The Gospel for Wednesday of the first week in Lent is taken from Luke 11:29:32. While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment, the Queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation, and she will condemn them because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And there is someone greater than Solomon here.

At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah, they repented. And there is something greater than Jonah. Here. Jesus talks about the kingdom of God and what it means to believe in it. What is the sign that we’re looking for? It’s so interesting that Jesus, when he looks at the generation around him that’s always asking for signs, he points out what the core sign truly is, the sign of Jonah.

And what does that mean? It means that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Three days he was in the stomach of the whale, and then he was released. He lived. That image is the image of what Jesus has come into the world to establish, the end of evil’s power to destroy. And basically what we see in Jesus is his own death.

He gives in to evil. Everyone thinks, there again, evil has done something awful and destroyed the good that was in Jesus. And what we need to realize, no, he rose three days later. He destroys the death that evil could cause before our redemption. Please pause and reflect upon these images. And then I will close with a prayer, the closing prayer.

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that things are going in the wrong direction, that there’s evil is winning. Nothing is further from the truth. Evil, when it’s exposed, is vulnerable. And the vulnerability that is there is the realization in the believers that they know that evil has been destroyed and there is no fear of evil, only hope and trust in the mystery of the sign of Jonah. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.