This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
We think we want a sign, but often this is simply a stalling tactic. Jesus represents a call to change and to repentance for those who hear him. The demand for a sign by the crowd in today's Gospel reading was disingenuous. Our motives are often similar, acting as though we don't have sufficient grounds to trust in Jesus already. We imagine that, if he would just do this one more sign, we would go the rest of the way he is asking us to go. Signs can testify. Signs can open hearts. But our faith rests on Jesus himself, not on any specific sign. For us, faith comes from what is heard (see Romans 10:17).
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.
What if the crowds had already heard enough to believe? After all, it was the Word of God himself who spoke. Greater than the wisdom of Solomon was he who was himself divine Wisdom in the flesh (see First Corinthians 1:24).
Signs and wonders do have a place in the Christian community (see Second Corinthians 12:12). But apart from Jesus being made known there is no way for these to lead to faith. Even the greatest of healings points toward the even greater importance of opening of hearts to the Lord.
When we have already received the revelation of Jesus, given by the Father (see Matthew 16:17), we don't actually need to insist on signs. We have been given sufficient grounds of confidence and hope.
Yet Jesus does give the world the sign of his death and resurrection. This is no ordinary sign. It is not something that he simply does for others, himself more or less unaffected. It is a sign in which himself is revealed as accepted and beloved of the Father. This sign alone can never be a distraction, or something we use to delay our discipleship. The world tried to silence the one we have heard, the one greater than Jonah and Solomon, but he was a Word that could not be silenced. The Father raised him from the dead. When we are tempted to silence the Word speaking in our lives we can looking to his Passion to hear him afresh.
Rather than turning and looking for secondary and tertiary signs when we struggle let us instead recall the freedom we have already been given, the freedom that comes only from the cross of Christ, and stand and act on that basis, as those who have received the living water of mercy, the Holy Spirit of God, for where that Spirit is poured forth there is freedom (see Second Corinthians 3:17)
For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm
and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
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