The Sign of Jonah Explained
- Pastor Jay Christianson
- Aug 29
- 6 min read
“He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish[l] three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” (Matthew 12:39-40)
“An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.” (Matthew 16:4)
I’m old enough to remember flannel-graphs in Sunday School.
Yeah, that old.
My Sunday School teacher would set up an easel and place a flannel-covered board on it. Then she would retrieve cartoon characters from a box and, as if by some arcane means, she would stick them to the board. It was a constant source of wonder to us, textile-y challenged students. We just couldn’t figure out what made those figures stick to the flannel board. Nowadays, we have the ubiquitous Velcro, which often requires a crowbar to use.
One of the stories that I remember most often illustrated with a flannelgraph was Jonah and the Whale. The teacher stuck a little cardboard figure, Jonah, on a cardboard ship and moved it out into the flannel board ocean. Then the teacher stuck the cardboard storm clouds at the top, made whooshing sounds, and rocked the ship. Cardboard Jonah would then explain to the cardboard crew that the storm is all his fault because he was a prophet on the run from God for refusing to preach judgment to Israel’s arch-enemy, Nineveh. Cardboard Jonah would then tell the cardboard crew to throw him off the cardboard ship into the flannel sea. Only then would the storm cease, and their little cardboard lives would be spared.
So, the cardboard crew would throw cardboard Jonah overboard, and instantly, the cardboard ship would stop rocking. Prayers and thanksgiving from relieved cardboard shipmates would then rise to God. Meanwhile, a giant (by comparison) cardboard fish would gobble up cardboard Jonah. Over the next three days of divine timeout, cardboard Jonah would reassess his life choices and decide to do things God’s way. At that point, the cardboard fish would regurgitate Jonah on dry land, not too far from—ready?— cardboard Nineveh! Hooray! Cardboard Jonah would then set about declaring God’s judgment upon wicked cardboard Nineveh; while secretly hoping for and rejoicing over (I surmised as a kid) God nuking Israel’s arch-enemy. Surprise! Amazingly, cardboard Nineveh would repent. All the cardboard people covered themselves in cardboard sackcloth and ashes, and God would relent.
I’ll let you read the rest of the story, but suffice it to say, those flannelgraphs did the job. It was hard to forget Jonah’s three days in the fish’s belly and being brought back up, and his preaching repentance to a God-ignoring people.
Now you have everything you need to know about Matthew 12 and 16, where Jesus uses the story of Jonah, sans a flannelgraph, to warn the Jewish leaders about what His Father was doing and about to do.
For years, it seemed redundant to me that Matthew would record what appeared to be a duplicate warning. In both cases (Matthew 12:38, 16:1), the leaders asked Jesus for a sign to confirm His messianic credentials. In both instances, Jesus rebuffed the leaders, referring them to Jonah’s story. But then I looked a little closer, and there are subtle undertones that complete the picture on my mental flannelgraph board.
In Matthew 12:39-40, Jesus declares, “No sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” In other words, a sign to establish Jesus’ messianic “street cred” to the leaders would be His death and resurrection over three days. Hey, a Messiah who dies and resurrects and can’t be killed again? Who wouldn’t want to follow that kind of King of Israel?
But what about Matthew 16:4? The difference is subtle. In this incident, Jesus declared to the leaders, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Why “evil and adulterous,” and what does that have to do with the sign of Jonah?
First, the leaders (some Pharisees and Sadducees from the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, the official leadership council) demanded a sign from Jesus. Keep in mind that by that time, Jesus had already performed a vast number of undeniable healings, physical restorations, de-demonizations, and even death reversals (the twelve-year-old girl and the Nain widow’s son). The leaders already had signs in front of them. But they demanded one more. Their request reveals the leadership’s core problem: unbelief, “the stubborn refusal to believe the obvious facts.”
Despite the many personal testimonies and the obvious power of God, the leadership refused to believe and receive Jesus unless He proved His qualifications for messiah-ship on their terms. Hmm, expecting Jesus to do something on demand outside of His Father’s will and for selfish reasons? Can’t you just hear the snake hissing in Jesus’ ear? “If you are (“Since you are” – more accurate reading) the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6). Prompting Jesus to act outside of His Father’s will is just, well, evil, and their evil request sprang from evil unbelief.
As for the adultery charge, adultery is often used metaphorically in the Bible to describe a person turning away from their relationship with God. Hosea’s message is all about Israel committing adultery against her Husband, the Lord. According to Hosea, Israel’s only solution is to repent and return wholeheartedly to their God. Therein lies Jesus’ message to the leaders in Matthew 16.
If I may take a little literary license, Jesus responds to the quizzical Pharisees and Sadducees with, “You ask Me to give you a sign? Even if I did, you would refuse to believe what I’ve been declaring. Your unbelief is proof that you’ve turned your back on God, preferring your ways to His. That is why you are an evil and adulterous generation.” Furthermore, we can also hear Hosea’s message implied in Jesus’ rebuke, “Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity. Take words of repentance with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, “Forgive all our iniquity and accept what is good, so that we may repay you with praise from our lips” (Hosea 14:1-2). But the inquiring Pharisees and Sadducees refused.
So what was Jesus trying to get across to the evil and adulterous leadership of that generation? Two Jonah signs will categorically prove that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah, what He will do, and what He says.
Jesus’ Jonah-like death and resurrection is sign Number 1. Jesus’ appearance was sign Number 2.
To Nineveh, Jonah himself was a sign; a man sent from God to warn His target audience, Nineveh, about God’s approaching judgment. And how did the Ninevites react? “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching” (Matthew 12:41). Jesus was the same sign as Jonah was; a man sent by God to call God’s people to repent, to turn to God, and be saved from God’s judgment on sin, called death. Remember what Jesus’ first sermons were about? “From then on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near’” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus’s appearance and preaching about repentance make Him the complete “sign of Jonah” in addition to His death and resurrection during three days.
The fantastic part is that Jesus’ “sign of Jonah” is just as pertinent today. Through His people, Jesus has appeared and is present within this world. And through godly, obedient lives, God’s message of “Repent!” still rings. I believe this will only intensify as the world enters the End Times. Jesus’ Body will become more evident on earth, and His cry to repent will become even more penetrating.
Have you responded to this whale of a message, or should I explain it again with the ol’ flannelgraph?
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Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts