(Audio)
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,"
Jesus is greater than Jonah. Yet ironically, his preaching seems to have less effect. Nineveh repents when Jonah preaches. But only it is a minority who fully embrace the teaches of Jesus. He speaks with wisdom greater than that of Solomon, but more people are interested in arguing with him than in learning from him. Given the greatness of Jesus, why is he so apparently easy to miss?
One thing about the people of Nineveh and the queen of the south is that they are both foreigners. They do not have familiarity with the message of God sufficient to be contemptuous or complacent. The crowds in Jesus' day think they know him. They believe they understand who he is and where he is from. He seems to be just one from among them. And so Jesus, in his love, tries to upset these preconceptions.
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
and there is something greater than Jonah here.
As to what, precisely is here, Jesus leaves us to imagine. He is the ever greater, more than we can fully grasp or imagine. And this is the other part of the reason why he is easy to miss. We prefer safe things which can be neatly categorized and held to certain expectations. Jesus, however, is not like them.
These risks about misunderstanding the identity of Jesus face us as well. He is always greater than the ideas and expectations our past experiences of him have shaped. We can become complacent. We can argue when he goes against our expectations. We can dismiss him when we don't understand what he is doing. Or hopefully, by grace we can come to him sincerely, allowing him to be who he is, demanding no conditions for our part.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me
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