St. Matthew 16:1-6 (8/4) Gospel for Monday of the Eighth Week after Pentecost
The Lord Jesus declares that “the sign of Jonah” is appropriate for all who turn away from the Him, oppose His love, or are unreceptive when He calls out to them. Kind and merciful, He seeks to awaken everyone, but finally departs from those who will not listen.
Signs of the Kingdom: St. Matthew 16:1-6, especially vs. 4: At the ocean shore one may watch the rising tide advance in successive waves up the dry sand of the beach. Inexorably, the waves wash higher and higher until finally flood-tide is reached. Today’s lesson describes an advancing tide of social opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ that, in time, at its flood-tide, culminated in His Passion.
Earlier, a group of scribes and Pharisees came to the Lord Jesus and asked Him for a sign (Mt. 12:38). In the present passage, a new, larger “wave” of opponents comes: the same scribes and Pharisees, but now joined by rulers from the Temple, the Sadducees. These groups basically were hostile to each other; but, because resistance to the Lord was growing generally, they joined together against Him, now asking for a sign “from heaven.” (compare Mt. 12:38 and 16:1). By adding “from heaven” the Evangelist signals that a greater demonstration wonder working was being asked than in Matthew 12:38.
Both groups who asked a sign of Christ received the same answer: there is only one sign, the “sign of the Prophet Jonah” (Mt. 16:4). The Lord explained His reference to Jonah earlier (see Mt. 12:39-40); but on the latter occasion He identified the lack of spiritual depth in all who require signs (Mt. 16:2-4). Then He warned His disciples against the impoverished spiritual need that has to have miracles to believe (vss. 5 -11).
Ironically, these encounters with sign-seekers occurred in the midst of the most manifest evidence of the presence of the Kingdom of God: healing the sick and feeding the hungry (Mt. 15:29-38). Tragically, the Lord’s interrogators did not “discern the signs of the times” (vs. 3) nor see the spiritual realm He was introducing. The Kingdom was being disclosed for all to see, but these opponents, having rejected the obvious, were promised only “the sign of Jonah”- Jesus’ “departure.” Our Lord further foreshadows this greatest sign by walking away from them (vs. 4); for departure is God’s dread sign and warning. When we turn from Him, God effectively withdraws from us, even though actually He always is everywhere present.
How is “the sign of Jonah” a departure for those who oppose God? After all, the Faithful know His departure in association with the Resurrection. Consider: for the disdainful and resistant, the sign of Jonah was His “departure,” for when the Lord’s opponents crucified Him and saw Him buried, they beheld Him no more. Still, the Kingdom of God came and comes to the humble, the meek, the repentant, and the sorrowful. Having once come in the flesh, “meek and lowly,” the Lord mightily trampled down death by death, and after “three days and three nights in the heart of earth” (Mt. 12:40), He arose and appeared to His Faithful. The sign of Jonah is at once God’s departure and His greatest miracle - Resurrection and Eternal Life!
The sign of Jonah is appropriate for all of mankind. Too often we turn away from the Lord Jesus! Too often we oppose Him Who deeply loves us! The more active His Kingdom, the more unreceptive are the worldly. How often the Lord calls out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mt. 11:15)! Kind and merciful, our Lord seeks to awaken all His interrogators, but finally, He departs from them, a warning of the great “Departure” (Lk. 9:31). Which will it be for us, Beloved - withdrawal or restoration to Him? Listen to St. John of Kronstadt: “Do not let there be any deceit or duplicity or coldness in your soul. Strive to have His Spirit, for ‘if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’” May God never depart from any of us!
...cast me not utterly away, and forsake me not, O God my Savior! (Ps. 26:11).
