Matthew 12.38-42
Welcome to our daily devotional reflections for the period from Easter to Pentecost. We’re going to continue the story of Jesus by looking beyond his earthly ministry, his life and his death, by bringing into focus his subsequent career as the risen, ascended, glorified, enthroned and reigning Lord. To put it flippantly – if you have ever wondered what Jesus does all day this is the series for you! As we close in on Pentecost we will look again at the work of the ascended Lord Jesus pouring out the gift of the Spirit on the church. The focus of this series is thematic instead of a set of continuous readings through a single book. But the risen Lord Jesus is the theme. We’re beginning with gospel texts in which Jesus points forward to his resurrection during his ministry.
Mention the name of Jonah to a child in church and their eyes will light up. By word association the next word is always ‘whale’. You might even have heard the late 19th century story of James Bartley, a young man rescued alive after 36 hours from the stomach of a sperm whale off the Falklands. Bartley came out bleached, the whale fared less well. The outline of the four chapters of Jonah’s story is pretty well known, though one detail will help us to see Jesus’ point. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, was told by God to head East and call Nineveh to repentance. So he climbed into a boat and headed West across the Med, kidding himself that he could run away from God. In a great storm he fessed up, was thrown overboard, was swallowed by a divinely appointed ‘great fish’ and thrown up on the beach. He trudged East at last, preached to Nineveh as originally commanded and then he moaned at God when his preaching was successful and people repented. Annoyed by a God with too little ‘smite’ and too great a capacity to change his mind and show ‘mercy’, Jonah sulked under a shady bush. God then killed off the bush to demonstrate to Jonah that he cared disproportionately for his own comfort rather than for the spiritual well-being of Nineveh. Ironically, Jonah’s last prayer reverses his first: having asked to live in Jonah 2, he now asks to die in Chapter 4. Every time I’m tempted to think: ‘silly Jonah’, I am immediately called up short: how often do I think I can get away with things without God noticing, as if I could outrun or outfox him? How often do I harbour irritation when God embraces those that I (secretly of course) think less than worthy? And how often do I value my own comfort above God’s pleasure and God’s purposes?
But that key detail I mentioned comes in Chapter 2: does Jonah cry to escape death as Bartley did? Or does he die and then come back to life? Some phrases in Jonah 2 weigh on both sides of this well-worn argument. But Jesus clearly took the second view. Jonah went down to Sheol, to death, whose ‘bars closed over him forever’ and when he was spewed back onto the land, this was Jonah’s resurrection.
Now we’re back to Jesus in the Gospel. People come to Jesus to ask for a miracle to prove his authority and authenticity. Jesus, who did many many miracles, will not play the performing monkey. But there’s more to it than this. Rather he knows their heart. No proof is enough for them. No proof will ever be enough. When Jonah came back to life after three days, Nineveh repented. But Jesus opponents won’t – if they won’t listen to the Scriptures, even the resurrection will not be enough. Exactly the same idea is there in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Begged by Dives to go and tell his brothers of the terrible post-mortem suffering he is undergoing, Abraham replies: ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not listen, even if someone were to rise from the dead’. Scripture and the resurrection are two great deal-breakers. Either you hear what God has to say to you or you refuse. Either you believe that God has spoken in Christ or you turn away. Either you believe in the life giving power of the creator God or you do not. Even when the consistent testimony of Scripture and the evidence for the resurrection is so clear and persuasive we can still harden our hearts. Faith is not on the basis of scientific investigation or empirical proof. These are not wrong in themselves but the Scriptures and the power of God conspire together to demand of us hearts strangely warmed to the love, grace and saving power of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus ends with a terrible warning: Nineveh repented when Jonah rolled up and the Queen of Sheba travelled hundred of miles to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Both will stand witness by the softness of their hearts to Jonah and Solomon that those who harden their hearts to the resurrected Messiah have hard hearts indeed. The resurrection demands of us a hearing for the one who rose again. But the work of embracing this is done in our own hearts.
Let’s pray.
Lord the way of the world around us is to be too addicted to the evidence of our eyes and too little softened to the revelatory work of the Holy Spirit in us. Soften our hearts anew to your Holy Spirit and open our eyes once again to your Word so that we can see afresh your truth, your light, your power, your grace, and your love in the face of our risen Lord Jesus.
Amen.