I. Some Bible passages seem mysterious and sometimes confusing.
A. They can act like speed bumps in our reading and study.
B. Sometimes the meaning doesn’t seem obvious but when we meditate on the mystery, we are rewarded with deeper understanding.
II. Let’s explore two mysterious illustrations at the end of Matthew 12
A. The sign of Jonah, 12:38-41 [Read]
B. The empty house, 12:43-45 [Read]
C. I’ll give you the punch line: These illustrations are the culmination of the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees.
D. We won’t have time to go in detail on these Bible stories but I want to give the key information for those who want to study it in more detail later.
III. Matthew 11 - the messengers of John the Baptist
A. John the Baptist, who was God’s messenger to prepare the Jews to receive Christ, was imprisoned by Herod, and sent some of his disciples to confirm that Jesus was the one to come.
- It seems that his persecution and imprisonment troubled his soul and, in his discouragement, sought reassurances from Jesus.
- Jesus didn’t rebuke John through the messengers but told them to report what they saw and heard, which we assume was satisfactory to John as we hear no more about this.
- One key to the context of Jonah and the empty house is in His praise of John.
- The early disciples went to the wilderness to see John the Baptist who was dressed like the prophet Elijah and proclaimed repentance and the coming Messiah, and was a great prophet.
- Read 11:12-15
John’s teaching ushered in the opposition to the coming kingdom of God as the Jewish leaders would not listen to his message.
Matthew 3:4-10 - John’s rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees
- Read 11:16-19
Jesus compared those who opposed the message of John (and His message) to children complaining that their friends didn’t dance when they played a happy song, or cry when they played a lament because the friends couldn’t be satisfied with any song they heard.
Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached a glorious message of the new kingdom, salvation, and redemption but their enemies could only complain and nitpick the message.
Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached a fierce message of repentance, judgment, and the anger of God and the Pharisees and Sadducees would not be moved to repentance.
Those who rejected John the Baptist and Jesus revealed themselves by the foolishness of their choices whereas those who accepted the kingdom message were revealed by their wisdom.
In verses 20-24, Jesus condemned whole cities that rejected his preaching accompanied by mighty works.
He said that if the notoriously wicked Old Testament cities of Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, and Gomorrah would have had these signs they would have repented from their wickedness.
He then reminded His disciples that those who hear and obey will receive understanding, comfort, and refuge in Jesus.
B. Jesus and the Jewish Leaders
- Sabbath accusations
- Matthew 12:1-8 [Read]
Mark adds that they rubbed the grain in their hands which the Pharisee tradition equated with harvest work.
Jesus counters with two Old Testament examples for which appears to have been acceptable to them:
David and his followers eating the bread only meant for the priests when he fled from Saul.
Leviticus 24:8-9 states that the bread is for Aaron and his sons to eat in the holy place. It was not common bread.
1 Samuel 21:1-6 recounts the story of the priests giving the bread to David and his men.
God allowed David and his followers to eat bread that would have been forbidden to them because they were hungry.
The Pharisees should have no problem with the Son of David and His followers eating bread that wasn’t forbidden by the Law but only forbidden by the tradition of the Pharisees.
The priests work in the temple every Sabbath carrying out the work of God and they are not condemned and yet Jesus is performing God’s work on the Sabbath and He is condemned.
- Matthew 12:9-14 [Read] and Read Mark 3:1-6
They want to catch Jesus healing on the Sabbath so that they might accuse Him.
Mark says they asked if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath.
Matthew says that Jesus asked if it was lawful to do good or evil on the sabbath, to save life or kill.
It appears, as so often is the case that Jesus responded to their question with a question.
Note the irony: they were doing evil (wanting to accuse Jesus) by catching Jesus doing something good (healing a person) and they left the temple planning to destroy Jesus (to kill) instead of doing good (obey).
In Matthew, Jesus used the analogy of how the Pharisees do not condemn a person lifting his sheep from a pit on the sabbath.
In the Old Law (Exodus 23:4 and Deuteronomy 22:4) the law stated that if an ox or donkey has gone astray or the ox has fallen by the way, it is evil to leave it and not return it to its master.
Even though the Sabbath is not specified, Jewish leaders allowed the rescue on the Sabbath and didn’t contradict Jesus applying this to a sheep, an animal not specifically named in the Old Law commandment. They allowed flexibility in applying the command.
However, they would not further generalize the commandment to something more important, a person, and that person’s rescue from a greater tragedy than falling into a pit.
Ironically, the only work Jesus performed here was speaking.
However, they watched a man’s withered hand heal in front of their eyes by the command of Jesus then left to plot how to destroy Him.
- Jesus departed from there with His disciples and healed many.
