What did Jesus say about Jonah?

The Sign. — And now, with the multitudes gathered together, the Lord dealt with the request already made for a sign. It is significant that such a request was made more than once (Matt. 12:38 16:1) by those opposed to Him. Signs in plenty (John 2:23) the Lord had given. His works were well known, and attested that the Father had sent Him (John 5:36). But persistent unbelievers would make God responsible for their sin, professing their inability to believe owing to the insufficiency of the evidence as yet provided. Now the people referred to by Luke, tempting the Lord, as we read, sought of Him a sign from heaven. But they knew not with whom they had to do. He whom they approached with their request read their hearts and searched them through and through. So He began to say, "This is an evil generation; they seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas. For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation" (Luke 11:29-30). Jonas was a sign to the Ninevites. His presence among them betokened impending judgment, to be averted only by their repentance. So was it with that generation. The Son of man was to that generation what Jonas had been to the people of Nineveh. Now, the Ninevites had repented. But the people in the Lord's day, as a people, had not. They were neither attracted to the Lord, the King of Israel, as the Queen of Sheba had been to Solomon; nor did they listen to the prophet of Deut. 18:15, as the Ninevites had hearkened to Jonas. So their case was a sad one. For "a queen of the south," the Lord declared, "shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here." "The men of Nineveh," too, He went on to say, "shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold a greater than Jonas is here" (Luke 11:30-32). Gentiles on a coming day will condemn by their conduct in the past that favoured generation, which saw and heard the Lord; but refused to be attracted by Him, or to be obedient to Him. And, solemn as it is, the judgment in that coming day they will find cannot be averted.

"But as the crowds thronged together, he began to say, This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign; and a sign shall not be given to it but the sign of Jonas." Instead of keeping the Word of God, they were seeking outward tokens. They wanted something visible to their senses, an object tangible in their midst, not only present but earthly and suited to the world. "But there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet." The allusion is to one who prophesied in Israel, but who was sent to the Gentiles — to the Ninevites.303 "For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, thus shall also the Son of man be to this generation." He, too, the rejected Messiah, would take the place of Son of man, despised and rejected of men. "Jonas": here AC and later uncials, most cursives, - etc., add "the prophet," which Edd. reject, following ℵBDL, Amiat., etc. (from Matthew).

Having graciously dealt with the interruption, the Lord turns to the challenge: ‘a sign from heaven’. They wanted to see a miracle, and it had to be an astounding one — something so outstanding that there would be no option but to recognise it as ‘from heaven’. The Lord knew that they said this ‘tempting him’ (v. 16). Again, how could one possibly respond ‘with grace’ and yet ‘seasoned with salt’? The Lord did: ‘This generation is a wicked generation: it seeks a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it’, said He, offering the right amount of salt. But then He continued, ‘but the sign of Jonas’ (v. 29). The sign of Jonas was not a sign from heaven but a sign from the deep, from the depth of the sea! Jonah in the fish’s belly pointed to Christ gone into death (Matt. 12:40). The sign they needed was not some sort of jaw-dropping miracle but a sign from the deep, the Son of man enduring death for the sins of others. Even in the face of such hardening and opposition the Lord presents Himself graciously as the one who had come to suffer for, and save, sinners.

After all the many miraculous signs of grace the Lord had shown (various healing on the sabbath days, for instance), the Pharisees ask for a sign from Him, ostensibly as witness to influence them to believe Him; but they have no heart whatever to believe. He responds that an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign. Their evil was that of malignant enmity, as already seen; as adulterous they were guilty of introducing a corrupting mixture into their professed service for God. He would therefore add no sign to that long ago given them in Jonah the prophet, the significance of which had a direct application to Himself. They had already plotted His death. He would accept their rejection of Himself. He would die and be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (the grave), just as Jonah spent such a time in the belly of the great fish. Jonah's release alive was a great miracle, but significant of a greater, that is, Christ's resurrection from among the dead. This surely was a sign of tremendous import, but we know the Pharisees still refused to believe Him.

The men of Nineveh, on the other hand, Gentiles though they were, would be a remarkable witness against Isreal's unbelieving treatment of the Lord Jesus, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; while here among them a far greater than Jonah was preaching as no other man had ever preached, and their hearts remained adamant and cold.

By their request, recorded in verse 38, the Pharisees revealed that they were morally blind and insensible as well as corrupt and evil. Ignoring, whether ignorantly or wilfully, all the signs that had been given, they asked for a sign. We noticed five signs in chapter 8 and five in chapter 9, besides those recorded in our chapter. Being evil and adulterous they could not perceive the plainest sign, so no sign should be given but the greatest of all — His own death and resurrection, which had been typified in the remarkable history of Jonah. The generation which was refusing the Lord had been in the presence of signs, more than all others before them. Jonah and his preaching had been a sign to the Ninevites, and at an earlier date Solomon and his wisdom had been a sign to the queen of the south, and striking results had been achieved. Yet Jesus was rejected.

