This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
They were a generation like the one which Moses was called to lead through the desert to the promised land. God provided for and protected them but they were never satisfied and always wanted more. The generation in the time of Jesus had similarly been given an abundance in terms of signs and miracles. But they refused to be satisfied. The solution, then, was not going to be found in giving them what they thought they wanted, that being more signs, but in helping them to understand what that of which they truly stood in need.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
In many ways, what the people in the time of Jesus was the same thing the Ninevites needed in the time of Jonah. They needed to recognize that there was a prophet in their midst and to repent. Unlike Jesus, Jonah had made a long journey against his will to a people whom he did not love in order to proclaim a message he did not want them to hear. Jesus, metaphorically, might have been said to come from even further away. But he came to and was rejected by his own people (see John 1:11). He longed to gather them all like a hen gathers her brood, but they refused him (see Matthew 23:37). He was not a hired hand, but the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep (see John 10:10-12). He was God with whom the world was at enmity, but who even then them so much that he would die to save them (see Romans 5:8-10). If anyone could repent at the coldhearted preaching of Jonah surely people would repent it the fiery love in the message of the ultimate prophet, Jesus Christ. Or perhaps not. They had been given more than enough. But whether they would receive it or not was up to them.
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 queen of the south was another foreigner, like the Ninevites, who was able to recognize the truth when she became aware of it. Solomon was filled by God with wisdom and she in turn came "from the ends of the earth to hear" it. Why did foreigners always seem to have an advantage over the Israelites when it came to hearing and obeying the word of God when it came to them? Was it not because it was too easy for the Israelites to take the word of God for granted since they already had it in some measure and were accustomed to hearing it? No doubt this was part of it. No doubt too it explained why the early church found more success with Gentiles than from the tribes of Israel.
there is something greater than Solomon here.
there is something greater than Jonah here.
Is it cause for us, most of whom are Gentiles, to rest on our laurels? Absolutely not. In fact we should consider that we are actually at the same risk as the Israelites in ancient times. We have a lot more familiarity with our religion than we demonstrated ability to respond. We are, as has been said, educated well beyond our obedience. We are called, as were the people to whom Jesus spoke, to take another look, as if from the outside, in attempt to see him for the first time. This must be why the stories of converts are so beneficial. They often convey something which it is all too easy for us to forget.
Jesus was a wiser king than Solomon. As a prophet he spoke God's word with greater clarity than did Jonah or any prophet. Will we respond to him? Or will we instead grow comfortable and complacent, which will inevitably lead, as with peoples in the past, to dissatisfaction and complaint? Let's step back and see Jesus again with fresh eyes so that we will be compelled to hear, to learn, and to obey.
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