The Sign of Jonah

Luke 11:29-32

• The corrupted influence of the Pharisees is yet again on display
  • They have heard of Jesus’ Signs and Miracles
  • Seen some for themselves
  • Have heard his teachings
  • And found no fault in them
  • His teachings heighten the meaning of holiness
  • He demands everyone to have a close and personal relationship with God
  • And calls God Abba.
• Yet they want a personalised sign so that they may believe, they say
  • Here we can safely apply the responses of Mary and Zechariah to the Angel Gabriel’s message to them
    • One was encouraged,
    • The other made mute
  • This was so because
    • One believed and trusted, and wanted to understand the process
    • The other disbelieved because he limited God to what God could do and not do
  • How can He and his wife old and baren bear children he thought
• The Pharisees are asking for a sign
  • Possibly to trap him
  • Or just satisfy their curiosity
• But Christ discourages this attitude of theirs
  • He asks them to raise the bar of their faith
  • The only sign they would have
  • Will be his Death and Resurrection
  • Something which prefigured in Jonah
  • And they who claimed to know scripture
  • And understand it
  • Will now have to see and believe.