“The Sign of Jonah”
Matthew 12:38-40: “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees told Jesus, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.’ But he replied to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. Yet no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, because just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”
We know both stories very well. Jonah the prophet ran from God, not wanting to spread His good news to the people of Nineveh, and was swallowed by a great fish for three days and nights before being spat out to deliver God’s call for repentance. God used this experience with Jonah to bring mercy and save the people of Nineveh. Christ our Lord, however, willingly gave Himself to be swallowed up by death to save all people from their sins.
In the Gospel of Matthew, when the scribes and Pharisees look to Jesus for a sign, he refuses to give them one besides the sign of Jonah. If they do not believe when a man is delivered to death and raised again, no sign will be good enough for them.
The God-man died. He was dead in the tomb for three days. Nothing in History has or ever will be as earth shattering as this, especially for the reason that He did not stay dead. Our Lord came to die for us, but death could not overcome Him forever. In the Ancient Church in Greece, there was a folk belief that when Christ died on the cross, when the devil attempted to swallow His soul, the evil one choked. Following along with this idea, it seems that Death itself could not swallow Our Savior. Christ’s power over life itself was too much for Death, and as a result, Death spit Christ back out into the realm of the living, much like Jonah and the sea creature.
In this piece, which I have titled “The Sign of Jonah,” I have depicted Christ Jesus spread out before the great “sea creature” of Death. This whale’s body shows decay and damage as it is meant to be death itself, its bloody ribs and bones protruding from its flesh. This creature swims toward Christ, ready to devour Him. Yet the light of Christ shines bright in this deep darkness. The life of Christ is too much for the creature of death. Yes, the creature will swallow Him, but this is not the end. Not for Christ, and not for you. The creature has choked. Christ has and is risen from His three day tomb. Christ endured three days in the depths of the abyss in order to bring you the gift of salvation and eternal life.
The Sign of Jonah will not be enough for everyone. There will still be those today like the scribes and Pharisees who will choose not to see what God has put before them, but we know the truth. We have received the Holy Spirit and been given faith in the One who has been raised from the dead.
