No Sign, Only Judgment – Matthew 12:33-42

I got really frustrated with Christie. She was the Jehovah’s witness niece of a church member whom I was supposed to help see the truth. So I embarked on a letter writing journey to show her the error of her ways (yeah, this was long before email). No matter how much Scripture I used to demonstrate the truth that Jesus is God, she refused to engage it and only shared the party line of her religion.

Jesus has come face to face with the same thing in the Pharisees. They’ve already made up their minds as to the truth about Jesus. Jesus has harsh words of truth for them.

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:33–42, ESV)

Jesus is still interacting with the Pharisees and their wicked assertion that he is in collusion with Satan in order to make it appear that he is delivering people from demonic oppression. Never mind that this doesn’t even begin to explain how he is able also to heal diseases, bring people back from the dead, still storms and teach with amazing wisdom and authority. They don’t want to believe and Jesus calls this out by describing them as evil or bad trees with evil treasure in their evil hearts. They will be judged for this on the day of judgment, the careless words they have spoken about his casting out demons by Beelzubul being used to justify or demonstrate their guilt.

Whether to act as though they really are sincere about wanting to fairly assess Jesus or to somehow get him to work at their initiation, the Pharisees request a sign. What, one more sign and then they’ll believe? Of course not. If they can come up with an explanation for how he is doing demon deliverances apart from God, they can likely come up with an explanation of whatever sign he performs that still makes him out to be an evildoer. But they are the evil and adulterous generation, and the only sign they will get is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Just as Jonah was “dead” in the belly of the great fish, so Jesus will be buried and dead in the heart of the earth only to rise again, as Jonah did. Jesus knows the Pharisees are going to get him killed because they are evil. But if they were really sincere they would, like Jonah’s audience of Ninevites, repent at Jesus’ preaching. He has already told them that he is more important than the temple (12:6). Now he says he is more important or greater than Solomon and Jonah. So he is the greatest of prophets, priests and kings, but the religious leaders won’t recognize him.

You will meet people like this. They are dead set against believing and nothing you can do will persuade them. They are like Jesus warned in his sermon, dogs and pigs who will profane the holy message of which you seek to convince them. They will not accept the message as pearls of great value. Do not give in to their insincere request for a sign.