As the crowds increased, then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you."
Jesus answered:
"This is a wicked and adulterous generation. It asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:38-41 and Luke 11:29-32)
Can you imagine the faces of the Pharisees? This would be akin, I suppose, if someone stood in our church and said at the judgment Madelyn Murray O'Hair would rise up and condemn us. They must have been even more in a fury when Jesus told them He was greater than not only Jonah, but of Solomon. They probably couldn't even think about what the sign of Jonah meant. They didn't realize He was going to meet their demand for a miraculous sign, but most of them didn't recognize it when he did.
Why does Jonah get highlighted here? Was it because his name began with J and has five letters? No. Is it because his name means Dove, a bird often used to represent the Holy Spirit and peace? Not exactly. Does Jonah act exactly like Jesus? Hardly. It is because the prophet was an archetype of Christ in the Old Testament.
Let's look at Jonah's story a little closer.
Where was Jonah different? For one thing, Jesus set his sight on Jerusalem to fulfill his purpose and God's will. Jonah set his sight on Joppa and transportation to escape from his purpose. For another thing, when Jonah did actually complete what God's plan was for him, he sat around grumbling and griping about the outcome.
So what's the prototyping here?
Jonah is asleep on a ship during a terrible storm (not the only thing I think Jonah slept though). When he is awakened, he tells the sailors to throw him overboard. He willingly sacrifices himself for the saving of those men. They comply to his command that he must be sacrificed and toss him in the sea where a big fish swallows him. He is buried in the heart of the sea in a fish-tomb for three days and three nights and then he is thrown up upon the land. He is resurrected so to speak. The sailors have been saved from drowning and have begun praising and sacrificing to The God, so we could say they were resurrected as well.
Jonah now goes to Nineveh and preached salvation to them. They repented and their city isn't destroyed and so they too are saved out of Jonah's sacrifice and resurrection.
Jonah's similarities to Jesus don't continue after this point, however. Instead of rejoicing these sinners in Nineveh were rescued from destruction, he is upset by it and angry. Jesus' sacrifice was so all men would be saved who believed upon Him. Jonah felt his own sacrifice was wasted on people who didn't deserve any salvation and he wanted them dead.
If Jonah was a foreshadowing of Christ in his encounter with the fish, he seems to be a foreshadowing of the Pharisees, and of the Nation of Israel, to whom Jesus gives the sign of Jonah. As Christ is the Vine of Life, a vine grows up to give comfort to Jonah, but a worm eats it away much as hatred has eaten away any compassion or caring in the heart of Jonah. Jonah, who was a prophet, who knew the Law and heard the Word of God, did not grasp the Spirit of the Law, exactly like the teachers of the Law in Jesus' day. Jonah's comforting by the vine was only temporary. We could also say the Vine was like Christ in it was sent to comfort Jonah, but was cut off and because it was cut off Jonah was angry with it.
He probably resented the sparing of Nineveh even more because they weren't Hebrews or Jews, they were gentiles, "dogs", and an enemy of his nation. Yet, just as we find his nation rejecting Christ and salvation then going out to the gentiles, we see it foreshadowed here.
However, this salvation of Nineveh did not last long, it was only temporary. Nineveh was to revert to evil and would perish in due time. The blood of lambs and goats is only sufficient to bring salvation for a short time. The sacrifice of any man, other than Christ, cannot bring lasting salvation either. The only lasting saving grace can be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, the last sacrifice, who like the sign of Jonah, was buried in a tomb for three days and three nights and resurrected to bring eternal life to everyone who is drawn to Him by God and believes. Who do you choose, Jonah or Jesus?
A Note About The Three Days and Three Nights
Jesus said he would be "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth". Some critics are happy to quote this as proof of an error. They point out if Jesus died on the cross at 3:00 PM on Friday and rose at dawn on Sunday, that is not three days and three nights. It is barely a day and a half.
Some defend this by claiming this is an expression, a colloquialism, and it was fulfilled by there being a portion of three days. Jesus died in the day on Friday (day 1), He was in the grave Friday night and all day Saturday (day 2) and he arose Sunday morning (day 3).
