from Satan, which Jesus rebukes them for. So it seems like they’re trying to backpedal and weasel out of the situation by saying “Fine, if it’s all true, show us a sign,” when clearly Jesus had just done several. How was healing a man’s withered hand, then healing a blind and mute man by casting out a demon not already a sign for them? Clearly Jesus was reading their hearts correctly as being evil and adulterous, or wayward from the Lord.
I think on a surface level, reading just this section alone, one could read this as Jesus being harsh and unwilling to do work to prove Himself to an interested onlooker, but in reality these men were trying to save face after Jesus rebukes their hard hearts in the previous verses. So instead of bending to their wishes and performing more signs on demand, He declares He will give an ultimate sign, the sign of Jonah.
To twist the knife of His rebuke further, Jesus points out that even the Ninevites will judge this “evil and adulterous generation,” because they repented and believed when hearing the word of the Lord, unlike the hard hearted Pharisees who had the King, the Lord of all, right in front of them and they refused to believe. On Sunday Michael pointed us towards 1 Corinthians 1:22-23, reminding us that the Jews, or the religious, want signs, and the Greeks, or the Gentiles/the rest of the world, seek wisdom. So the idea of the King, the promised Messiah, being meek and unjustly killed seems foolish to those earthly minded demands, but that’s the sign promised by Christ and from the prophets pointing to His coming.
To continue pondering on that reality, that the prophets pointed to His coming, specifically we also see they also pointed to His birth (Is. 7:14), suffering, and death (Is. 53) for all peoples (Is. 49:6, 66:19). This is also the summary of the Good News, that Jesus the Messiah came, lived and died in our place, and the Apostles repeat this pointing back to Jesus (1 Cor. 15:1-8), just as the prophets pointed forward to His coming, and as Michael pointed out on Sunday, it continues to be preached until the end: Revelation 14:6 (NLT)
6 And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the eternal Good News to proclaim to the people who belong to this world—to every nation, tribe, language, and people.
Going back to the text in Matthew, Jesus specifically points to two OT references where Gentiles hear from God (v41) and seek Him out (v42), and believe, using them to push His rebuke of their Jews unbelief further. The Gentiles hear and believe from an unprivileged position, yet the Jews, from a privileged position not only don’t believe, but blaspheme what they see from Christ. To this, Jesus answers saying that something greater than Jonah and Solomon is here, and yet their adulterous hearts won’t believe. Remember back to our review of Chapter 12 a couple of weeks ago, where I pointed out that in this chapter Jesus is claiming He is the true Prophet, Priest and King.
So as we wrap up this week, even going into the Thanksgiving season, let’s not miss the reality of Christ and the Good News, but accept God’s mercy, and hear and believe just as the Ninevites did, being thankful for Christ’s victory over the grave.