THE SIGN OF JONAH

Matthew 12: 38-45

The Reformer's Fire
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Exposition by Max A Forsythe

Earlier, you may have been a bit surprised to hear the story of Jonah on this 1970th anniversary of the first "easter" morning. Of course you may quibble with my calculation of the year, but I am within four to seven years of the actual event. And in-so-far as the modern Jewish calendar is comprehensible, today is as close as we are going to get to the actual anniversary of the most important date in all of human history. Little wonder that for most of the last two millennia all of our calendar dates have been centered on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Providentially, our Lord came into history with a single providential purpose in the mind of His Father in heaven. And that purpose is celebrated today in the reality of His resurrection from the dead. Yes, His atoning death is essential to our salvation, but His resurrection is the seal of God's victory over death and a sign that God indeed means to transform all believers into glory at the last day.

The worldly today don't much care for the facts of the gospel reports. In fact even if we are able to present the careful research of Dr Luke and the honest, earnest reports of the gospel writers and the five hundred witnesses to the resurrection, the worldly like the Jewish leaders of Christ's time would not comprehend. The worldly always want something more. In our gospel passage today, Jesus was asked by the leaders of the Jews to perform a miraculous sign. Instead of gratifying their desires he promises them only the sign of Jonah as one that prefigures His own destiny. He describes what this sign will be. He reveals that He will have to undergo an experience like that of Jonah. He himself will have to spend three days in a tomb. And yet, there is something more. Now, one greater than Jonah has come!

I am certain that the Jews who heard his answer were perplexed. Much as many in the world today would be confused! What does Jesus mean? A couple of chapters later, once again Jesus is asked for a sign. And again Jesus refers them back to Jonah. Later in the same chapter Jesus explains to his disciples just what must happen. In Matthew 16: 21 we read: "From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." Here we see a little more. Like Jonah and the Fish, there is going to be an unexpected miracle! Just as Jonah was delivered from certain death, so too will Jesus be delivered alive from a certain grave.

Of course, Jonah's was not the only example. John reports another comparison in 2: 19-21 .".. Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. The Jews replied, It has taken forty- six years to build this temple and you are going to raise it in three days? But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken."

The Germans have a little proverb that I learned in college: "Nacher is jeder klug!" In our language it means: "Afterwards, everyone is smart." John reports that it is only after Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection that His disciples remembered what Jesus had foretold. This was not the reaction that Matthew reported when the disciples were first told what had to happen before Jesus could be raised up on the third day. In Matthew Sixteen, Peter had taken Jesus aside and argued against such a course! Peter was strongly rebuked and all of the disciples challenged. It is not for Peter or any of the Lord's followers to mind the Lord's business! They are to follow, just as we are called to follow in our time. The disciples and Jews didn't understand this sign of Jonah before the coming event.

Very many of the commentators still do not understand the sign of Jonah even today. The unbelief of the worldly is expected as we see in several related passages which refer to the resurrection. Luke expands our view of Jonah's sign in his discourse about the rich man who had died and wanted to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers. Luke 16: 31 "[Abraham] said to him, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead". The Priests and Pharisees did not listen, even when they were given the sign of Jonah. In fact, these leaders went out of their way to keep that sign from even happening. Matthew reports that: Matthew 27: 62b-65 "the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. Sir, they said, we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, After three days I will rise again. So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise his disciple may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first. Take a guard, Pilate answered. Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how."

Mere humans attempted to stay the will of God. And how pathetic, only Jesus/ enemies appear concerned with the possibility of His resurrection! But, we should not be too harsh. We live in the afterwards of and the disciples had not our advantage. Yes, to the disciples and to Jesus too, in a human sense, Good Friday was a dark day. Our Lord Jesus Christ was sentenced early that Friday morning. About nine o'clock he was hung on the cross. he suffered for six hours and died about three in the afternoon. Since the Jewish Sabbath was to begin at six o'clock, the body was quickly taken down and buried in a borrowed tomb. All was said and done. If we were indeed there on that Friday long ago, to all appearances, the tale of the Christ would have ended. We, like the disciples, Mary and the others would have to wait for the sign of Jonah to be fulfilled. They would wait a long time, if the Sanhedrin's military watch had had its way! "Make the tomb as secure as you can", Pilate had said. So watch after watch, the countdown began, the world watched, even as the disciples grieved. Three days and three nights in the depths of the earth. The world still watches and questions.

Once I was asked in Seminary how Jesus could spend three days and three nights in the tomb between Good Friday and "easter" Sunday? A worldly person had questioned the sign of Jonah. An obvious flaw in the Scriptures was gleefully found. After all, my questioner pointed out, if Christ is really God and Scripture is really true, than all must be fulfilled exactly. The world is still hoping that the risen Christ can still be undercut by careful watching. After all, if popular authors can cast doubt through works of fiction and fable, the resurrection can be and regularly is ignored. Not only is the truth of the book of Jonah not accepted, neither is the Sign of Jonah. The actual resurrection is considered by many to be only mythically true and not historically true.

The world still seeks signs. Of course those of us who claim Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives realize that when He specified that He would be three days and three nights in the earth, he was saying plainly that death's claim on Him had a limit. His word was a promise that He would break the chains of death and rise in resurrection power on the third day. But more than just history is at stake here. Paul writes these words in his letter to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 15: 14 ... 22 "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. ... If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive".

If we are to have any hope of glory, any hope of salvation, it is in the fulfillment of the sign of Jonah. Three days and three nights in the tomb the sacred reports tells us, but the world still wonders. When I was confronted in Seminary about three full days, all I could mumble was Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But, the accuser pointed out that was only two nights. At that time, it was my faith that God's word was true and the known character of the accuser, that kept me safe from doubt. Since then, I have read of three possible answers to that unbeliever's question about Jonah's sign. But, you know, I would think, that like the Pharisees and leaders of Jesus' own time, none of these would have been sufficient for my questioner.

I do hope that one of these answers will be sufficient for you. You see, the fulfillment of Jonah's sign is documented outside of the promise of God's Word. Much information has been lost to the Church of the exact chronology of the first Holy Week. To really appreciate the sign of Jonah, you must believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that His word is sufficient. There are three possibilities for the actual fulfillment of that sign.

First, some commentators and the Church at large interpret the Jewish idiom of the first century to allow a portion of a day to represent a whole day. Thus, my response in Seminary of Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the usual understanding.

Second, some commentators sense that in the jumble of "easter" week chronology, the crucifixion may have actually occurred on Thursday, thus fulfilling exactly the three days and three nights in the tomb.

Third, there is significant evidence that the Jewish calendar may have inserted a leap year day at Passover time. By this explanation, there would then be two Sabbaths in that first Holy Week. 26 AD, would thus be the most likely year for these events to have happened literally as Matthew points out in 28:1: "After the Sabbaths, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb". Yes, you heard correctly, in the original Greek there is a plural for Sabbaths. For my mind, this is how the sign of Jonah was exactly fulfilled.

As Paul pointed out in his letter to the Corinthians, if there is to be any hope of glory, any hope of salvation, it is in the fulfillment resurrection. Let there be no doubts amongst you. At least you don't have to wait three days to know how things are going to work out. Unlike the disciples and followers, we live in the afterwards. We can know, that Yes, He arose, because we have seen two thousand years of witness to that fact. And we also can know that the whole purpose of his death and resurrection was for our salvation. Like Jonah, who was caught in the belly of the fish, we can also find salvation in and through Jesus Christ our Lord and our God. May that salvation be ours today and always.

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