Matthew 12:41

Some wanted more signs. Jonah is sign enough, Jesus said.  Why they demanded more signs we do not know, at least I don’t. Jesus obviously knew because he declared that the life of Jonah is a sign worth pondering, a sign that should satisfy anyone seeking a sign as to who this Jesus is.  “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”  Jesus was stretching his hearers, no doubt, because he was alive and well. His time in the tomb was yet to come. 

Jesus went on to explain that Jonah was freed from death in the deep and was then enabled to preach to great Nineveh. I can imagine that Jonah shared openly about his own deliverance from sin and death, a word of clear testimony of forgiveness and restoration.  This must have been a great encouragement to the inhabitants of this great non-Jewish city.

Then Jesus startled his hearers with this little sentence, “Now one greater than Jonah is here.”  Jonah could convert a city, Jesus will save all who believe, Jew or Gentile, now and forever.

All this fell on deaf ears, it seems. His hearers could make no connection between their beloved Jonah and this son of a carpenter from Nazareth.