Jesus quoted Isaiah’s prophecy of His coming, the proclamation of His message of hope to the Gentiles (keep that in your mind), and His mercy on the weak until He achieves victory.
- Blaspheming the Holy Spirit
- Read 12:22-32
Jesus healed a demon-possessed man that created two reactions:
Wonder that made them consider if Jesus could be the Son of David (the miracle was a sign that pointed to this possibility)
The Pharisees didn’t deny the miracle but attributed it to the work of Beelzebul.
Beelzebul is an Aramaic name for Satan.
Jesus dismissed their argument showing how illogical it would be for the house of Satan to fight against itself.
He then compares His work in this regard to their sons (other Jews) who also have the power to cast out demons.
Side Note: It appears that God did allow this power for a time as He allowed Satan more liberty in allowing demons to possess people. A situation that disappeared after the first century.
According to Luke’s account, the sons casting out demons would join Jesus in condemning the Pharisees for rejecting Jesus after witnessing this miracle.
Jesus said those who blasphemed the work of the Holy Spirit, such as rejecting Christ and attributing the miracles performed by the power of the Holy Spirit to Satan, would not be forgiven.
What does it mean? Those rejecting God’s power reject the only means of forgiveness and redemption: belief in Jesus.
If they repent and recognize the power of the Spirit in these signs and listen to Jesus and follow Him, they will be forgiven.
- Jesus points to the core issue: at their heart they are either evil or good.
It is evident by the fruit that is produced in their lives.
How they speak and what they do shows what’s in the heart.
God will judge every careless word, especially casually attributing the miracles of the Spirit to Satan.
IV. Back to the mysterious texts: Jonah and the empty house.
A. The scribes and the Pharisees asked Jesus, “we wish to see a sign from you”
- A sign is a miracle that points (like a sign) to something to consider, a miracle signifies something greater to consider.
- They had already witnessed the man’s withered hand healed before their eyes and a demon-possessed man being healed that that apparently didn’t deny, they just attributed the sign to the working of Satan.
- The evil and adulterous condemnation points out that they were not faithful nor did they have a good heart, otherwise they would be able to clearly see the signs performed.
- Instead they would be given the sign of Jonah.
B. The sign of Jonah
- Briefly review the story of Jonah
- The similarities are profound.
- Jonah was swallowed by the fish fleeing from his mission to preach repentance, Jesus was in the earth because of His message.
- Jonah was in the fish three days; Jesus was in the earth three days.
- The differences are significant
- The people of Nineveh were not Jews, they were Assyrians (Gentiles), and they did not see Jonah spit up on shore, nor did he apparently tell them about it, he just marched through their streets preaching God’s impending judgment.
Hearing the condemnation, they chose to repent of their wickedness.
God spared the Gentile citizens of Nineveh.
- The Jewish leaders condemned John the Baptist, even accusing him of having a demon, and rejected his preaching.
- Jesus was preaching repentance and the kingdom with miracles to confirm His message and God’s people, the Jews, were rejecting Him and plotting to kill Him.
They were stubborn despite a greater messenger with a greater message and signs from God that it was true.
Jesus invokes a similar condemnation as in the last chapter where the wicked Gentile cities would condemn the Jewish cities who rejected God.
Here, the Gentile men of Nineveh would condemn the Jews because they believed an inferior messenger, one who did not even like them, and repented in sackcloth and ashes.
To make matters worse, they would know about Jesus being in the earth for three days and being resurrected, so they would be without excuse.
- The Queen of Sheba
- 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9 describes how the Queen of Sheba, a Gentile, visited Solomon to confirm the rumors of his great wisdom, and declared that the greatness of his wisdom and kingdom exceeded what she had heard and she glorified God.
- Solomon worked no miracles, but Jesus who preached accompanied by signs from God, brought a wiser message and the promise of a more glorious kingdom but was rejected by the Jews.
- This Gentile queen would also condemn the Jews for their stubborn refusal to hear the living Word and obeying Him.
- Remember Jesus quoted the Jewish prophet Isaiah earlier in the chapter noting the joy the Gentiles would receive at His teaching, a message a majority of the Jewish people would reject.
- The empty house
- The situation described in this illustration is similar to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit: those who attribute Christ’s work to Satan only have eternal destruction ahead for they have forsaken the only way to salvation.
- Either a person is serving Christ or rejecting Him. By rejecting the message of John the Baptist and later the Christ ,they evicted God from their house, their heart is empty but must be filled.
- Satan is able to fill that house with his presence and enlarge his presence in their life, demonstrated by the seven spirits, a perfect number indicating a complete release of their life to Satan’s influence, and the worse state that results.
- In contrast, believers dwell with God and are a part of God’s family (12:49-50)