The sign of Jonah

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus talks about the sign of Jonah ... what is that exactly? Of course, it is impossible to separate in our minds the way in which Jonah's three days in the belly of the great fish prefigures our Lord's three days in the tomb. Is that what Jesus is speaking about here? He says 'The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and see, something greater than Jonah is here.'

The people of Ninevah had not seen, according to the text, Jonah's being spat out onto the shore. They seem to be responding solely to his words, telling them that in 40 days more that their city would be no more. Jesus himself says that 'they repented at the proclamation of Jonah.' And so they spend that 40 days in sackcloth and ashes, repenting, and God is merciful unto them.

But Jesus means more than simply proclamation. He says 'For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be to this generation.'  The Son of man will be a sign, future tense. He may not be as he speaks, but he will become one ... by his death, three days in the tomb, and resurection.

Jonah became a sign to the people of Ninevah, calling them to repentance;  and Jesus has beome a sign to this generation, calling us to repentance. We may not have the keen motivation of knowing that if we do not spend 40 days in sackcloth and ashes, sincerely repenting of our ways, that our entire civilisation and way of life will be destroyed. But we do have Jesus words telling us that if we do not respond to the sign that is he, the people of Ninevah will condemn us at the judgement. Condemn us for what: for our blindness, our refusal to see and respond to the sign? For our refusal to repent?

May this Lent be for us all a time when we cast off our spiritual blindness and joyfully respond, in penitence and faith, to the good news that is Jesus. Amen.