"Something Greater than Jonah is Here"

Jonah and Jesus

And when we examine the story of Jonah, great is the force of the
resemblance. Jesus was sent to ‎preach repentance; Jonah also was sent: but
whereas the one fled, not knowing what should come to pass; ‎the other came
willingly, to give repentance unto salvation. Jonah was asleep in the ship,
and snoring ‎amidst the stormy sea; while Jesus also slept, the sea,
according to God’s providence, began to rise, to show ‎in the sequel the
might of Him who slept. To the one they said, “Why are you sleeping? Arise,
call you’re ‎your God, that God may save us;” but in the other case they say
unto the Master, “Lord, save us.” Then ‎they said, Call upon thy God; here
they say, save Thou. But the one says, Take me, and cast me into the ‎sea;
so shall the sea be calm unto you; the other, Himself rebuked the winds and
the sea, and there was a ‎great calm. The one was cast into a whale’s belly:
but the other of His own accord went down, where the ‎invisible whale of
death is. And He went down of His own accord, that death might cast up those
whom he ‎had devoured, according to that which is written, I will ransom
them from the power of the grave; and from ‎the hand of death I will redeem
them.
(this article is copied from St-Takla.org).

 

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

SOMETHING GREATER THAN JONAH IS
HERE

Like the Jewish rabbis of His day,
Jesus accepted the book of Jonah as historical (Matt. 12:38-41). Jesus called
Jonah's experience in the "great fish" a "sign" of His own coming resurrection
from the dead.
Jesus had been performing miracles
as He ministered to people's needs. A group of Pharisees and scribes were
pressuring Him for a sign form heaven, a miraculous sign. They wanted to have
their sensations tantalized. It appears that they pressed him on various
occasions for these attesting miracles and He steadfastly refused. He told them
in their begging for signs that God had already given them a sign and it was
before their eyes. They refused to believe the sign.
These people were not sincere and
Jesus knew it. They were asking Him to accredit Himself by doing some striking
miracle. They demanded proof that He was the Messiah and they wanted it now.
They wanted something unmistakably from God right now. They wanted something
produced on demand for instant gratification. Where is the evidence that God is
at work in Your life? They wanted to impose their own rules on God.
Jesus responded saying, “An
evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be
given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as
Jonah was three days and threenights in the belly of the sea monster,
so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will
condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold,
something greater than Jonah is here " (Matthew 12:39-41).
Jonah and his strange experience
is a type of Christ and His resurrection. When Jesus said, “a greater than Jonah
is here” He was not referring to a legendary character, but a real man and a
real experience. Otherwise the comparison would not have made sense because
Christ rose from the dead. It is clear that Jesus accepted this Old Testament
account as the record of a historical fact. Just as the very big fish swallowed
up Jonah, so the earth will swallow up Jesus; and as Jonah was delivered from
his imprisonment, so will Jesus who is Jonah's great Antitype rise from the
grave.
"Something great than Jonah is
here." What is that something?
Jesus takes us back to Jonah 1:17.
"Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster." It is
no fairy tale He has in mind. It is the miracle God gave to Jonah. Jesus
reminded the Pharisees and Sadducees again of the sign of Jonah in Matt. 16:4.
There is a greater event than Jonah here. Then He openly told His disciples the
meaning of the sign after Peter's great confession of Jesus as the Messiah, the
Son of the living God (v. 16). After telling His disciples to tell no one that
He was the messiah He opened His heart to them.
Don't miss these words in v. 21.
"From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem,
and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and be raised up on the third day."
What was the reaction of the
disciples? It was astonishment, rejection and horror. Peter took Him aside as if
to hold Him back from suicide and began to rebuke Him saying, "God forbid it,
Lord! This shall never happen to You" (v. 22).
Jesus turned to Peter and said,
"Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting
your mind on God's interests, but man's" (v. 22).
This is the "something greater
than Jonah." It is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son
of the living God! That Jonah could live through his experience is nothing short
of a miracle. It was a sign given by God. The pagans of Nineveh believed the
message of Jonah and repented.
When Peter preached his
greatest sermon he reminded his audience of something greater than Jonah. He
said,

Men of Israel,
listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with
miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst,
just as you yourselves know—this Man, delivered over by the predetermined
plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men
and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the
agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power . . .
This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having
been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the
promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear
(Acts 2:22-24, 32-33).

Dr. Luke gives an account of Jesus' conversation with the
crowds of people who were looking for a miraculous sign from heaven (11:29-32).
"As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, ‘This
generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be
given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the
Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South
will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and
behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up
with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at
the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here’"
(Luke 11:29-32, NASB95).
I am always intrigued by the words of Jesus. He does not
say “someone greater,” but “something greater.” Jesus does not compare Himself
with Jonah but something. Jonah experienced a kind of death, burial and
resurrection. However, Jesus experienced true death, true burial and true
resurrection. Jesus’ experience of the death, burial and resurrection was
greater. The experience of Jonah foreshadowed the real experience of Jesus.
One of the amazing things about
Jonah is that it was in the very city of Joppa where Jonah went to find the ship
that centuries later the apostle Peter received from God the revelation that
Gentiles were included in His chosen people on the same basis as Jewish people
(Acts 10). Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Both
Jewish people, non-Jewish and pagans can have a right standing with God by
simple faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Is our response to Jesus any
different? We can respond with arrogance that we know more in our modern age of
understanding than Jesus knew, or with hostility like the Jewish leaders of
Jesus' day, or we can simply bow in humble repentance and submission like the
Ninevehites.
How important is the
resurrection of Jesus Christ? The apostle Paul responded, "if you confess with
your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes,
resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in
salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10).
The all-sufficient work Jesus
Christ includes God's free gift of eternal life. Have you received His free gift
of eternal life by grace through faith in Christ alone?