1st week in Lent, Wednesday – 4th March 2020 – Luke 11,29-32
Definitive sign for all times
If only those of Jesus’ generation could have seen him with eyes of faith, they would have witnessed the very sign they wanted. For the “sign of Jonah” was none other than Jesus himself. The comparison reinforces Jesus’s admonition to hear and obey God’s word. Like Jonah, Jesus preached repentance from sins, calling God’s people to reform their lives and welcome the inauguration of the kingdom of God. Through Jonah, God revealed his mercy to Nineveh, just as Jesus unveiled his Father’s endless mercy to everyone who came to him in humility and repentance. Through his parables of redemption and restoration, Jesus taught about the prodigal love of his Father and he lived his message of mercy every time he sat down at table with tax collectors and sinners, healed the lepers and Samaritans. Jesus was more than Jonah, for he was swallowed by death itself, yet he emerged victorious three days later as the ultimate sign of God’s presence and power among us.
