In the poem “Miami Airport,” Raymond Antrobus, a deaf poet from London with an English mother and Jamaican father, writes of an encounter he had in the Miami airport between himself and Airport security. The poem is a striking list of thirty questions growing in intensity and menace in which Raymond’s identity at every turn is questioned and disbelieved. He’s told he doesn’t look deaf; is asked whether he can prove it; asked if he knows Sign language, asked for ID; asked to explain why he doesn’t look like the English people the guard chose to notice when on a trip to England, and asked why he’s suddenly nervous. The guard’s questions imply “I know what English people, Deaf people, and teachers look like, and you don’t look like any of them. Why is that?” He’s asked to explain who he is and what he’s not, why he hasn’t done what he’s already been accused of doing, and why he doesn’t fit the stereotype that he supposedly should. The poem concludes with the guard bewilderingly acknowledging that no drugs were found in Raymond’s bag and ends with two terrible, mocking questions: “you think you’re going to go free? what did you not hear?”
This poem came to mind this week as I walked with Jesus in Matthew 12. Like Raymond, Jesus’ identity is questioned and disbelieved by the authorities and Bible scholars of his day at every turn. His actions and defenses do little to calm the barrage of doubts as to who he is, what he is doing, why he is doing it, and even the implication that he is in league with the prince of demons himself. Can you imagine the toll on one’s psyche – to be questioned constantly by those who don’t care and hence truly don’t want to know? Even Jesus’ own family members will cast their doubts at the end of the chapter. I imagine that this is what it must be like for brothers and sisters of color who experience a constant questioning of their own character or motives, having to fight for their identity. I expect this is what it must be like for LGBTQ brothers and sisters who find themselves under constant scrutiny and questions, having to fight for their identity. And I briefly want to stop at this point to say, “I’m sorry for the many ways that you have experienced such doubts and questions of your identity in this place – the church. Your faithfulness and strength in the face of such disbelief speak of how truly amazing you are.” And I want to remind all of us – loveless scrutiny will never bring you to the truth. And second, I want to tell you, “Jesus knows.” He understands what it’s like to have one’s identity constantly under a microscope. And it’s this menacing scrutiny that begins our passage today. The Pharisees and scribes are not asking an innocent question, not actually seeking information, nor making an honest request, and don’t truly care about Jesus himself. They already know that he’s wrong, already believe that he’s unbelievable, already understand that he’s not who he claims he is. And they signal that by once more asserting, “Prove yourself to us.” Jesus responds that he will give no other sign “except for the sign of the prophet Jonah.” What does he mean? Well, I think it’s important that Jesus doesn’t mean one thing. Identity is never one thing but like a diamond refracts and reflects many angles of colorful light. Here are four things that I think reflect what Jesus meant when he talked about the “sign of Jonah”:
The sign of Jonah is the book
Jesus wants to frame what’s happening and his identity within a story (BTW we all do that. We all situate our lives in a story that we tell ourselves. Choose your story wisely). And it’s interesting to hear him situate his current situation in a prophetic book about Jewish prophet’s disobedience to God’s call, who flees from God, gets thrown overboard, descends to the bottom of the ocean (the place of death), is saved by a whale/sea monster/whatever sent by God, begrudgingly preaches to a wicked empire where the people repent, leaving the prophet ticked off and God gently asking if it’s okay to love others, even enemies. The book was essentially an ironic indictment of God’s chosen people, represented by Jonah, who refuses to fulfill God’s mandate to be God’s representative of love and goodness to all the earth (the point of election). Jesus, in other words, is arguing that the Pharisees and scripture scholars are the one’s who should be listening and seeing Jesus for who he actually is and aren’t. In Luke’s version (11:29-32), there is no mention of the whale at all but only that the Ninevites, the people outside the realm of chosenness, outside of supposed goodness, are the ones who are listening to Jesus and changing their ways, marching now to a different drum, a different tune. The sign of Jonah, in this instance, is that it’s a deep spiritual tradition and acknowledgement that the good, upright, Church-going-folk often fail to get – the outsiders get it. The sign of Jonah IS the story of the outsider perceiving and receiving what was thought to be only insider grace. Let me be as clear as Paul is on this point, however, “The condemnation of the Pharisees and others by the Ninevites is not an undoing of their chosenness. The Jews are still the elect of God, which is the entire argument from the book of Romans. It’s the deadly serious critique, however, that they have failed to fully understand their own election for the sake of others.” Do you understand the purpose of your election?
