10 October 2016 - wondering about signs

[ Today's Readings ]

This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.

The sign is less important than the person who gives us the sign.

When the queen of the south came to see Solomon she did not do so because of this or that sign. She came to hear the wisdom which she understood him to have. The people of Nineveh did not repent because of signs Jonah did. They repented because of his preaching. Wisdom and preaching, then, can mean more than signs, depending on from whom they come. 

and there is something greater than Jonah here

Signs are things which are more tangential to the wisdom and message of a person. They validate, vindicate, and authenticate a message. But they are less important than the message itself. Even so, Jesus does give us a sign. He gives us the sign of Jonah. But unless we know him and his message we do not understand what this means. Someone was dead but now lives. But what does that actually mean for us? We don't understand the earth shattering ways in which this sign changes the world.

Therefore, brothers and sisters,
we are children not of the slave woman
but of the freeborn woman.

For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm
and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

In the death of Jesus we die to sin and self. In his resurrection we rise to new life in the Spirit.

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (see Romans 6:4).

Jesus does not give us a tangential sign. He gives us a sign that encapsulates his whole message. It is the least likely of all signs to be a mere distraction for us. Yet to understand it we must first come to Jesus to hear his preaching and receive his wisdom. We need to realize more fully just who Jesus is and why his life cannot be held by death. We need to let him tell us what it is meant to mean for us.

Who is like the LORD, our God,
who looks upon the heavens and the earth below? 
He raises up the lowly from the dust;
from the dunghill he lifts up the poor.