A reading from the book of Jonah (3:1-10)
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time saying, ‘Up! Go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the message I tell you.’ So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare; to cross it took three days. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city and then proclaimed, ‘Only forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least.
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes. Then he had it proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles, as follows: ‘No person or animal, herd or flock, shall eat anything; they shall not feed, nor shall they drink water. All must put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce their evil ways and the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? Perhaps God will change his mind and relent and renounce his burning wrath so that we shall not perish.’ God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster which he had said he would to bring on them and did not bring it.
The Lord had to send Jonah twice. When first sent Jonah refused and headed off in the opposite direction towards Tarshish, long associated with Spain (Jonah 1). God had to take extreme measures to bring this prophet back. Even now, called for a second time, Jonah is far from convinced he should preach to Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire, an arch-enemy of Israel. His preaching is just five words long in Hebrew (nine in our English translation). Jonah has only travelled one day into the city, which takes three days to cross, and God’s work of conversion begins. It is the king of Nineveh, and his nobles, who grasp the urgency of the situation and preach to the people the message of repentance and divine mercy. The response of the people, and even of the animals, is to seek forgiveness. God’s mercy averts ‘disaster’. But Jonah remains stubbornly unconvinced and unrepentant (Jonah 4).
Psalm 51 (50) Once more, for the third time this Lent, we pray this psalm of mercy. A humble and contrite heart is welcomed by God, who offers pardon to those who ask for it. The people of Nineveh know what this means.
A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke (11:29-32)
The crowds got even bigger and Jesus began to say, ‘This is an evil generation; it asks for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be a sign to this generation. At the judgement the Queen of the South will stand up with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, look, there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgement the men of Nineveh will take their stand and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s proclamation; and, look, there is something greater than Jonah here.
The constant quest for a ‘sign’ shows an unwillingness to take Jesus seriously and to acknowledge the power of his words and actions. Jesus is the real sign. The people could learn from the Queen of Sheba, who travelled hundreds of miles to find the wisdom of king Solomon (1 Kings 10). They could learn from the Ninevites, led by their astute king, who understood God’s mercy, and changed their ways (Jonah 3). And Jesus insists that there is something greater than Solomon or Jonah here.
Do we still look for signs, even though Jesus Christ speaks to us and acts for us?
For the humility to learn from others, we pray.