What is the sign of Jonah that Jesus mentions in today’s Gospel? He tells the crowd: “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” This sign that Jesus promises is his own preaching and his call to repentance as he invites all to turn to the loving and merciful God.
Jonah in today’s first reading also preaches the coming of God and calls for repentance. Jonah is sent not to his fellow Jews but to the people of Nineveh, the traditional enemies of the Jews. The book of Jonah is a sign of second chances. Today’s first reading begins thus: “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.” The first time the “word of the Lord” came to Jonah he fled the other way. Instead of heading east to preach to Nineveh he fled west to avoid his mission. In today’s reading Jonah is given a second chance and now heads to Nineveh to fulfill his mission.
The sign of the book of Jonah is also the sign of God’s mercy. God extends this mercy to all, even to the enemies of the Jews. When God saw that the people of Nineveh had repented then “God repented of the evil he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.” (Jonah 3:10). Jonah is not happy that God shows his mercy and love to outsiders and enemies! The book ends with God upbraiding Jonah for his failure to celebrate God’s mercy: “And should I not be concerned over the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?” (Jonah 4:11).
The sign of Jonah that Jesus embodies is the sign of the cross. This sign reveals a God who is always ready to give us a “second chance.” This sign reveals that God offers his love and mercy to all people, both insiders and outsiders. God challenged Jonah to show mercy not only to his neighbor but also for to enemy. Jesus whole life and death is a sign of the one true God who is “rich in mercy.”
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7).
Image: “Jonah emerging from the whale” by hannibal1107 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.