sign of jonah
Near the middle of Matthew’s gospel account, in Chapter 16, Jesus is asked by two separate groups of people to do something extraordinary. This comes right after the account of Jesus feeding the masses with just seven loaves and a few small fish. The two groups that approached him were the scoffing religious elite and his own intimates, his disciples. And to both groups he gave the same answer: No.
It’s kind of obvious why he denied the first group. They didn’t really want anything to do with him. Their request for a sign from heaven was a malicious test, and he wasn’t willing to play their game. He cryptically pointed them to the sign of Jonah from the Old Testament. Then he turned on his heels and walked away.
Following this his own intimate band came to him, having realized that they forgot to bring bread. Again? Really? Jesus gave them a warning: You guys are coming perilously close to sounding like the scoffers. I know you don’t mean to, but what do you expect from me…to always be around to rescue you from your foolish, neglectful decisions? I’m not just here to feed you, for heaven’s sake!
In the 1970s and 80s, we used to describe these kinds of Christians as the ones who always wanted Jesus to “roll over and do me another miracle.”
Now, I like signs and wonders. I view them as God sightings (a term coined by Karen Burton Mains), the answered prayers and happy serendipities that show that God is paying attention…that he is bigger than my puny circumstances and responsive to my requests. Signs are encouragements to me. Sometimes they are even direction markers. But my faith is not conditional on them. I once was told that when we pray to God for a certain outcome, we should be prepared that he might give one of three answers: yes, no or wait. I would add a fourth response: silence. Sometimes God just doesn’t answer at all. In those cases, I feel like he’s implying, “I gave you a brain, use it.” I move out in the belief that my course will be corrected eventually, but that I may not even recognize the signs until I look in the rearview mirror.
I’ll give you an example: in 1979 when Dave and I moved to California the first time, we had nothing. We had spent the last two years traveling the country with a faith-based show called “The Family Bible Jamboree!” But now we were expecting our first baby and we figured it was time to get off the road. We considered two choices…join a Christian theatre company in San Diego or get another high school teaching job. The latter seemed the safest and most sensible, but we felt that the first choice was more daring and would be a bigger test of our faith. We would have to raise support, but we already had experienced the generosity of strangers, so that didn’t scare us.
Dave arrived in San Diego on a day when the theatre company was debating on whether to disband or not. I was still with my parents in Texas, due to fly out, when David called suggesting that it might be better for me not to come yet. But I had a plane ticket, and Dave had secured a little one-bedroom apartment. I was expecting our first child in a few months. I needed to get there and find an OB/GYN quickly.
The theatre didn’t fold and we counted every penny that we spent, cutting all our discretionary expenses, eking by. However, we were dealt a huge blow when the child I was expecting died in utero two days before my due date. It was a real temptation to construe that we had stepped out of God’s will. But we knew that God’s will isn’t defined by our situation. His love is proven by the sign he offered the scoffers…the sign of Jonah.
So what is the sign of Jonah? In the Old Testament story, Jonah was running from God’s purpose for him, and he was swallowed by a big fish, languishing there for three days before he agreed to do it God’s way. His time of imprisonment was limited to three days, exactly the same amount of time that Jesus spent in the tomb before his resurrection. Jesus was telling the scoffers to wait for it. The sign was coming. Deliverance extends to us because of Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection.
So when we are waiting for an answer to life’s situations, the sign of Jonah reminds us that our deliverance is assured. I don’t believe in Jesus because of everyday-miracles, as much as I enjoy them and still pray for them. But I BELIEVE in Jesus because of ONE mighty miracle that saved the world.
Love, Liz
