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Home Matthew 12:38-42 NRSVue

Matthew 12:38-42 NRSVue

38Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth. 41The people of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the proclamation of Jonah, and indeed something greater than Jonah is here! 42The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed something greater than Solomon is here!

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

“Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.”

Some thoughts on this scripture

Reflection
Jesus resisted the Jews’ repeated demand for a sign that would show he was from God. They wanted to see something abnormal. Jesus brings them back to the normal, to the man Jesus whom they saw and knew. /I am the sign of God’s presence to men. What do you think of me?/ From the beginning of his public life, those who did not believe in Jesus’ preaching or his miracles discerned nothing of the divine in his features. Undoubtedly he was like many people whose beauty, at once very secret and very striking, dazzles some and escapes others; this is especially true when beauty is of the spiritual order. Like all creatures, Christ is transformed by the person who is attracted to him.

Reflection
If I was a Pharisee and I met this wandering healer-prophet, perhaps I would ask for a sign too. Many Christians look for signs like miracles, voices from heaven, Mary's image on rose petals, bleeding stigmata. Jesus points us away from spectacular signs. It is our faith in the person of Jesus that keeps us going. He points these Jewish men to the faith and perceptiveness of women and gentiles.

Reflection
The opponents are looking for divine signs from Jesus. Something as outlandish as the splendour of the queen, or the miracle of Jonah. Jesus slides away from these demands. His divine sings are the compassion and especially the forgiveness of God. He was criticised because only God could forgive sins, and he claimed to do so. For saying he was equal to God he would be killed.

Reflection
When we hear of Jonah we remember he was a reluctant prophet and he was also the one who resisted the call of the Lord to speak to the Gentiles, to enter into the world of the other, the foreigner, the ones who are not like ourselves. Jesus was like that - the one whose heart and words, love and truth are for all.

Reflection
Signs from God sometimes seem desirable – and even reasonable to expect. Jesus reminds me that, if I want them, I may be looking in the wrong direction. I pray that I may see and appreciate where God is already at work in the events and relationships of my life.

Reflection
My prayer time can train the eye of my heart to recognise God at work in my life. As I become more familiar with and trusting in God’s Spirit, I need less proof and am able to rely on what I have learnt. God trusts me. I learn to trust God’s spirit in me.