The Sign of Jonah

Ninevah was a city in Mesopotamia to which the prophet Jonah, who had been swallowed by a sea monster and miraculously delivered, was sent. According to an ancient midrash, the Ninevites accepted Jonah’s message and did penance because they were aware of his prior fate. Jerusalem, on the other hand, refused to recognize Jesus, of whom Jonah was a figure. The Queen of the South had visited Solomon and been amazed by his wisdom. Jesus’ reproach of his skeptics was accentuated by the example of these pagans, the Ninevites and the Queen of the South, which incidentally revealed an early glimpse of the universal scope of Christianity that would take root among the Gentiles.

Jesus also gave the crowd in Jerusalem, and us, an early glimpse of his death and resurrection. He did this in answer to their demand from him of a sign to confirm his preaching. He used the parallel case of Jonah, saying: “No sign will be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.” In Matthew’s version of the same event, Jesus continues: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” In other words, Jesus’ glorious Resurrection is the great sign, the sign of Jonah, the decisive proof of the divine character of his teaching, his mission, and his Person.

Jesus’ Incarnation is the last and highest work of God the Father’s love: “God so loved the world”, writes St. John, “that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life.” In this resides a mystery scarcely credible to our understanding, a mystery which is almost too beautiful to be true, and yet has always been held as true by the Church. In St. Paul’s words: “God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, thereby condemning sin in the flesh of this man.” Thus, were shattered the gates of hell and those of heaven thrown open.

Our term “Lent” is based on an Old English word for “Springtime”, ever anew, the season of new life. In the early Church, Lent quickly became the time when people were baptized and became Christian. Buried with Christ through Baptism into death to sin, just as he was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, they and we too, have newness of life.

For us, the purpose of Lent is to keep alive in our minds and our lives the fact that being a Christian can only take the form of becoming a Christian, ever anew, a lifelong journey on which we set out over and over again. When we die to sin in Christ we rise with him and become with him signs of Jonah for those around us; beacons of hope to a world desperate for meaning.