Luke 11:29-32 The Sign of Jonah
While still more people gathered in the crowd, he said to them, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah." Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.
In this passage, Jesus speaks of Jonah, the Old Testament prophet who moaned over the task given to him by God to the point where his traveling companions tried to do him in – sacrificing his life so that they might be saved. He was swallowed by a whale and then regurgitated three days later. Obviously, Jesus is familiar with this dramatic story. I wonder if the crowds following him know what he was speaking of. What was the task Jonah despaired of? I looked it up and found that he despaired of being taken seriously by the Ninevites when he preached the need of repentance to them. He didn’t want to do it and ran away. Ultimately after surviving the run in with the whale, he came around to preach God’s intended message even though he thought it useless. For those in Jesus’ audience who needed more information, he spells it out, “This is an evil age.” That is plain speaking indeed. Not only is it evil, but it sees no urgent need to change its ways. “It seeks a sign.” So a miracle or some other type of shocking event might be enough to jar them out of their complacency. What if God or Jesus had complied and performed a miracle? Would our world be any different today? I hate to sound cynical, but I don’t think so. Our culture bombards us with messages that we need and deserve things that we really don’t need or deserve, and since the consequences of these actions are often far off, (debt, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.) we cannot marshall the will power to deny ourselves. What’s my point, you ask? Around our country and the world poverty, injustice, environmental degradation, war, etc. abound. Lack of food, clean water, medical care, fair wages are the norm for many while power and wealth rest in the hands of the few. Jesus message of the need to reform, of living a life of humility, of service to others, of love for God and neighbor, is easily lost in the noise. Apparently, Jesus’s words, his example are all we are going to get. Gulp.
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2 comments:
I love Jonah--God's most reluctant and human prophet. Ninevah was the greatest city of the ancient Near East. The task he was given was something like one of us being told to preach to Manhattan. I'd have opted for taking my chances with the ocean.
What do you think the "queen of the south" means?
Hmmm. I know what you mean . . . is she a real person or a symbol? According to wikipedia, the queen of the south Jesus refers to is sometimes also known as the "queen of Sheba" and may have been a real person. A woman who ruled men in her own right back in those days must have been quite a woman. That she was trying to learn from Solomon who was known for his wisdom also speaks well of her. I am guessing that as a woman of power who survived and thrived in those days, she learned to judge the intentions and the actions of men accurately -it was probably a skill necessary to her survival. Perhaps Jesus is saying that with that same incisive and no nonsense intelligence, she would see through and not hesitate to judge men of her or any other age.
She sounds like quite a woman.
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