The Bible Binge: Sign, here! (Jonah 3)

Chad Richard Bresson

The Table of Los Fresnos

Sermons • Sermon • Submitted 6 months ago • Presented 6 months ago

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Everybody wants a sign

Everybody wants a sign. Earlier this year, a British reality TV star made headlines with a photo that was taken after he ran a marathon. People noticed that his abs looked like a face, and the face was supposed to be Jesus. Another lady earlier this year, claimed she saw the crucified Jesus in the pith of an orange. 20 years ago, a Florida woman sold a grilled cheese sandwich for $28,000 because that sandwich supposedly had the Virgin Mary on it. Everybody wants a sign. Earlier this year, a story made national headlines about the radical transformation of an Ohio inmate who picked up a Catholic devotional at the prison and felt someone breathe on his neck… he knew he had to become a Catholic and he says his life was changed.

We’re not going to get into the question of whether these signs are valid… although I’ve always found it interesting that people claim to see bearded faces are Jesus rather than other bearded famous men like Jim Morrison. But the question that is a valid one is the same question that Jesus entertains with the religious leaders of his day: why are we looking for signs at all?

Today we continue our Bible Binge series in the book of Jonah. Jonah is a prophet in Israel who is told to preach the message of salvation to Israel’s enemies and decides he’s not going to do it. And he ends up being thrown overboard in the Mediterranean Sea and swallowed by a Great Fish. He cries for help to God in the fish and God has the fish spit Jonah onto land. And as we read a few moments ago, Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches the message of repentance and salvation the second time around.

Jesus helps us interpret the book of Jonah

It seems pretty simple. Jonah preaches and Nineveh repents and places their faith in the Promise, the God of Israel who rescues and provides forgiveness. But there is a conversation that Jesus has with the religious leaders of his day that forces us to rethink the way we read the book of Jonah. Because the way we read the book of Jonah and the way Jesus is reading the book of Jonah is often two different things.

Here’s what Jesus says:

Luke 11:29–32 Jesus began saying, “This generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.”

And what was that sign?

Matthew 12:38–41 For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.

Jesus says that Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh. And that sign was that Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights. Jesus is reading the story of Jonah as a death and resurrection story. And that death and resurrection story was the catalyst for Nineveh listening to Jonah’s preaching, and their repentance and believing the Promise… the Promise resident in Jonah’s death and resurrection.

What does Jesus see that we need to see?

A Death and Resurrection in Jonah

We need to first see this in Jonah:

Jonah 1:15–17 The sailors picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

This is the death of Jonah. Whether or not he really died isn’t the point. The imagery here suggests that we’re supposed to see a death. And Jonah talks about being in the place of the dead when he is in the fish. Jonah dies. And then, we’re supposed to see this:

Jonah 2:10–3:3 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah got up and went to Nineveh.

Jonah dies. Jonah gets up. Jonah rises from the depths, from the place of the dead and goes to Nineveh. Jonah isn’t just rising from his hometown, like chapter 1. He’s not rising from his bed. He’s not even rising from some beach on the Mediterranean Coast. He’s rising from Sheol, the place of the dead. That’s the resurrection of Jonah. That resurrection then cannot be separated from his preaching in Nineveh. In fact, it is a critical piece of it. We’re told Nineveh is a three day walk and on day one, this is what happened:

Jonah 3:4–6 Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, “In forty days Nineveh will be demolished!” Then the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least. When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

That is some sermon. 5 words in the Hebrew. A 5 word sermon. My guess is that this is simply a summary of what Jonah said. The main point. But it’s still quite succinct. And the result is stunning. Nineveh believes God. The king takes a posture of repentance. From 5 words. Whether there was more to the sermon, what we’re supposed to see is that it didn’t take much. It took one day and five words. It wasn’t Jonah preaching for 20 and 30 years to people who wouldn’t listen, which is how Israel had been responding to Jonah. One day and five words.

But do not miss this… that 5 word sermon is being preached by a resurrected Jonah. We’re not told how they know, but what we do know is that the sign Nineveh is given to go along with his preaching is his death and resurrection.

We’ve all seen the guys wearing the sandwich boards… the signs “the end is near”. Some have depicted Jonah’s preaching this way. But this is not Jonah’s sign. Jonah was himself the sign. Resurrected Jonah is preaching 5 words in 1 day… preaching the Good News of God’s salvation in repentance and faith. Jonah, the resurrected one proclaims "In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished"… and God uses Jonah’s resurrection to produce faith in the Ninevites.

God is Gracious and Compassionate

And the death and resurrection point to the God of Israel who wants all people to be saved… it is why that grand statement from Exodus is here in Jonah… Jonah says this is behind Nineveh’s belief:

Jonah 4:2 “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster.”

Jonah knew this… it’s why he didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place. And now Nineveh knows… Nineveh knows that God is a gracious God, compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. And how do they know this? Yes, from Jonah’s preaching, but even more so is this: God loved them so much that he raised Jonah from the dead just so they would hear that message. God’s grace in raising Jonah from the bottom of the Mediterranean isn’t just grace for Jonah… it’s grace for Nineveh. And in that resurrection, Nineveh finds the life-giving God who forgives sins and gives salvation, even to Israel’s enemy.