The Lord reproved this dull fleshly mindedness in His following words. The people were crowded thick together (v.29), and He warned this evil generation, who instead of taking to heart the Word of God, desired a sign. One important sign, that of Jonah the prophet, would be given them. Matthew 12 speaks of Jonah being three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish as symbolical of the death and resurrection of Christ; a great sign indeed, yet ignored by Israel. Luke rather stresses Jonah as being a sign to the Ninevites, and in this case his preaching which produced repentance was foremost, and that among Gentiles. Just so, the emphasis here is on the Word of God, that which works in power to produce repentance and faith.

The men of Ninevah would bear similar witness to that of the Queen of Sheba, they also being Gentiles, but who had no interest in their relationship with God until awakened by the preaching of Jonah, which brought the city to repentance. Now here was a far greater than Jonah preaching the pure word of God to a corrupt nation that had every reason to be concerned about God's claims, but they would not repent, though they callously wanted a sign!

Then that in which the essence of its power and responsibility consists, not any human feelings or associations with the Lord, not signs nor miracles but the hearing, testimony, and power of the word, the preaching and wisdom of the Son of man. The point of this passage is to show the responsibility on the preaching of Christ. Jonas was a sign, as here instanced, not as in the whale's belly but as preaching without miracle to the Ninevites who, though unlettered heathens, repented. So the heathen Queen of Sheba was so desirous of wisdom she came, with no miracle or sign for witness, to Solomon for what she should hear, and a greater than Solomon was there. The first point is, who are blessed, and then the responsibility, and the reason of its rejection and darkness. It is an important passage; we may compare Hebrews 4 and 1 Corinthians 14.

The Lord now proceeded to speak of the insensibility that characterized the people of His day. They were asking for a sign as though no signs had been given to them. Only one sign remained for them, which He speaks of as "the sign of the prophet Jonas." Jonah preached to the Ninevites but he was also a sign to them, inasmuch as he appeared among them as one who had come up out of what looked like certain death. The Son of Man was about to go into actual death and come forth in resurrection, and that was the greatest of all signs: moreover He was displaying among them wisdom far greater than Solomon's and His preaching went far beyond that of Jonah. Why was it that the people were not moved?

(5) The end, then; had been reached morally. It was no use asking now for signs. An evil and adulterous generation could not be helped by signs. One they should have, the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah, three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, had been a sign to the Ninevites, and thus the preaching of a man; as it were risen from the dead, had brought that great city to repentance. Well, the Son of man would be really in the grave three days and nights, rejected and cast out, but at His preaching by His resurrection they, more hardened than Nineveh, would not repent. The Ninevites would rise up in the judgment to condemn them; so much the more as the Son of man was greater than Jonah. The queen of the south also, would rise up in the judgment against them, who came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and here was One how much greater!

The scene is now drawing to its close. The hard-heartedness of the Pharisees is seen by some of them coming after such words, saying, Teacher, we desire to see a sign from Thee. Whatever evil design they had in asking him thus we do not know. He had done sign upon sign and they had ample proofs of His divinity. Upon such an evil, unbelieving request He can only utter His righteous indignation. So He calls them a wicked and adulterous generation. "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it save the sign of Jonas the prophet. For, even as Jonas was in the great fish three days and three nights, thus shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Ninevites shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and behold more than Jonas is here" (verses 38-41). This is a most significant passage. How far the Pharisees believed the story of Jonas we do not know. The Sadducees no doubt rejected the book of Jonah, for they were the rationalists and critics of their day. It is significant for us in our day when the judgment to fall upon apostate Christendom is so near, nothing is more ridiculed than the book of Jonah and its sublime teachings. The Sadducees of the present day, the higher critics, assume to know more than the Lord, and by rejecting the book of Jonah as uninspired they reject the infallible Lord Himself. But why does our Lord mention Jonah here? Because Jonah is a type of the death and resurrection of our Lord. Jonah is the only prophet who was sent away from Israel 's land far unto the Gentiles, to the great and ungodly city of Nineveh . However, before he went there, he passed through a death experience and out of that grave in which he was brought he was taken again, a type of resurrection. Through it God brought salvation to the Gentiles, for Jonah, after his death and resurrection experience proclaimed the message of God. So the Lord was going away from Israel . He was soon to leave them, and the grace of God was to go out towards the Gentile world. Yet before that could be He had to go into the jaws of death, and, like Jonah, was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so was He to be the same length of time in the grave, but also to come forth in resurrection. He was preached, after His resurrection, to the Jew first; but while Nineveh repented after the message of Jonah, that wicked and adulterous generation did not repent of their course, after the preaching through Him, who is greater than Jonah. Therefore the Ninevites will rise up and condemn that generation. Jonah is likewise a type of the whole nation, which, however, is not before us in this chapter. (See our tract on "Jonah and the Whale," where the dispensational side is expounded.) The Queen of Sheba also will condemn that generation, she came to hear the wisdom of Solomon and here stands He who is the Wisdom and they reject Him, who imparted to the wise King the wisdom he had.