I have no problem with this as an explanation. We do the same thing ourselves. For instance my wife and I took a little mini-vacation a couple years ago during Fourth of July (although it got cut short when my wife fell in the shower at the hotel.) We told our kids we were going away for three days. We left late Thursday afternoon (4:00PM), stayed over Thursday night planning on going to several sites during the next day, then spending Friday night at the Hotel and coming home on Saturday. We counted Thursday, Friday and Saturday as three days, but in reality it would have been just somewhat over a day and a half (Thursday evening, All Day Friday, Saturday morning).
But in the case of Jesus, I believe in a different scenario. I don't think Jesus died on a Friday. I think this was a mistake made out of ignorance of Judaism. Scripture does not tell us on which day Jesus died. What do we know? We know Jesus died during Passover week. Have you wondered why it is that Passover and Easter never quite line up? Passover comes about the time of Easter, but it may fall on any day of the week, while Easter always falls on Sunday. Why should this be?
The Jewish calendar was based on moon phases. Passover came on a different day each year and when set in our modern calendars this was also on a different date, week and sometimes month each year. Easter is calculated similarly, so the two holidays always fall near each other, but not exactly because the early Christians decided to make Esther always be on a Sunday. It is sort of like our Memorial Day and Presidents Day. Originally these days were on a specific date, but some people wanted to have long weekends, so they were made a certain Monday of a certain month each year.
As we speak of an Easter week, with it's Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, Passover is a multi-day celebration as well. There is Erev Pesah followed by Pesah, or the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is a weeklong feast, in which the seventh day celebrates the crossing of the Red Sea. The day after the First Day of Unleavened Bread is called The Omar or First Fruits. The Omar runs for 50 days, ending on Pentecost.
The First day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a Sabbath Day.
Here is what Scripture tells us. Christ was crucified the day before a Sabbath and hurriedly buried. He died at 3:00 PM, which was the hour the lambs were traditional slaughtered for the Pesah feast. His body was prepared and wrapped and buried before sundown because the Sabbath started then. The women observed this preparation and the laying of his body in the tomb. We are told the women then prepared spices, rested on the Sabbath and went to the tomb early on the first day of the week (Luke in 23 and 24). In Mark 16 we learn the women bought the spices after the Sabbath. These statements seem contradictory for how could they get the spices before they purchased them, but this isn't mystical at all and really helps explain the three days and three nights question.
Jesus died at 3:00 PM on Erev Pesah. Joseph of Arimathea took the body and prepared it for burial. The women followed along and observed this all the way to the laying of Jesus in the tomb, and then went home for the High Sabbath of Pesah. On the day after that Sabbath, the women purchased their spices and prepared them, then rested for the weekly Sabbath on Saturday. Early on the First day of the Week, they went to the tomb and found Jesus all ready risen.
If Erev Pesah fell on a Wednesday, then Jesus lay in the ground all Wednesday night and Thursday Day (1 night and 1 day), all Thursday night and Friday day (2 nights and 2 days) and all Friday night and Saturday day (3 nights and 3 days). Scripture does not tell us when Jesus rose. Considering bribes were given to the guards to lie and say they fell asleep (an absurd premise given the number of guards and the punishment for such dereliction of duty) it was probably in the night. We do know the women went to the tomb at daybreak on Sunday and He was already gone.
I don't want to get further into this, which would be a whole other essay. Whether "three days and three nights" was an expression meaning a portion of three days or whether (as I believe) a literal three days and three nights passed, it doesn't change the fact that Christ was crucified, buried and Resurrected. And that this was a final sacrifice and a permanent means of salvation for all people who come to Christ.
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(Madelyn Murray O'Hair, if you didn't know, was brutally
This is what William Murray, Madelyn's other son, had to say about his mother, from whom he was estranged after being baptized a Baptist and becoming a preacher: "My mother was an evil person... Not for removing prayer from America's schools... No, she was just evil. She stole huge amounts of money. She misused the trust of people. She cheated children out of their parents' inheritance. She cheated on her taxes and even stole from her own organizations. She once printed up phony stock certificates on her own printing press to try to take over another atheist publishing company.... Regardless of how evil and lawless my mother was she did not deserve to die in the manner she did." [Wikipedia])
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