The power of Jonah's proclamation of judgment and salvation to Nineveh is found in his death and resurrection. Shortly before the fish spits Jonah onto the beach, Jonah confesses that salvation belongs to the Lord. And that salvation is expressed and embodied in the sign of Jonah’s resurrection. That sign for the Ninevites is life-giving and life-transforming. The sign is one of hope. If the God who made heaven and earth has done this for the Hebrew Jonah, he can do this for Israel’s enemies. Jonah, the resurrected one, journeys one day into the city bringing the life and love and grace and mercy and compassion from The One who raised him. Faced with destruction, those beastly Ninevites who don't know their right hand from their left embrace the gospel.

Stop looking for a sign. Except one.

That’s the story of Jonah that the crowd in Jesus day was missing. They are looking for signs in order to know what God’s will is for them… just like the Old Testament Israelites were always looking for a sign.

Matthew 12:38–39 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

Jesus says the generation, including the religious leaders, the pastors of Israel’s day, are evil and adulterous in looking for the signs. Jesus says, “stop looking for a sign”. And why is that? Jesus tells them, you only need one sign:

Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.”

The only sign they need… is the death and resurrection of another Jonah, one greater than Jonah, Jesus says. Someone greater than Jonah was right in front of their face. Rather than repent at the one greater than Jonah, the Divine Sign given from heaven, Israel would rather die. Given a last opportunity to repent, Israel unequivocally seals her own doom at Jesus’ crucifixion, shouting, "his blood be on us and our children."

And Jesus says, the pagan and brutal Ninevites are witness against anyone not placing their faith in the One Greater than Jonah. They were so ignorant about God and right and wrong, Jonah says, they didn’t know their right hand from their left. But in Jesus’ day, those who do know their right hand from their left, refuse to place their faith and hope in the Sign of Jonah, the New Jonah...the All-gracious, All-merciful Jesus who is slow to anger, and abounding in compassionate love.

The New Jonah

But just like Nineveh, what is most unexpected is that the New Jonah is embraced by those who do not know their right hand from their left. The sinners. The outcasts. The broken. The hurt. The suffering. They do embrace the Sign of the New Jonah, the death and resurrection of Jesus. For that crowd that day, the tables are turned on Israel… again. Gentile dogs, even those who are Roman oppressors, such as centurions, and soldiers, and political officials, not only recognize the Sign of Jonah for who He is, but place their full confidence in and find their satisfaction in the Resurrected One who is greater than Jonah.

And what of us? Nineveh's repentance in light of the spectacle of Jonah's death and resurrection, then, anticipates the repentance and faith of Gentiles in light of the grand drama of Christ's death and resurrection. Jesus, the One Greater than Jonah, has become a Sign for all people groups.

Oh, don't you see? We like Israel and Nineveh are covenant breakers. We don't know our right hand from the left. We are in rebellion. We live in the "way of evil" and "violence is in our hands". We rebuff and ignore God's grace, oblivious to the doom that awaits us. Our eventual lot is destruction. But into our city of rebellion comes walking a Sign. A once dead, now resurrected Sign. This is the only sign we need.

And I think this is where Jesus’ comments about looking for a sign are helpful. In a culture and society that still thinks it’s needs external signs in order to know God’s will, we have the only sign we need. Ever. The sign of the Resurrected Jonah. The idea that we need some sort of sign in order to help us with some kind of big decision in our lives… Jesus is saying there’s only one sign you will ever need. If we need a sign in order to help us with a decision we are facing, that’s a sign (ha!) that we are most likely thinking about the decision in ways that aren’t healthy to begin with. The need for a sign, the quest for a sign stems from unbelief… not believing God’s promise that he has already given us everything we need for wisdom and godliness.

But the only sign we will ever need in order to be right with God, and in order to know whether God is good on his promises, is the One and Only Sign he has given us and that is Jesus. The Resurrected Jesus, the New Jonah. The Resurrected Jonah who was cast into the bottom of the sea and rose to new life on our behalf comes walking into our lives of godlessness, proclaiming a gospel of hope and bringing life to those who least deserve it. Instead of fire and brimstone and the curses of the covenant, this Resurrected sign gives us grace; we get mercy; we get God's steadfast love. We get all the blessings in Jesus that we don't deserve.

Let this be our proclamation of The Good News for those who still haven’t heard… others who don’t know their right hand from the left. The One greater than Jonah has come. He is here. He lived, he died, he rose, he's exalted to bring life to those who do not deserve it. You want a sign? Here’s your Sign: The Sign who spent three days and three nights in the belly of the earth gives forgiveness, salvation, and life to those who do not know their right hand from their left, the hurt, the broken, the outcasts. Those who embrace that Sign in repentance and faith confess with Nineveh that "Salvation belongs to the Lord" because "God in Christ is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting in disaster." He relents with the disaster because that disaster landed on Jesus at the cross… FOR YOU. So, together with Nineveh we celebrate forever our Sign of Jonah who walked into our doomed city to give us salvation and life.

Let’s Pray

The Table

This is your sign. You need a sign from God. The only sign you will ever need is right here, right now. It’s the only sign Jesus promises to give us. The resurrected Jesus, giving us life, salvation, and forgiveness at this Table is our sign, the sign of Jonah who loves us, and is always compassionate for us at this Table, in his body and in his blood.

Benediction

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