Sunday, Oct. 13
Matthew 12:22 – 13:52 Read it here
Jesus continues teachings that make it clear the kingdom of God is about more than just a little bit of sprucing up. Repentance requires reversal, not a minor course correction.
After the miracles of Jesus become known, more people want to see those signs.
Just like us, people in the day of Jesus craved spectacle. They wanted to be amazed.
In 12:38, some Pharisees and teachers challenge Jesus to perform a miracle.
He responds with, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
We haven’t yet gotten to Jonah in our Bible readings, but it’s a familiar story. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh to proclaim God’s word. But Jonah doesn’t like the people of Nineveh and doesn’t really want them to have the opportunity to repent, so he heads off in the other direction. After a storm and a shipwreck, Jonah ends up being swallowed by a giant fish and spit out in, of all places, Nineveh.
When I was younger, I always wondered why Jesus referred to Jonah here. His story is kind of complicated. Why not talk about the sign of the sea being parted, or the world being flooded, or the people being freed from Egypt?
Jonah’s story, though, specifically gets to the challenge Jesus is presenting to the religious leaders of his day. God wants his message spread to the whole world—even the parts of the world his people don’t like very much.
If the Pharisees and the teachers of the law won’t spread God’s word, God has a history of getting pretty creative in making sure it gets spread one way or another. If a fish can accomplish his purpose, so can a rogue preacher and his motley band of disciples.
God wants the kind of all-in repentance that happened in Nineveh once the people were able to hear God’s truth. He’ll find a way to make that happen.