Matt 12:38–42 — The Sign of Jonah

The title of this sermon is “The Sign of Jonah,” taken from Jesus’ statement that no sign will be given to this generation except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

The preceding context concerns the Pharisees’ rejection of Christ’s messianic claims. Jesus had cast a demon out of a man who was blind and mute. This miracle was so astonishing that the people began to ask, “Can this be the Son of David?” Their question was tentative, but the mounting evidence was leading them toward the conclusion that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament.

This enraged the Pharisees. Feeling that they were losing their hold upon the crowds, they hardened their hearts and claimed, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” Jesus exposed the inconsistency of their accusation and their willful rejection of the miracles supporting his claims. “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons,” he said, “then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” They could not refute that conclusion.

The Pharisees were therefore guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: they knowingly denigrated the Spirit’s official ministry of bearing witness to Christ. The Spirit testified to Jesus’ messianic authority through his power to cast out demons, yet they willfully rejected that testimony.

A Demand for a Sign

Some scribes and Pharisees now approach Jesus and say, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” They appear less hostile than those who openly accused him of serving Satan. Their request may sound reasonable, as though they remain willing to consider whether Jesus is the Messiah. Yet they ask for a sign after he has already given abundant signs. At this point, the request itself expresses hardened unbelief. They demand some astonishing miracle that will supposedly provide the evidence they need, even though the evidence is already before them.

Jesus answers, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.” He removes the mask of reasonableness and exposes their hearts. Their apparent openness conceals the same fundamental unbelief found in the other Pharisees.

Why does Jesus call them “adulterous”? He identifies them with Israel of old, which was unfaithful to the Lord by worshiping other gods. The scribes and Pharisees are not openly pursuing pagan deities. The exile appears to have cured Israel of that obvious form of idolatry. They have, however, succumbed to a subtler idol: their own righteousness based upon the law. They boast in their knowledge, interpretation, and application of the law, imagining that they have no need of a Messiah to save them from sin.

Jesus comes as the Messiah of sinners. He came to seek and save the lost, to eat with tax collectors and sinners, and to forgive those who know their need. He did not come to call those who consider themselves righteous. The Pharisees’ self-righteousness prevents them from welcoming him and puts them in the posture of judges who demand still more evidence. Their demand for a sign reveals a heart estranged from God.

The Sign of Jonah

Jesus continues, “No sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” What is this sign? We may instinctively answer that it is Jesus’ resurrection, the greatest of his miracles. The resurrection is certainly implied because Jesus remains in the heart of the earth for only three days. Something happens at the end of that period: he rises from the dead. Yet Jesus explicitly identifies the sign in verse 40: “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The sign itself focuses upon his death, burial, and remaining under the power of death for a time.

The phrase “three days and three nights” is a biblical idiom using inclusive reckoning. Any portion of a day could be counted as a day. Jesus was crucified and buried on Friday, remained in the grave through Saturday, and rose on the third day. The expression does not require three complete twenty-four-hour days or three literal nights.

This sign appears weak and ignominious rather than miraculous. Jesus refuses to give the Pharisees an immediate display of power that would compel belief according to their standards. Instead, he points cryptically toward something that only those with eyes to see will understand. The sign does not merely demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah. It reveals what kind of Messiah he is: a suffering Messiah who will die, be buried, and remain under death’s power before rising again.

This fits the pattern of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew. His identity has not been completely hidden, for his miracles reveal his deity and messianic authority. Nevertheless, it remains veiled. He refers to himself by the cryptic title “Son of Man,” and in verse 16 he orders those he healed not to make him known. This is sometimes called the messianic secret.

The true nature of Jesus’ messiahship and kingdom will be unveiled through his crucifixion and resurrection. Above all, his death reveals that he is the Messiah who saves his people from their sins by offering himself as an atoning sacrifice. The sign of Jonah is unlike the spectacular sign the Pharisees demand, but to those who have faith it reveals the heart of his saving mission.

Nineveh and the Queen of the South

Jesus next declares, “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” Jonah emerged from the great fish and preached to the Gentile city of Nineveh, whose people repented. Their response shows that the salvation of the Gentiles was foreshadowed in the Old Testament long before the Great Commission.

Matthew has repeatedly prepared us for this theme. In Matthew 8, a Roman centurion displayed greater faith than Jesus had found in Israel. Jesus then announced that many would come from east and west to recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. This promise reaches back to Genesis 12, where God told Abraham, “I will bless you,” and promised that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. The inclusion of the Gentiles is not a new idea introduced in Matthew 28:19. It was promised to Abraham, typified in Nineveh, illustrated by Gentile faith during Jesus’ ministry, and fulfilled as the risen Christ sends the gospel to the nations.

Jesus contrasts Nineveh’s response to Jonah with Israel’s response to him. The men of Nineveh will rise at the judgment and condemn this unbelieving generation because they repented at the preaching of a lesser prophet. How much more should Israel repent when Christ and his kingdom are present?

Repentance begins with conviction of sin. It means knowing and acknowledging that we are guilty sinners who deserve God’s judgment, and humbling ourselves before him. The fruits of repentance include turning from sin and seeking grace to live righteously, but the emphasis here falls upon conviction. When Jonah announced Nineveh’s coming destruction, the king commanded the people to put on sackcloth, humble themselves, and turn from their evil ways. Jesus likewise preaches the gospel of the kingdom and calls sinners to acknowledge their guilt and trust in him.

Jesus gives a second Old Testament example: “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” The Queen of the South is the Queen of Sheba, whose visit to Solomon is recounted in 1 Kings 10. After she saw his wisdom and “the house that he had built,” there was no more breath in her.

