AS JONAH BECAME A SIGN TO THE NINEVITES, SO WILL THE SON OF MAN BE TO YOU

AS JONAH BECAME A SIGN TO THE NINEVITES, SO WILL THE SON OF MAN BE TO YOU

By Fr. Felix (African Times Guest Writer)

At Mark 8.11, the Pharisees ask for a sign from

heaven to test Jesus and he refuses. There

were at the time of Jesus a number of

charismatic Galilean rabbis who did work such

signs.

They are often recounted in Jewish writings

with a good deal of humour. Rabbi Honi the

Rain-Maker was asked to pray for rain; he was

known for his warm relationship with God and

for the answers to his prayers. When he prayed

for rain a few drops fell, so he rebuked God for

merely playing games with him.

There followed a deluge and again Honi

rebuked God. Only when a steady rain came did

he let God off the hook. When Jesus refused a

sign, it may well be such a conjuring-trick sign

that he refused. This seems to agree with the

passage in Mark 8.11-12, repeated in

Matthew16.1-4.

In the present passage however, using his

mysterious preferred title ‘Son of man’ (which

he often uses in connection with the Passion)

he offers the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Jonah’s mission to Nineveh was the stock case

of conversion: the wicked gentile city

immediately converts and does penance, by

contrast to the Jewish prophet who has refused

his mission; they are the example for Israel.

Similarly Solomon was the stock figure of

Wisdom, and the gentile Queen of the South (or

the Queen of Sheba) recognised the God-given

Wisdom of Solomon.

Now something greater than either is present,

and they refuse to convert. The listeners are left

to draw their own conclusion.

The Gospel of the Lord reminds us of those

listeners O Lord, but me. The unbaptized live

holy lives, and yet I, so specially privileged by

you in the faith, wander about inconsiderate to

the dignity I bear because of you.