Posted on 10/10/2016 8:05:25 AM PDT by Salvation
In todays Gospel the Lord says, This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah (Lk 11:30). So what is the sign of Jonah and does it apply today?
The Gospels (Matthew and Luke) present two signs of Jonah, one of which particularly concerns us here.
But the question remains, what exactly is this (second) sign of Jonah? On one level, the text seems to spell it out rather clearly. Jonah had gone to the Ninevites with this message: Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed (Jonah 3:3). In response, the Ninevites (led by their King) repented, fasted, and prayed. Seeing their actions, God relented and did not destroy them. So on one level the sign of Jonah is the message Repent or die. Just as the Ninevites heard Jonahs warning, put faith in it, and were spared, so the people of Jesus time should put faith in His warning to repent and believe the Good News. If they do not, they will meet with great disaster.
What would cause this disaster? The description of the sign of Jonah taps into the historical context of Jonahs ministry, but applied to the people of Jesus time it has a polemical tone. Lets consider why.
Here, then, is a deeper meaning of the sign of Jonah: if Israel will not repent, then God will take their power and strength and give it to a foreign land that knows Him not. These foreigners will shame and humiliate Israel, inflicting Gods punishment on them.
This is humiliating to Israel on two levels. First, a pagan country would repent while Gods own people would not. Second, they are conquered by a foreign and unbelieving people. The destruction by Assyria was a devastating blow to the Northern Kingdom of Israel and resulted in the loss of the ten tribes living there. They became the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Only Judah and the Levites were left in the South as a remnant.
Lets apply this understanding of the sign of Jonah, first to Jesus time and then to our own.
In the European Union today, the birth rate is about 1.6 children per woman. Globally, Muslim women average 3.1 children. Do the math and realize that Europe as we have known it is coming to an end. In the United States the birth rate is higher, but still only about 1.9 children per woman. In general, the Catholic world is in decline, both in terms of our birth rates and our zeal for the faith. We are surely being diminished by our culture of death and decadent sloth.
Is it the sign of Jonah? You decide.
Christians and Catholics in the decadent West have stopped loving life. Birth rates have dropped dramatically and are well below replacement level. We are on our way to aborting and contracepting ourselves right out of existence. God has loosed judgment on us in the form of the sign of Jonah. He seems to be saying this to us: Fine, if you do not love life and are not zealous for the faith I have given you, then disaster is upon you. Others still do appreciate larger families and are zealous for their faith. And even if, like the Assyrians of old, they are not my people as you are, I will use them to humble and punish you. They will grow and increase while you decrease. Perhaps when you are punished by a people who do not respect your religious liberty, you who remain will repent and begin to love life.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
There is only one sign: the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 12:39 reads: “...An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas”.
No sign will be given except the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. One sign.
Even today an evil generation seeks after a “second sign.”
Same as the Parable of the wine-skins.
Christianity was the ‘New Wine’ that you do not put in the ‘Old’ wine skins, Judaism, which would cause them to burst, thus losing both the wine, Christianity, and the wine-skins, Judaism.
For those who do not know, ‘New Wine’ is wine that has not completely fermented, meaning that it has a lot of fruit sugar still in it, so if you put it in an old wine-skin which is hard and brittle, it would continue fermenting causing pressure to build up until it burst.
The ‘New Wine-skins’ are the Gentiles, and especially Rome, who would accept Christianity willingly, over time, thus letting the ‘New Wine’ continue its fermentation.
Acts 9New International Version (NIV)
Sauls Conversion:
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.
Notice that Jesus said Israel, not Judea.
The Kingdom of Israel had disappeared when Assyria had conquered them in 721 BC and scattered them throughout the Nations, where the became the ‘Lost Tribes of Israel’.
They were not ‘lost’ only hidden from the world, and themselves as a nation, for they had lost even their own identity.
They were assimilated into the Gentile nations, eventually becoming the nations of Europe and through migrations, the US and Canada............
Isn’t that a tad myopic?? Jesus specifically answered His disciples questions about what would be the signs of His return.
The sign of Jonah was the fate of Christ.
And yeah, It came upon us over 2,000 years ago.
Yup. I’m kinda surprised how people get so involved in looking for so many meanings in some scripture. It’s good to study and look for parallel references, but sometimes bible scholars remind me of the character that picks up a thrown sandal in Life of Brian.
When does Msgr. Charles Pope sleep? Does he sleep? Ever?
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