This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
It was not as though there was a lack of signs for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. But those whom Jesus addressed wanted something above and beyond the healings and exorcisms Jesus had already performed. They wanted to set the terms and make the demands that Jesus would then fulfill, to require something direct and incontrovertible. They wanted to tame the dangerous dynamism of the spreading Kingdom by setting the criteria for whether or not it should be accepted, setting themselves up to judge it, rather than to be judged by it. Perhaps some of this stemmed from jealousy that some had received miracles but others had not. We can easily imagine the ego of those who did not receive miracles saying that such a Kingdom was simply unacceptable.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
Jonah went to the Ninevites to proclaim that they were not going to be able to retain the role of arbiters of judgment themselves, but that the judgment of God was instead coming upon them. Rather than trying to find a loophole by which they could condemn the prophet and retain their imagined sense of control they instead took his words to heart and repented at his preaching.
she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
The crowd was called to set aside their jealousy, to surrender their desire to be in control, and to recognize the wisdom found in Jesus, who was himself far greater than Jonah or Solomon. The crowd had become ensnared in the wisdom of men, stemming from a desire to remain in control of their own lives, and giving rise to jealousy. But this false wisdom was preventing them from discovering a divine wisdom that directly contradicted it. They weren't meant to be in control, and usurping that control from God was the chief source of suffering in the world. It was not easy to surrender, to let God be God, and to accept the wisdom he revealed in Jesus Christ. To do so was already a sort of death to self. But oh, for those who found the grace to do so, how great was the gain.
For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (see First Corinthians 1:22-24).
It would be nice if this was only a condemnation that applied to them, as if only that generation was an evil one, if we could pat ourselves on the back and feel affirmed that what was true of them was not true of us as well. But we ought to recognize the all too apparent reality that we too try to find ways to remain in control, as we imagine, in our relationship with God. And this control is doing us little good except preventing Jesus from doing all he wants to do in us and through us. We are called as Christians to learn to surrender the throne of our lives to him, to take whatever steps we need, even radical ones, to ensure that he alone will sit upon it.
Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep,
shall taste anything;
they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
Making God the center of our lives does not necessarily guarantee us the signs and miracles we desire. What it does instead is to enable us to trust him completely to give us what will be for our good, whether it is those signs or something else. It can't be a sort of religious reverse psychology to get what we want. It must be genuine surrender. This is not something that is easy or natural for our natures. Rather it comes to us only as a free gift that is on offer to us in the person of Jesus himself, in the encounter with him that is always available to us. Let us seek this encounter with our whole hearts.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
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