Jesus has already identified himself with wisdom in Matthew 11:19: “Wisdom is justified by her deeds.” Solomon’s wisdom appeared not only in his proverbs but also in his building projects. David prepared for the construction of God’s house, but Solomon, the son of David, built the temple where God would dwell among his people. He also built his royal palace. These works expressed Solomon’s wise, kingly reign and pointed forward to Christ. Once again, a Gentile—the Queen of Sheba—responded to the wisdom God had given a son of David, while the scribes and Pharisees refused one greater than Solomon.

Reading the Old Testament Typologically

This passage teaches us three important truths. First, Jesus shows us how to read the Old Testament typologically. A type is a person, event, or institution that points forward to a corresponding fulfillment, or antitype, in Christ.

Jonah descended into the depths and remained there for three days and nights; Jesus would die and remain under death’s power for a time. God commanded the fish to release Jonah; God the Father would raise his Son from the dead. Jonah’s symbolic death-and-resurrection experience spanned three days, and Jesus would be crucified, buried, and raised on the third day. The revived Jonah preached to the Gentiles of Nineveh so that they might repent; the resurrected Christ would preach through his apostles to the nations so that they might repent and be saved from God’s wrath.

Solomon also served as a type. He was the son of David, endowed by God with wisdom to exercise a kingly reign that included building the temple. Christ is the true Son of David, endowed by the Father with the Spirit to exercise a wise, kingly reign and construct a spiritual temple.

Old Testament types are not identical to Christ. The correspondences coexist with important differences because the types are flawed shadows rather than the reality. Solomon’s many foreign wives eventually turned his heart away from the true God. Jonah was a reluctant prophet who initially fled in the opposite direction when God commanded him to preach to Nineveh. Their failures heighten our need for Christ, the true and greater Jonah and the true and greater Solomon who saves his people from their sins.

Something Greater Is Here

Second, Jesus provides deeper insight into the kingdom he proclaims and brings. Throughout Matthew, he declares that the kingdom is at hand and that it has come upon his hearers. His teaching gradually brings this kingdom into view, rather like fog lifting to reveal a great castle ahead. Matthew 12:28 showed that it is a spiritual kingdom involving Christ’s victory over Satan. Each sinner who comes to Jesus in humble faith is transferred from Satan’s kingdom into God’s kingdom by the power of the Messiah.

This passage adds another dimension through a phrase Jesus repeats: “Something greater is here.” Something greater than Jonah is here, and something greater than Solomon is here. We might expect Jesus to say “someone,” since Jonah and Solomon were individual persons and Christ is their fulfillment. Yet the Greek expression is neuter: something greater. The greater reality is not merely Christ considered as an isolated individual, but the King together with the kingdom he is creating and the people he gathers into it.

The Queen of Sheba admired more than Solomon’s personal wisdom. She marveled at his ordered kingdom, his servants, his table, his riches, his palace, and the house he built for God. In the same way, the greater reality Jesus brings is Christ together with his kingdom, focused particularly upon the spiritual temple of Christ and his church.

Jesus had already used this expression in Matthew 12:6: “I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.” In that Sabbath controversy, he recalled how David and his men ate the bread of the presence and how the priests serve in the temple on the Sabbath without guilt. The exceptional circumstance arose because something greater than the earthly temple was present.

This becomes a major theme later in Matthew. At his triumphal entry in chapter 21, Jesus goes directly to the temple, cleanses it, and pronounces judgment upon those who have turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves. Later in Matthew 21, he quotes Psalm 118: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The rejected and crucified Christ becomes the cornerstone of a new spiritual temple. In Matthew 24, he predicts that the magnificent earthly temple will be destroyed. At his trial in Matthew 26, he is accused of saying, “I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days”—language that links the new temple to his death and resurrection.

The church is this eschatological temple, composed of all who believe in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile. This is not a crude replacement in which God simply discards Israel and substitutes an unrelated Gentile church. The believing remnant of Israel—including the disciples and all who came to Jesus in faith—together with believing Gentiles from the nations are built into one spiritual temple. The “something greater” is the vast and glorious reality of Christ united with his people, the kingdom he establishes through his death and resurrection.

The Ultimate Sign of the Messiah

Third, Jesus teaches those with eyes to see that the ultimate sign of his messiahship is not his miracles but his cross. An evil and adulterous generation seeks spectacular signs and outward displays of power. Jesus gives instead the hidden sign of Jonah. His cross reveals the true nature of the Messiah who saves through suffering and atonement.

This teaches us about unbelief and skepticism. Unbelievers may request miracles, evidence, and arguments as though they will stand as judges and decide whether the case for Christ is convincing enough. Evidence and argument have a legitimate place. Apologetics—the work of defending the faith, offering reasons for belief, and answering objections—is important and can remove intellectual obstacles. Yet apologetics is not sufficient to produce faith.

What unbelievers most need is conviction of sin. Like the people of Nineveh, they must repent. Only those who recognize their guilt and need of salvation can see Christ for who he truly is: the Messiah who laid down his life as an atonement for sin. They need both a sense of their sin and a sight of the cross where God dealt with sin.

The Holy Spirit must open our eyes to understand the sign. He shows us our sinfulness so that we can look upon Christ crucified and see not defeat but the King reigning from the tree. Like Jonah, Christ descended into the depths and remained under death’s power for a time. Yet God raised him from the dead, and the risen Christ now proclaims salvation through his apostles to people from every nation. The cross, followed by the resurrection, is the ultimate revelation of the suffering and victorious Messiah who saves his people from their sins.