The (anti) sign of Jonah the man
Jesus is linking his own ministry with the story of Jonah. But in certain respects, of course, this is odd, because Jesus is very different from Jonah. In this way, Jesus is the anti-sign of Jonah or the Jonah that Jonah should have been, was meant to be, was asked to be. Jonah will run from God’s command. Jesus won’t. Jonah preaches solely destruction. Jesus preaches the joy and blessing of the kingdom of God. Jonah wants judgment for enemies. Jesus wants their good, their salvation. To understand Jesus as a sign of Jonah we need to remember that one of the biggest themes of Jonah, if not its main point all together, is about how God deals with, and loves, enemies. That was the ending open question of the book of Jonah that we talked about last week in which God tells Jonah that he does and gently invites Jonah to do the same, even though Jonah can’t seem to. To fully understand the sign of Jonah then is to situate the Jonah story back into Matthew 12 and Jesus’ story with the Pharisees. And to do that, we need to go back to vss. 14-15 of chapter 12 to discover what the Pharisees actually wanted – they wanted Jesus dead AND he knew it. So while Jesus won’t mince words about the Pharisees wickedness, which itself is a call to repentance, for Jesus to reference the sign of Jonah is Jesus also asserting a seemingly unthinkable thing: “Even though you wish to kill me and will, I still love you. Even though you wish to take my life, I wish you ONLY life. I will be obedient to the God who cares for everyone – killers included – even you. And the wicked, unbelieving Ninevites, whose identity you so easily dismiss, will stand up at the final judgment and call you out.” This is what Jesus is saying in vs. 41, “I’m greater than Jonah, who couldn’t love the Ninevites, even after they repented. And you are lesser than the Ninevites – they did repent and didn’t want to kill Jonah – and you won’t repent and you do want to kill me. And I will still love you.”
The sign of Jonah’s God
We’ve already seen how both Matthew and Luke represent Jesus’ use of the phrase “sign of Jonah.” Luke will particularly focus upon Jesus’ preaching and the subsequent reality that the outsiders believe while the insiders do not and Matthew will primarily focus on a different part of the Jonah story, Jonah chapter 2 - the three-day analogy with the whale and its connection to his own death and resurrection. What’s interesting about this element is that it speaks about God as well as Jonah. Jonah is the one who descends into the depths of the earth, the realm of the dead, and it is God who brings his “life up from the pit” (Jonah 2:6). Likewise, Jesus will go on a terrible three-day journey down into the “heart of the earth,” which is Matthew’s take on Jonah’s “To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever.” Now I don’t believe that Jesus knows everything that is about to transpire in his life. I don’t think that he was some superhuman who could see the future with utter clarity. No, the church has always said that he was fully human just like us. But he does see the writing on the wall and grabs for a story from Scripture to help him make sense of his life, death, and God’s role in it. He knows that he is heading for death, he’s taking Jonah’s journey to the realm of the dead, but he also knows – the same way that you know your spouse loves you – that God is good and will not allow him to be murdered and forgotten. “Salvation comes from the LORD,” Jonah declares. “I am salvation come,” Jesus declares. Friends, that’s the sign of Jonah – it’s a flashing sign, in neon letters, which aims to burn away the dark and light up our eyes, that God is love and that God’s love saves, and that Jesus is Jonah, taking up our journey of death so that we might rise again. The story of Jonah and Jesus is that God’s love is unkillable.
The sign of something greater.
The descent of Jesus to the “heart of the earth” is not merely a solo journey. Rather, he is claiming to also go on our behalf, for us - for enemies and the righteous, for Jews and Gentiles, for church folk and Ninevites, for Americans, Russians, the Chinese and even the Taliban in order to make us one. Jesus is asserting that he is greater than Jonah because he is the Jonah who acts like God for us and the Jonah who acts for us to God. That’s his identity. Will you believe him? Friends, today I want to invite you to let Jesus be Jonah for you. Look and listen to him, repent, and say yes to the one sent to you from God for love. And if you can’t right now – don’t worry – Jesus is something greater. To repent – means to change the direction in which you are looking for happiness and fulfillment.
There’s one more sign of Jonah, of going under the water, the sign of the Christian life – baptism. It’s a sign that acknowledges our personal journeys of death and resurrection linking us spiritually and dynamically to Jesus’ death and resurrection. I want to invite you to remember the sign of Jonah this morning. That you identify with the God who came and preached love to enemies. That you identify with the God who came as us and does for us what we can’t do for ourselves. For some this morning, that will be remembering your identity – grounded in Jesus as you continue to repent, to change your direction and follow his way. For others this morning, this may be the start of the identity you were made for.
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