Here's Our Sign; Matthew 16-18

May the mumbling commence!

Sometimes, I wish for a plain sign before that will show me the way the God wants me to go.  I look for something obvious.  But, in the search for something obvious, I miss the small signs for the next steps.  I miss the small voice of the Spirit of God.

When the people of his day confronted him about a sign, Jesus denied them a sign.  Read from Matthew chapter sixteen:

Once the Pharisees and the Sadducees arrived together to test him, and asked him to give them a sign from Heaven. But he replied, "When the evening comes you say, 'Ah, fine weather – the sky is red.' In the morning you say, 'There will be a storm today, the sky is red and threatening.' Yes, you know how to interpret the look of the sky but you have no idea how to interpret the signs of the times! A wicked and unfaithful age insists on a sign; and it will not be given any sign at all but that of the prophet Jonah." And he turned on his heel and left them. (Verses 1-4)

Only one sign would Jesus give them.  That sign was the sign of Jonah.  Other gospel accounts of this interchange add something like this: just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights so will the Son of Man will be in the earth for three days and three nights.  Both Jonah and Jesus would be brought back from the dead – Jonah because of disobedience and Jesus because of perfect obedience.

This sign of the three days is obvious.  But I think there is another part to this sign that we miss when we focus only on the surface.  What was Jonah’s sign to the people of Nineveh?  How did Jonah preach to the enemies of Israel?  Read from Jonah chapter three:

On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned." 

The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. (Verses 4-5 NIV)

Jonah’s preaching to the Ninevites was combative.  Jonah simply proclaimed what his greatest desire for Nineveh was – to be overturned and destroyed.  He preached nothing more, nothing less.

How would you and I respond to such a frontal attack from a people that we have dominated for so long?  How would you and I respond to one lone voice?  It would be much like the equivalent of the person who walks the sidewalks carrying the sign that reads, “The End Is Near.” 

I would expect little response.  I would be unlikely to respond myself.  It is a little insignificant whispering to our ears.

But sometimes it is the voice of the living God.  The Ninevites recognized that voice and repented, one and all – from their livestock to the lowliest person to the king.  That recognition and response is worthy of repetition.

Yes, the sign of Jonah for Christ included the obvious allusion to the three days and nights.  But there is something else operating here.  Jesus was calling them to recognize the still whisper of God through his actions and interactions with them.

May we notice the obvious in our lives – God’s Spirit moving among us.  May we also notice the small and still whispers.  May we recognize God’s Word spoken to us – even if it is spoken in a combative way.

May we see the sign of Jonah in Jesus in all its fullness.  May we see the sign of Jonah in Jesus’ confrontation with all the things in our lives that compromise our sinful and fallen nature.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out