This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
This generation sought a sign, but not sincerely. They asked for proof, but not in order to be persuaded. Rather, their requests for a sign proved to be more of an implicit denial. They did not really have the faith to believe that there could be sign. If there could, well, that would be entertaining and interesting for them. But they weren't asking out of a genuine desire to know the truth.
Jesus was certainly willing to work signs of healing where he found even a little faith. These signs were confirmations designed to bring that faith from a beginning stage to a more complete acceptance. But he never simply blasted signs at strangers. Neither did he force miracles on those who did not seek them. Much less, then, would signs be the language by which he would win arguments about those who were hostile to his message. Nevertheless, he was not planning to ignore or abandon the indifferent or the hostile. Rather, there would be one sign given. Only by recognizing that sign could their eyes be open to see the other signs which were already all around them, the healings and other miracles.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
The preaching of Jonah was unadorned. Yet it brought conversion even of foreigners. Jesus had a greater message than that of Jonah, and to it even tax collectors, sinners, and Gentiles were beginning to respond.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
The preaching of Jesus contained even greater wisdom than the wisdom of Solomon, for "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God" (see First Corinthians 1:24). In Jesus the very Word of God spoke. His was the very voice of truth. If that voice did not speak truly nothing else could possibly be true. To not recognize the truth in his words meant that truth would not be rightly recognized anywhere else.
There was something so much greater in Jesus than Jonah or Solomon, something in his very being, and in the words he spoke, that compelled the assent of faith. It was precisely free will that made the difference for those who heard. Would they receive the grace being offered, to listen, to obey, and to have brought about in them "the obedience of faith"?
At first many rejected this grace. Fortunately, Jesus recognized the hardness of their hearts and our own, the degree of their surpassing stubbornness and ours. He did not leave his preaching unvindicated. But rather, he allowed himself to have all opposition to true wisdom heaped upon him. He let those who did not believe try to destroy his message by taking his very life. But his was a life that could not be destroyed (see Acts 2:24) and at last his wisdom was vindicated.
[He was] established as Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
This resurrection allowed this who had previously believed lies to make an about face and embrace the truth. When death itself was reversed all that they thought they knew was turned on its head. This was the second aspect of the sign of Jonah, who was in the whale for three days. Much more so was the mission of Jesus vindicated by rising after sleeping in death for three days. The response to seeing such wisdom proven true in the face of human folly ought to be conversion. All that is necessary for our doubts to be overcome, for our own paradigms to be overturned, and for our own self-centered perspectives to be uprooted has been accomplished. It is ours now to receive this faith as a gift and to reorder our lives around it.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
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