Matthew 12:38-42

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Introduction

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The Sign of Jonah

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

As we near the end of chapter 12 Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees continues. We get the impression that verse 38 simply picks up where they left off. In fact, Matthew seems to indicate that both the scribes and the Pharisees are responding to Jesus’ previous statements. He tells us, “then some of the scribes and Pharisee answered him.” These verses are a part of a series of disputes between Jesus and the Pharisees that we’ve witnessed together over these past few weeks.
It began with an accusation against Jesus’ disciples that they had broken the Sabbath law by plucking heads of grain to eat, and climaxing with the Pharisee’s accusation that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul. And throughout, Jesus has exposed the contradictions of their arguments and the wickedness of their hearts, at one point, even labeling them a brood of vipers and asking them, “How can you speak good, when you are evil.” Yet the Pharisees continue to challenge him by saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

Asking for a sign

Yet the Pharisees continue to challenge him by saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
Now, at first glance, this may not see like too much to ask. In fact, some of you here today may be asking that very question. And in one sense it would have been good and right to expect the Messiah to be accompanied by authenticating signs and wonders, by miracles that would validate his identity and his message. For this idea certainly isn’t foreign to the OT scriptures. Moses’ authority was validated time and time again by signs and wonders, it was made abundantly clear that Elijah was a true prophet when he called down fire from heaven, the Lord even offered Ahaz, the king of Judah, a sign to authenticate Isaiah’s prophecies.
Therefore, in one sense, it certainly wouldn’t be unwarranted for Jesus’ contemporaries to expect signs and wonders to accompany the Messiah. However, it wasn’t with a heart of faith that the Pharisees were asking this of Jesus. And they weren’t asking for a sign for a lack of signs, they were asking for a sign to put Jesus to the test. In fact, in chapter 16, we’ll see a repeat of this very same situation with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, where Matthew tells us that they came to test him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
They ask as if they hadn’t already witnessed the countless signs and wonders performed at the hands of Jesus. You see, they weren’t interested in looking for the Messiah, they were only interested in controlling Jesus, to them Jesus was a threat to their religious system and it didn’t matter what he did or said, the threat had to be controlled or eliminated.
The signs that accompanied Jesus and his ministry were certainly intended to give validity to his messianic role, and to cause the people of Israel to listen to him. In fact, it was for this same reason in Exodus chapter 4 that God gave Moses signs to perform before the Hebrew slaves, that they might believe him and follow him out of Egypt. However, the Pharisees are more like Pharoah, the greater the signs and wonders the harder their hearts become.

Hardened Hearts

Their problem isn’t that there’s not enough evidence, it’s that they don’t want to believe. In other words, there will never be enough evidence for them, because they have hardened their hearts toward God. And it’s the same for you and I, it isn’t that there’s not enough evidence for God’s existence, or for Jesus as God’s only begotten Son. The reason for the unbelief in our hearts is simply an unwillingness to dethrone ourselves. We want to make the rules, we want to call the shots, we want to go our own way, we don’t want to be told how to live our lives.

Demanding a sign

This is why Jesus answers them there in verse 39 with such severity and says,
Listen to the Apostle Paul’s words at the beginning of his letter to the church in Rome, he says,

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

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“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign,

But we’re commanded to hear and see
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But we’re commanded to hear and see
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He’s very well aware of why they’re seeking a sign from him. Some scholars even translate this phrase, “It is a wicked and adulterous generation which demands a sign.” The original language seems to indicate that Jesus fully understood the demanding nature of their request, as if Jesus must accept their demand or else.
They did not seek a sign in order that they might believe, rather they intended to put Jesus to the test in order that they might control him. But Jesus is not standing by to perform at their beck and call. And as God’s creatures it is a an evil thing for us to demand that He prove Himself to us. To do such a thing would to behave like the devil himself in the wilderness when he said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the Temple that God will bear you up.” God does not serve us, rather we serve him.

The sign of the prophet Jonah

Jesus goes on there in verse 39,

but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

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Jesus gives them a less than satisfying response. He will not subject himself to their arrogant demands, therefore the only sign that he will give them is one yet to be performed. And no doubt his language here would have been cryptic and even frustrating to understand for those who would have heard him.
Jesus compares himself to Jonah
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But as you’ll recall the prophet Jonah was thrown overboard while at sea and was held in the belly of a great fish. Jonah described his experience as being in the belly of Sheol, or the belly of death itself, and so Jesus draws a parallel between Jonah’s experience with his own future experience, that he too will be subjected to death for three days before being risen from the dead. Therefore, the only sign Jesus will give them is his own future death and resurrection.

Matthew intends that we believe

And just as Jonah was thrown overboard for the redemption of his fellow sailors, so too was Jesus put into the grave for our redemption. And just as God saved Jonah through the great fish, God raised Jesus from the dead. And there’s no doubt that Matthew fully intended for his Jewish audience to read this very passage of his Gospel account, and see this sign of Jonah in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Matthew intends that his reader would read and believe, that those who would read his Gospel would not harden their hearts in rebellion but would read this book and believe.
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Something greater than Jonah

No doubt though, Matthew fully intended for his Jewish audience to read this passage of Scripture and see this sign of Jonah in light of Jesus’ recent death and resurrection.
Jesus goes on there in verse 41,

41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

When the prophet Jonah had been rescued by the great fish he went to the great city of Nineveh and called them to repentance, and when he did so they repented. Nineveh was a pagan Gentile city, an enemy of Israel, yet when Jonah preached repentance they repented in sackcloth and ashes. Therefore, Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees that if they do not likewise repent that the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgement and condemn them, because something greater than Jonah has come. Jesus, again, exposes the hard heartedness of the scribes and Pharisees by comparing their unwillingness to repent to Nineveh’s willingness to repent, despite that a prophet greater than Jonah had come.

Something greater than Solomon

And Jesus doesn’t stop there, he says in verse 42,
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42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

In 1 Kings chapter 10, we read of a time when David’s son, Solomon reigned as king over Israel. God had blessed Solomon with wisdom that surpassed all. The books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon are all attributed to his authorship. His wisdom was known so far and wide that even the Queen of Sheba (modern day Yemen) had heard of his wisdom. It’s recorded that the greatness of his wisdom was so vast that it caused her to travel more than 1,500 miles to see him for herself (at least 1-2 months travel by foot).
We read in 1 Kings 10,
“Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. … And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all of the wisdom of Solomon … she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.”
The Queen of Sheba was willing to make a long and difficult journey to hear the words or Solomon while the scribes and Pharisees demanded that Jesus to give them a sign. Again, Jesus contrasts the unwillingness of the scribes and Pharisees to hear and believe his words to the willingness of a pagan queen to hear and believe the words of Solomon, despite that a king greater than Solomon had come.
Therefore, this queen of the South will one day rise up at the judgement and bear witness against them and condemn them, for they will have no excuse. In fact, they will incur a greater judgement for rejecting the greater light. And so it will be for us who hear this message of the Gospel, this message of good news, and reject it. However, if we embrace him in faith, forsaking our own sinful and rebellious ways to follow him we will be saved.

Closing

Listen to the Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 2,

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him,

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

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32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

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36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

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37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

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Prayer

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