Repentance Humility and Resurrection

38Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

39Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

41The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.  (Matthew 12:38-41)

Thoughts:  This is one of the classic passages about the resurrection.  Jesus is predicting his own resurrection and sees Jonah's story as a type or symbol of his own resurrection . There are three recurrent themes with both Jonah and Jesus- repentance, humility, and resurrection.  In our coronavirus time, we would do well to see these three go together.       
      Jonah was a prophet who was sent to Ninevah.  Ninevah was the capital of the strongest empire in the world- the super power of that time.  Jonah refused to listen to God's hard call and headed off to the Spanish Riviera (Tarshish).  The Lord sent a fish to save Jonah and to deliver him on the shore near Ninevah.  The men of Ninevah repented- probably at the sight of someone bleached by digestive juices and emboldened by his salvation.
    Jesus was preaching to a wicked generation.  Some were given into rampant paganism; some were given into Herod's greed for lust and power.  The religious leaders were into formalism and not the power of the Spirit or to the love of God.  The greatest sign of injustice in Jesus' day was his own arrest and crucifixion when He was innocent. 

     When we stray away from love, God calls us back.  Jesus was hoping that the people would repent once he was raised from the dead- but they did not.  Within a generation later, the nation was in exile for almost 2000 years.  Jesus along with John the Baptist preached that the kingdom was at hand and that all needed to get right with God (repent).
       The promise of Jonah and the promise of Jesus is that when we repent there can be a resurrection.  God is in the resurrection business.  He lifts us up- but we must come to Him to be raised up.  God can restore us too- but He wants us to come to Him. 

Prayer: Lord, raise me up to you.  Draw me closer to you.  Lead our leaders, heal our land. 

(Ninevah repents)